I wish I could see this. It keeps crashing my computer, and I’m starting to wonder if my 867 powerbook can no longer handle the internet.
I’ve been working on a master’s in special education. Most people think special education is about helping disabled students learn the numbers one through ten, but it’s about being able to specially design systems for just about anyone and goal.
There are a number of philosophies when it comes to education and we talk about them all. Some like to think our intelligent government is intentionally trying to create marginally intelligent citizens amongst the poor and middle class through things like no child left behind. Some like to think the government is unintelligent and wonder why the government didn’t consult educators and specialists when it came up with NCLB. Some like the classics and nothing but the classics. Inculcate, man! Some think students should be copying notes and looking up words they don’t know. Some think the teacher should be asking questions that trigger higher-order thinking that don’t have a single answer, they have many. Can you think of three different ways to solve this equation? and write 98 + 97 on the board. It’s all very interesting.
I started in an English credential program, and my preferred way of running the class was to have them write how they think the best way to fake sick goes. We watching some U2 concerts to contrast with Robert Frost.
My preferred philosophy is called Constructivism, and my preferred quote is by Jean Piaget: “Education, for most people, means trying to lead the child to resemble the typical adult of his society . . . but for me and no one else, education means making creators. . . . You have to make inventors, innovators—not conformists,” (Bringuier, 1980, p.132).
And that’s why most constructivists hate NCLB, which gathers data by testing rather than assessment. When my dad was an engineering major at Berkley, he had a final that took two days. There were three questions, and he got each answer incorrect. NCLB would say he’s been left behind, but he got a B in the class. It was clear that he understood the process of math by the work he demonstrated and the way he supported his thinking—he just got an input wrong at one point in the problem. NCLB doesn’t look at things like how students communicate their answers, how many ways they’re able to demonstrate their work, the way they support it, and the concepts they understand. It’s one dimensional: is the answer accurate? Which clearly makes the variety of material they can work with one dimensional because it needs an accurate answer.
I’m taking a class I call How to be a Math Teacher right now. So far, my favorite bit of homework was this word problem:
The student’s at Scott’s Elementary held a car wash to earn money for assemblies. They charged $2.00 for each car washed. The first hour they washed 5 cars. The second hour they washed 7 cars. The third hour they washed 9 cars. Every hour they washed two more cars than the hour before.
We came to class, the prof. asked for the answer, and we all raised our hands. Then he asked how we could possibly have the answer since the problem never asked a question. We spent thirty seconds feeling like morons for missing that, then realized the brilliance of the assignment since we were forced to come up with our own questions based on the pattern. We had about ten truly unique ones by the time we finished discussing.
My favorite TED to date.. I love the way that guy thinks.
said Matt Rat
at 9:49am on Wednesday
20 minutes of life well spent.
said Chriswho
at 12:32pm on Wednesday
I wish I could see this. It keeps crashing my computer, and I’m starting to wonder if my 867 powerbook can no longer handle the internet.
I’ve been working on a master’s in special education. Most people think special education is about helping disabled students learn the numbers one through ten, but it’s about being able to specially design systems for just about anyone and goal.
There are a number of philosophies when it comes to education and we talk about them all. Some like to think our intelligent government is intentionally trying to create marginally intelligent citizens amongst the poor and middle class through things like no child left behind. Some like to think the government is unintelligent and wonder why the government didn’t consult educators and specialists when it came up with NCLB. Some like the classics and nothing but the classics. Inculcate, man! Some think students should be copying notes and looking up words they don’t know. Some think the teacher should be asking questions that trigger higher-order thinking that don’t have a single answer, they have many. Can you think of three different ways to solve this equation? and write 98 + 97 on the board. It’s all very interesting.
I started in an English credential program, and my preferred way of running the class was to have them write how they think the best way to fake sick goes. We watching some U2 concerts to contrast with Robert Frost.
My preferred philosophy is called Constructivism, and my preferred quote is by Jean Piaget: “Education, for most people, means trying to lead the child to resemble the typical adult of his society . . . but for me and no one else, education means making creators. . . . You have to make inventors, innovators—not conformists,” (Bringuier, 1980, p.132).
And that’s why most constructivists hate NCLB, which gathers data by testing rather than assessment. When my dad was an engineering major at Berkley, he had a final that took two days. There were three questions, and he got each answer incorrect. NCLB would say he’s been left behind, but he got a B in the class. It was clear that he understood the process of math by the work he demonstrated and the way he supported his thinking—he just got an input wrong at one point in the problem. NCLB doesn’t look at things like how students communicate their answers, how many ways they’re able to demonstrate their work, the way they support it, and the concepts they understand. It’s one dimensional: is the answer accurate? Which clearly makes the variety of material they can work with one dimensional because it needs an accurate answer.
I’m taking a class I call How to be a Math Teacher right now. So far, my favorite bit of homework was this word problem:
The student’s at Scott’s Elementary held a car wash to earn money for assemblies. They charged $2.00 for each car washed. The first hour they washed 5 cars. The second hour they washed 7 cars. The third hour they washed 9 cars. Every hour they washed two more cars than the hour before.
We came to class, the prof. asked for the answer, and we all raised our hands. Then he asked how we could possibly have the answer since the problem never asked a question. We spent thirty seconds feeling like morons for missing that, then realized the brilliance of the assignment since we were forced to come up with our own questions based on the pattern. We had about ten truly unique ones by the time we finished discussing.
That’s how we get creativity back.
said James
at 1:30am on Thursday