Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Academic Snake Oils or Dirt?
The thoughtful meditations, discussion, and learning this summer have and continue to inspire me to reflect on my teaching practices. A friend asked me if I am excited to take all of the new things I have learned back to my classroom. (That is a question that I am asked after each professional development experience.) I really had to think about how I should answer her question. This has not been one of the learning experiences that provide me with things I immediately take back and implement into my classroom. I believe it is bigger than activities to teach math, science, or reading. I believe that at the heart of our experience this summer is personal and professional reflection. Reflecting for me has been more of a reminder, or something that inspires thinking again about something that I believe, something that is at the heart of who I am and how I want to approach the classroom experiences for my students. These thoughts have been things that I believe have been pushed aside, because of the world of interventions and RTI, high stakes testing, and the continual black cloud that hangs over education (especially public education). We continually look for new-fangled strategies or snake oils to make our students smarter, take tests better, or even cure the ills of society (so our students don’t come with so much baggage to our classrooms). This week has reminded me that what we really need to be doing is connecting kids with the world around them through authentic means and experiences, connecting kids with each other in learning experiences, and also connecting them with our communities. What will this mean for me in my classroom? I need to turn off the computer projector and the United Streaming videos and get outside--even if it is cold. Will I continue to teach the same things? Absolutely, I might even be able to teach more! Will I do it a bit differently? You bet! And hopefully, I will have better results, better classroom management (for those with nature deficit disorder, myself included), and have more meaningful, lasting, experiences for my students.
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Amanda I agree about the importance of connecting the kids to the world around them. Even in a computer class I can connect the kids to nature. Service learning would be one way, but even if that is not possible I can still get my students outside, have them collect data so that they can create graphs and charts to display the collect information. What a great way to step away from the regular classroom setting, but still make sure that what you are having the students do will in the end come back to what they need to be learning within say, an Microsoft Excel Unit.
ReplyDeleteAmanda I agree with you and sometimes you don't have to necessarily take the kids outside, you can bring outside to them. There a different community programs that can help in this. I know in Idaho Falls we have a mobile zoo. They set it up so that the zoo field trip can come to the individual schools instead of us going to them. I know that the experience is not quite the same but it is a great alternative. They bring different animals and many of them the kids can pet. As well they educate the kids on the animals they bring. Also local forest services will volunteer to come in and educate the kids, and they usually provide some fun hands-on activities. The field trip era is sadly over so we as teachers need to find ways to bring the field trip to the kids. As I said I know it is not the same as actually going to these locations but it is the second best option. :)
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