Comments on: How innovative are you, teacher?

By: Lightly Seasoned

Lightly Seasoned — Sun, 24 May 2009 17:22:15 +0000

I’m afraid I’m less popular than the guy down the hall (expensively educated at all the very best schools — think of the most highly selective schools out there, and you’ve got it) who does a lot of drawing (in dual credit).

I do teach in a very fine public school under one of the best principals, I think, in our state and probably the country. You are welcome to bring your kids on in; taxes are pretty steep, though. California we ain’t.

By: patricia

patricia — Sat, 23 May 2009 18:31:45 +0000

I agree with Margo/Mom- LS, I want to go to your school. Heck, I want you to teach my kids!

By: BeckyC

BeckyC — Sat, 23 May 2009 18:19:23 +0000

To read the Continuum for Teacher Quality rubric is to feel Dave’s fear in 2001: A Space Odyssey, when he realizes Hal really is trying to kill him.

By: SuperSub

SuperSub — Sat, 23 May 2009 18:11:18 +0000

Chakotay-
The problem isn’t with Bloom’s Taxonomy itself, but the failure of schools to apply it correctly. There is a reason that it is often displayed as a pyramid… before you can work on the higher levels, you must build a solid foundation of knowledge and comprehension. Too many schools ignore the base and attempt to go straight to the top levels.

By: Margo/Mom

Margo/Mom — Sat, 23 May 2009 17:57:14 +0000

LS–I want to go to your school.

By: momof4

momof4 — Sat, 23 May 2009 14:37:01 +0000

Lightly seasoned, I think we’re on the same page. The devil is in the way creative writing is defined. Every time one of my kids was given a creative writing assignment, it was personal and they did feel that their privacy was being invaded. I think it relates to the new post on this site about the far-too-common emphasis on ME, ME, ME.

By: Lightly Seasoned

Lightly Seasoned — Sat, 23 May 2009 13:11:59 +0000

Creative writing isn’t a privacy violation. Perhaps the personal essay, depending on what one wants to be personal about, but you have to master that for the dreaded college essay gamut anyway.

Example of a creative assignment I do: we study satire, learn the techniques, identify the techniques in a Simpson’s episode, identify the technqiues in Candide, students then write a short satire of their own critiquing something about our society. Heck, I’m teaching them how to write blog posts! Not only is it Com Arts, it’s flat out 21st century literacy. They’re also fun to mark, and I get some nice writing. No privacy issues.

Socratic method is very hard to pull off. It has taken me years of practice, and I use it only about once a unit. My seniors have to be able to pull a piece of literature apart on their own by the time they take the test, and it’s a good way to get them to practice that, under my supervision, without Sparknotes. It’s a great way to assess who has been reading closely.

When I do group work with my kids, I NEVER do mixed-work ethic grouping — especially if I’m going to take a grade. And I never give the whole group the same grade (unless they all earned it). If the slackers don’t step up, they get the grade they deserve. I will not waste the time of my high achievers having them do somebody else’s group work — these are always the busy kids in sports, clubs, church, etc. while the low achievers are invariably the ones involved in nothing constructive.

By: momof4

momof4 — Sat, 23 May 2009 12:39:22 +0000

Leave the group work to doctoral or MBA seminars, where each individual is a professional with expertise and experience in the field.

I have seen third graders trying to discover multiplication in groups and it’s beyond ugly, not to mention hopeless and a huge waste of time. It is nothing less than educational malpractice.

By: patricia

patricia — Sat, 23 May 2009 12:27:11 +0000

Ms. Rhudy, as a former student (who is now simply interested in education, for my own sake and my kids’ sake), I can say that I NEVER learned to think critically because of any small group work. As the “smart kid,” group work meant I did all the work and everyone else skated by on my effort. EVERY time. It was never a question of “allowing” me to work in groups; I would have preferred anything but. Perhaps if group work were implemented better, it may be the case that it facilitates critical thinking, but I will say that is beyond most teachers, in my experience.

And the process of letting the kids teach themselves sounds awful. I can teach myself almost anything, but it is significantly easier to learn something from someone who knows more than I and is willing to share that knowledge. Again, perhaps if done effectively, it could work (I had some professors who were great at the Socratic method in law school), but I suspect that it is beyond many, maybe even most, teachers to be good at this (nearly all of my professors in law school taught using the Socratic method, and only a very few of them were any good at it- most were awful).

By: Chakotay

Chakotay — Sat, 23 May 2009 06:37:45 +0000

Every time I hear “Bloom’s Taxonomy” or about Prochaska, I want to stab my ears out…