Thursday, October 21, 2010
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
How American Public Education Became A Doomsday Machine
Years ago I wrote a sci-fi story in which disease wiped out the thousands of people living in a huge space station. All the technology continued on auto-pilot; sensors, missiles, and robots perfectly defended the space station. Humans approaching the station were attacked as enemy invaders.
The station became a type of doomsday machine. All the inhabitants had been killed. New arrivals would be killed.
I certainly wasn’t thinking about our public schools at that time but now I see a creepy similarity between what happened to that space station and what happened to this country’s Education Establishment. Both are running on an unintended auto-pilot and no longer serve the purposes for which they were constructed. Neither can be reasoned with or even approached.
Was this tragedy inevitable? Or an unlikely concatenation of events that should never have happened? In any event, we can look back a century and observe our doomsday machine in creation.
History circa 1900 was as turbulent as our own. Intellectual debates raged. Communist and Socialist movements boiled in almost every country. Revolutionaries were trying to transform the governments of Russia, Austria, Germany, etc. Wealth was growing at an extraordinary pace, as were technology and inventions.
The most brilliant people became Doctors of Medicine, Law, and Philosophy. What did the also-rans do? Cynics have suggested that they invented new fields where they could be stars and empire-builders. Education, Psychology and Sociology did not exist much before this time. Once these also-rans had Ph.D. attached to their names, they could build departments at colleges across the country and lay down the law to the next generation. They bestrode new frontiers of knowledge; it was heady stuff. Unfortunately, most of these young stars first studied in Germany where their brains were steeped in a mishmash of Hegelian, Prussian, Marxist, Freudian, and other exotic influences. They returned to America almost as alien invaders.
John Dewey spelled out a new approach to education, where academic pursuits would be devalued and social activity would become the primary purpose. He went further, laying out a scheme whereby his disciples would commandeer Teachers College, and use it to indoctrinate generations of young teachers. These eager propagandists would be sent to the small towns of America to spread Socialism. All this was in full force by 1910.
More and more, I tend to think of Dewey as America’s Favorite Quack. He said a lot of extreme things and he had a messianic belief that he was supposed to push all of them to fruition. Regretfully.
Then history got even weirder. By 1920 the Russians had finished their Revolution and already gone off the deep end. Lenin concluded that Communism must occur in all other countries in order to save the Communist Party in his country. I.e., to save what quickly became Stalin’s lurid dictatorship.
Hundreds of front groups were formed in the US to promote Communism. They meddled big-time, certainly in education. This was bad enough but things got worse in the 1930’s due to the Great Depression. This tragedy pushed our educators entirely over the edge. In their judgment, it had to be clear to everyone that Karl Marx was right, capitalism was finished, and the New World being created by Moscow was clearly the future.
George Counts, perhaps the leading educator in 1932, expressed the mood: "That the teachers should deliberately reach for power and then make the most of their conquest is my firm conviction." Conquest! Willard Givens, boss of the National Education Association in 1934, stated: “[M]any drastic changes must be made. A dying laissez-faire must be completely destroyed, and all of us, including the owners, must be subjected to a large degree of social control." Destroy and control! The NEA Journal expressed in 1936 the ultimate goal of all the gimmicks pushed by our Education Establishment from then to now: "Let us not think...in terms of specific facts or skills [that children should acquire] but rather in terms of growing.” No facts or skills!
In 1946 the NEA Journal proclaimed: "At the very top of all the agencies which will assure the coming of world government must stand the school, the teacher, and the organized profession." World government! Stalin, who would live until 1953, was that year contemplating whether he could conquer Europe. In that context, “world government’ is code for “do what Uncle Joe wants.” Practical translation: a vastly expanded gulag.
In short, there may have been some big brains in education in the first half of the 20th century. Certainly there were some restless empire-builders. But by 1950 the field had shifted far to the left and become fossilized at that point. My impression is that the young people admitted to the field had to be yes-men who would support without questioning all the Received Wisdom. They were on auto-pilot.
At this point American education had become a machine that could not evolve or rethink its goals. In dumbing down the country, the Education Establishment had dumbed itself down!
American education pursued mediocrity with cunning and tenacity. As fast as one idea didn’t work and was ridiculed by the public, the Education Establishment devised 10 more. The “marketing department” at Teachers College et al has to be one of the great success stories of American history. These people invented Cooperative Learning, Constructivism, Self-Esteem, Reform Math, Open Classroom, Multiculturalism, Authentic Assessment, 21st Century Skills, and fifty others. All these things, I’d argue, were dumb and dangerous; but they sounded good enough that the public would pay more taxes to implement them.
No question, this doomsday machine was fixated on acquiring money, union jobs and power. Huge doses of all three. There just didn’t seem to be a lot of thought left over for the humble tasks of making sure kids can read, write and count. (Significantly, all the good minds appeared outside of the Education Establishment, most especially Rudolf Flesch, Samuel Blumenfeld and Siegfried Engelmann.)
But education was no longer the goal, and no longer the result. Education was the pretend product from a vast machinery whose real goals were ideological in nature. This doomsday machine manufactured education’s demise.
How do we stop the machine? For one thing, refuse to recognize its legitimacy. It’s no more legitimate than the auto-rockets and killer robots up there on my imaginary space station.
[See related article “49: How Do We Learn? How Should We Teach? Why Do The Experts Get Everything Wrong?” on Improve-Education.org. For more on the history of American education, see "21: A Tribute to Rudolph Flesch," especially Parts 2 and 3.]
About the Author
Bruce Price is the founder of improve-Education.org, which presents essays on education, culture and language.
The station became a type of doomsday machine. All the inhabitants had been killed. New arrivals would be killed.
I certainly wasn’t thinking about our public schools at that time but now I see a creepy similarity between what happened to that space station and what happened to this country’s Education Establishment. Both are running on an unintended auto-pilot and no longer serve the purposes for which they were constructed. Neither can be reasoned with or even approached.
Was this tragedy inevitable? Or an unlikely concatenation of events that should never have happened? In any event, we can look back a century and observe our doomsday machine in creation.
History circa 1900 was as turbulent as our own. Intellectual debates raged. Communist and Socialist movements boiled in almost every country. Revolutionaries were trying to transform the governments of Russia, Austria, Germany, etc. Wealth was growing at an extraordinary pace, as were technology and inventions.
The most brilliant people became Doctors of Medicine, Law, and Philosophy. What did the also-rans do? Cynics have suggested that they invented new fields where they could be stars and empire-builders. Education, Psychology and Sociology did not exist much before this time. Once these also-rans had Ph.D. attached to their names, they could build departments at colleges across the country and lay down the law to the next generation. They bestrode new frontiers of knowledge; it was heady stuff. Unfortunately, most of these young stars first studied in Germany where their brains were steeped in a mishmash of Hegelian, Prussian, Marxist, Freudian, and other exotic influences. They returned to America almost as alien invaders.
John Dewey spelled out a new approach to education, where academic pursuits would be devalued and social activity would become the primary purpose. He went further, laying out a scheme whereby his disciples would commandeer Teachers College, and use it to indoctrinate generations of young teachers. These eager propagandists would be sent to the small towns of America to spread Socialism. All this was in full force by 1910.
More and more, I tend to think of Dewey as America’s Favorite Quack. He said a lot of extreme things and he had a messianic belief that he was supposed to push all of them to fruition. Regretfully.
Then history got even weirder. By 1920 the Russians had finished their Revolution and already gone off the deep end. Lenin concluded that Communism must occur in all other countries in order to save the Communist Party in his country. I.e., to save what quickly became Stalin’s lurid dictatorship.
Hundreds of front groups were formed in the US to promote Communism. They meddled big-time, certainly in education. This was bad enough but things got worse in the 1930’s due to the Great Depression. This tragedy pushed our educators entirely over the edge. In their judgment, it had to be clear to everyone that Karl Marx was right, capitalism was finished, and the New World being created by Moscow was clearly the future.
George Counts, perhaps the leading educator in 1932, expressed the mood: "That the teachers should deliberately reach for power and then make the most of their conquest is my firm conviction." Conquest! Willard Givens, boss of the National Education Association in 1934, stated: “[M]any drastic changes must be made. A dying laissez-faire must be completely destroyed, and all of us, including the owners, must be subjected to a large degree of social control." Destroy and control! The NEA Journal expressed in 1936 the ultimate goal of all the gimmicks pushed by our Education Establishment from then to now: "Let us not think...in terms of specific facts or skills [that children should acquire] but rather in terms of growing.” No facts or skills!
In 1946 the NEA Journal proclaimed: "At the very top of all the agencies which will assure the coming of world government must stand the school, the teacher, and the organized profession." World government! Stalin, who would live until 1953, was that year contemplating whether he could conquer Europe. In that context, “world government’ is code for “do what Uncle Joe wants.” Practical translation: a vastly expanded gulag.
In short, there may have been some big brains in education in the first half of the 20th century. Certainly there were some restless empire-builders. But by 1950 the field had shifted far to the left and become fossilized at that point. My impression is that the young people admitted to the field had to be yes-men who would support without questioning all the Received Wisdom. They were on auto-pilot.
At this point American education had become a machine that could not evolve or rethink its goals. In dumbing down the country, the Education Establishment had dumbed itself down!
American education pursued mediocrity with cunning and tenacity. As fast as one idea didn’t work and was ridiculed by the public, the Education Establishment devised 10 more. The “marketing department” at Teachers College et al has to be one of the great success stories of American history. These people invented Cooperative Learning, Constructivism, Self-Esteem, Reform Math, Open Classroom, Multiculturalism, Authentic Assessment, 21st Century Skills, and fifty others. All these things, I’d argue, were dumb and dangerous; but they sounded good enough that the public would pay more taxes to implement them.
No question, this doomsday machine was fixated on acquiring money, union jobs and power. Huge doses of all three. There just didn’t seem to be a lot of thought left over for the humble tasks of making sure kids can read, write and count. (Significantly, all the good minds appeared outside of the Education Establishment, most especially Rudolf Flesch, Samuel Blumenfeld and Siegfried Engelmann.)
But education was no longer the goal, and no longer the result. Education was the pretend product from a vast machinery whose real goals were ideological in nature. This doomsday machine manufactured education’s demise.
How do we stop the machine? For one thing, refuse to recognize its legitimacy. It’s no more legitimate than the auto-rockets and killer robots up there on my imaginary space station.
[See related article “49: How Do We Learn? How Should We Teach? Why Do The Experts Get Everything Wrong?” on Improve-Education.org. For more on the history of American education, see "21: A Tribute to Rudolph Flesch," especially Parts 2 and 3.]
About the Author
Bruce Price is the founder of improve-Education.org, which presents essays on education, culture and language.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
100 Apps for Tech-Savvy Teachers
Teachers have one of the most difficult jobs out there. As an educator, you have to manage a classroom of boisterous students, organize heaps of data, stay up-to-date with current events and plan lessons day in and day out. In today’s technologically linked world, the ability to use web applications is at your advantage as an educator, and we are here to tell you the best tools to use. Here is a collection of 100 web and iPhone applications that make the grade for tech-savvy teachers:
1-5) 37 Signals: (http://37signals.com/) More than three million people use this application for a reason—it’s extremely effective for businesses and educators. 37 Signals makes it easier to collaborate, share, discuss and get work done through its programs—Basecamp (http://basecamphq.com) (a project management system), Highrise (http://www.highrisehq.com) (where you can track your contact with parents and students), Backpack (http://www.backpackhq.com) (where you can organize your life) and Campfire (http://www.campfirehq.com) (an instant messaging system).
2) AVG: (http://free.avg.com/us-en/get-basic-protection) Education in today’s world has become mostly web-based, so it’s important that teacher’s computers are virus-free. AVG is a downloadable application that protects your personal computer against security threats like spam and malware.
3) Book Glutton: (http://www.bookglutton.com/portal/about.html) Book Glutton is a great application for lit-hungry English teachers. It allows users to read books over the web as well as annotate and discuss books in an online community forum.
4) Backboard: (http://www.getbackboard.com)This web application serves as an online docking management system that facilitates real-time communication. The service can automate the process of getting feedback and approval on projects created with just about any file type.
5) BrainHoney: (http://brainhoney.com/about.html) BrainHoney is a free web application that educators can use to author online curriculum, map course standards, personalize lesson plans, access online grade books and interact with parents and students.
6) Broken-Notebook (http://www.broken-notebook.com/spell_checker/) If there is one faux pas as a teacher, it’s bad spelling. The online application, Broken-Notebook corrects the spelling of online content…similar to a word processor…but online.
7) Chalksite: (http://create.chalksite.com/signup) Chalksite is an uncomplicated web-based application where teachers can streamline grade and assignment tracking. The app can also host a class website and facilitate two-way communication between students and teachers through a chat function.
8) ClassMarker: (http://www.classmarker.com) ClassMarker is an online-based test generator that allows teachers to create quizzes with a blend of multiple choice, true or false, short-answer, fill-in-the-blank or essay questions. Classmarker is the quintessential example of a successful Web 2.0 application, as results are instantly dispersed to students and emailed to professors.
9) Comapping: (http://www.comapping.com/education.html) This tech-savvy web application allows students and teachers to engage in real-time collaboration online. This application requires a minimal learning curve and teachers can easily implement this program into their coursework.
10) CreateDebate.com: (http://www.createdebate.com/index.php/teachers) CreateDebate is a dynamic virtual learning environment created to help students discuss and debate their thoughts online.
11) Curriki: (http://www.curriki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Main/WebHome) This wiki-based online application is used by teachers to share educational ideas and coursework. Great for teachers stumped on ideas for activities, this application has a stock of lesson plans, handouts and study guides.
12) Edmodo: (http://www.edmodo.com/) Edmodo is a secure social platform for teachers and students to micro-blog and share files, events, documents, assignments and grades. The app is formatted to emulate Twitter and is crafted with the classroom in mind…But unlike Twitter, this site blocks the general public from seeing the content—providing a safe haven for students and teachers.
13) Edublogs: (http://edublogs.org/) Edublogs is an academic micro-blogging platform created with WordPress-powered blogs. With Edublogs, teachers can include class publications and newsletters, online discussions, allowing student blogs and adding multimedia. This free application also suggests tips on how educators can integrate blogs into their coursework.
14) Engrade: (http://www.engrade.com/) Engrade is an application that fosters organization and efficiency in education. Teachers can use this tool to manage grade books and attendance books, post assignment due dates and add individualized student reports. One of the most popular applications for teachers, the site has more than 200,000 users per month.
15) DOC Cop: (http://www.doccop.com/index.html?nc=41078331) This tech-savvy web app allows teachers to catch plagiarizing students through software that cross-checks online and offline sources. DOC Cop emails a report indicating how much of the document may have been copied and where the copied lines may have originated.
16) Footnote: (http://www.footnote.com/) Footnote is a history teacher’s dream app, with more than 60 million original historical documents to peruse through. Users of Footnote can use the site to view never-before-seen historic documents from renowned institutions like The National Archives.
1-5) 37 Signals: (http://37signals.com/) More than three million people use this application for a reason—it’s extremely effective for businesses and educators. 37 Signals makes it easier to collaborate, share, discuss and get work done through its programs—Basecamp (http://basecamphq.com) (a project management system), Highrise (http://www.highrisehq.com) (where you can track your contact with parents and students), Backpack (http://www.backpackhq.com) (where you can organize your life) and Campfire (http://www.campfirehq.com) (an instant messaging system).
2) AVG: (http://free.avg.com/us-en/get-basic-protection) Education in today’s world has become mostly web-based, so it’s important that teacher’s computers are virus-free. AVG is a downloadable application that protects your personal computer against security threats like spam and malware.
3) Book Glutton: (http://www.bookglutton.com/portal/about.html) Book Glutton is a great application for lit-hungry English teachers. It allows users to read books over the web as well as annotate and discuss books in an online community forum.
4) Backboard: (http://www.getbackboard.com)This web application serves as an online docking management system that facilitates real-time communication. The service can automate the process of getting feedback and approval on projects created with just about any file type.
5) BrainHoney: (http://brainhoney.com/about.html) BrainHoney is a free web application that educators can use to author online curriculum, map course standards, personalize lesson plans, access online grade books and interact with parents and students.
6) Broken-Notebook (http://www.broken-notebook.com/spell_checker/) If there is one faux pas as a teacher, it’s bad spelling. The online application, Broken-Notebook corrects the spelling of online content…similar to a word processor…but online.
7) Chalksite: (http://create.chalksite.com/signup) Chalksite is an uncomplicated web-based application where teachers can streamline grade and assignment tracking. The app can also host a class website and facilitate two-way communication between students and teachers through a chat function.
8) ClassMarker: (http://www.classmarker.com) ClassMarker is an online-based test generator that allows teachers to create quizzes with a blend of multiple choice, true or false, short-answer, fill-in-the-blank or essay questions. Classmarker is the quintessential example of a successful Web 2.0 application, as results are instantly dispersed to students and emailed to professors.
9) Comapping: (http://www.comapping.com/education.html) This tech-savvy web application allows students and teachers to engage in real-time collaboration online. This application requires a minimal learning curve and teachers can easily implement this program into their coursework.
10) CreateDebate.com: (http://www.createdebate.com/index.php/teachers) CreateDebate is a dynamic virtual learning environment created to help students discuss and debate their thoughts online.
11) Curriki: (http://www.curriki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Main/WebHome) This wiki-based online application is used by teachers to share educational ideas and coursework. Great for teachers stumped on ideas for activities, this application has a stock of lesson plans, handouts and study guides.
12) Edmodo: (http://www.edmodo.com/) Edmodo is a secure social platform for teachers and students to micro-blog and share files, events, documents, assignments and grades. The app is formatted to emulate Twitter and is crafted with the classroom in mind…But unlike Twitter, this site blocks the general public from seeing the content—providing a safe haven for students and teachers.
13) Edublogs: (http://edublogs.org/) Edublogs is an academic micro-blogging platform created with WordPress-powered blogs. With Edublogs, teachers can include class publications and newsletters, online discussions, allowing student blogs and adding multimedia. This free application also suggests tips on how educators can integrate blogs into their coursework.
14) Engrade: (http://www.engrade.com/) Engrade is an application that fosters organization and efficiency in education. Teachers can use this tool to manage grade books and attendance books, post assignment due dates and add individualized student reports. One of the most popular applications for teachers, the site has more than 200,000 users per month.
15) DOC Cop: (http://www.doccop.com/index.html?nc=41078331) This tech-savvy web app allows teachers to catch plagiarizing students through software that cross-checks online and offline sources. DOC Cop emails a report indicating how much of the document may have been copied and where the copied lines may have originated.
16) Footnote: (http://www.footnote.com/) Footnote is a history teacher’s dream app, with more than 60 million original historical documents to peruse through. Users of Footnote can use the site to view never-before-seen historic documents from renowned institutions like The National Archives.
Monday, July 12, 2010
S Standardized Testing: A Race to Nowhereu
web.ae .racetonowhere.picA 300x200 Standardized Testing: A Race to Nowhere
Race To Nowhere is an excellent description of the standardized testing movement. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, increased the role of the federal government in public education and also expanded the role of standardized testing. This morning, I had a conversation with another educator who was ending a California State Testing week. The dedication of this teacher is commendable; although exhausted and stressed, this educator was hopeful that her students did well. She wanted them to have a chance at the best education possible. When I mentioned to her the best education possible is not based on state testing, she went through the myriad of reasons why testing is a benefit. These alleged benefits of standardized testing permeate the public educational system causing harm to students, teachers and the future of public education as a whole.
According to the California Department of Education, the purpose of standardized testing is “to measure how well students are learning the knowledge and skills identified in California’s content standards.” In addition, standardized testing results will assist with focusing curricular instruction and organizing teaching methods. The goals of standardized testing seem to be falling short; instead of measuring student knowledge and focusing instruction and methods, the rigor of testing seems to be a silent erosion of our school system. A recent documentary, Race To Nowhere, chronicles the culture of today’s youth in public school. According to the documentary, the epidemic of standardized testing has produced a culture for cheating, disengaging students, stress-related illness, depression, burnout, and of compromised young adults seemingly unprepared and uninspired for the future.
“Only a handful of scholars and practitioners have argued in defense of standardized tests,” wrote Lishing Wang and fellow researchers Gulbahar H. Beckette and Lionel Brown. The Educational Research Newsletter analyzed the pros and cons of standard-based assessments. According to the website one of the pros of these assessments are a common core of knowledge. These common standards assist in comparing grades across teachers and schools. Students should be expected to meet common standards that are challenging and are more than just minimum requirements regardless of socioeconomic status, race or disability. The other side argues that by imposing standards on students’ minds they are constricting intellectual freedom. These standardized tests oversimplify the core knowledge and do not test higher-order thinking. Cookie cutter standards either dumb down instruction or condemn low-ability students to frequent failure. Students can become disengaged and burned out.
Regardless of the side of the argument, all students, teachers and schools are not created equal and this fact is not taken into account when examining the practice of standardization. The practice of standardized test are to meant to level the playing field when in fact the playing field with struggling learners in school is never level. In other words the interventions that are being utilized to assist struggling students are not individualized or unsuccessful. According to the California Department of Education website’s data for July of 2008, 13, 237 students took the Math portion of the California Exit Exam and 13, 373 students took the English portion of the exam. 29% of the students passed the Math and 30% passed the English portions of the test for the state. When we superimpose the same standards on every student, teacher and school, we receive results that are disappointing—a race to nowhere.
These disappointing results are rooted in non-profit school communities maintaining for-profit activities, i.e., test scores. Data has become the catch phrase and teacher’s names are associated directly with their student’s scores. Improvement has been demanded on the back of a shocked system, and therefore an increase of assessments and pacing guides has followed. This increase of standardized testing is big business for the private sector. There are four companies that dominate the testing market: Harcourt Educational Measurement, CTB McGraw-Hill, Riverside Publishing (a Houghton Mifflin company), and NCS Pearson- three test publishers and one scoring firm. Press reports value the testing market anywhere from $400 million to $700 million. There is a top-down chain between policy, content, materials, and instruction. Policymakers dictate the content, textbook companies convert the content into materials and schools purchase these materials for consumption by teachers and students. According to a blog entitled, When Pedagogy and Policy Collide written by Brigitte Knudson, what America is experiencing is called “commodification” of education. In others words, education has became a commodity or moneymaker. Knudson goes on to state, “Education – the process of learning – has been co-opted by an alliance of business and government interests, for the dual purposes of maintaining the government’s economic interests and propelling the private sector, all while fostering a climate of continual educational crisis in the country that places blame on a system of its own creation that is intentionally underfunded to perpetuate the cycle.” This marriage of big business, government and non-profit school communities continues to lead to disappointment and a move toward privatization of public education. It’s a lose-lose situation as reformers concentrate on splintered areas of need while big business and government erode the core, destroying the public education system right under our noses.
“Race to Nowhere is a call to challenge these current assumptions and mobilize families, educators, and policy makers for how to best prepare the youth of America to become healthy, bright, contributing and leading citizens,” Race to Nowhere website. Check the website to find a screening, go see it. Spread the news to educators, parents, students and your community. Join the Race to Nowhere Facebook Page in your area. This link is the Los Angeles page. If a page or community group is not available for your area, start one. Let’s continue to examine the facts regarding our educational system and make it our own again.
About the Author
Race To Nowhere is an excellent description of the standardized testing movement. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, increased the role of the federal government in public education and also expanded the role of standardized testing. This morning, I had a conversation with another educator who was ending a California State Testing week. The dedication of this teacher is commendable; although exhausted and stressed, this educator was hopeful that her students did well. She wanted them to have a chance at the best education possible. When I mentioned to her the best education possible is not based on state testing, she went through the myriad of reasons why testing is a benefit. These alleged benefits of standardized testing permeate the public educational system causing harm to students, teachers and the future of public education as a whole.
According to the California Department of Education, the purpose of standardized testing is “to measure how well students are learning the knowledge and skills identified in California’s content standards.” In addition, standardized testing results will assist with focusing curricular instruction and organizing teaching methods. The goals of standardized testing seem to be falling short; instead of measuring student knowledge and focusing instruction and methods, the rigor of testing seems to be a silent erosion of our school system. A recent documentary, Race To Nowhere, chronicles the culture of today’s youth in public school. According to the documentary, the epidemic of standardized testing has produced a culture for cheating, disengaging students, stress-related illness, depression, burnout, and of compromised young adults seemingly unprepared and uninspired for the future.
“Only a handful of scholars and practitioners have argued in defense of standardized tests,” wrote Lishing Wang and fellow researchers Gulbahar H. Beckette and Lionel Brown. The Educational Research Newsletter analyzed the pros and cons of standard-based assessments. According to the website one of the pros of these assessments are a common core of knowledge. These common standards assist in comparing grades across teachers and schools. Students should be expected to meet common standards that are challenging and are more than just minimum requirements regardless of socioeconomic status, race or disability. The other side argues that by imposing standards on students’ minds they are constricting intellectual freedom. These standardized tests oversimplify the core knowledge and do not test higher-order thinking. Cookie cutter standards either dumb down instruction or condemn low-ability students to frequent failure. Students can become disengaged and burned out.
Regardless of the side of the argument, all students, teachers and schools are not created equal and this fact is not taken into account when examining the practice of standardization. The practice of standardized test are to meant to level the playing field when in fact the playing field with struggling learners in school is never level. In other words the interventions that are being utilized to assist struggling students are not individualized or unsuccessful. According to the California Department of Education website’s data for July of 2008, 13, 237 students took the Math portion of the California Exit Exam and 13, 373 students took the English portion of the exam. 29% of the students passed the Math and 30% passed the English portions of the test for the state. When we superimpose the same standards on every student, teacher and school, we receive results that are disappointing—a race to nowhere.
These disappointing results are rooted in non-profit school communities maintaining for-profit activities, i.e., test scores. Data has become the catch phrase and teacher’s names are associated directly with their student’s scores. Improvement has been demanded on the back of a shocked system, and therefore an increase of assessments and pacing guides has followed. This increase of standardized testing is big business for the private sector. There are four companies that dominate the testing market: Harcourt Educational Measurement, CTB McGraw-Hill, Riverside Publishing (a Houghton Mifflin company), and NCS Pearson- three test publishers and one scoring firm. Press reports value the testing market anywhere from $400 million to $700 million. There is a top-down chain between policy, content, materials, and instruction. Policymakers dictate the content, textbook companies convert the content into materials and schools purchase these materials for consumption by teachers and students. According to a blog entitled, When Pedagogy and Policy Collide written by Brigitte Knudson, what America is experiencing is called “commodification” of education. In others words, education has became a commodity or moneymaker. Knudson goes on to state, “Education – the process of learning – has been co-opted by an alliance of business and government interests, for the dual purposes of maintaining the government’s economic interests and propelling the private sector, all while fostering a climate of continual educational crisis in the country that places blame on a system of its own creation that is intentionally underfunded to perpetuate the cycle.” This marriage of big business, government and non-profit school communities continues to lead to disappointment and a move toward privatization of public education. It’s a lose-lose situation as reformers concentrate on splintered areas of need while big business and government erode the core, destroying the public education system right under our noses.
“Race to Nowhere is a call to challenge these current assumptions and mobilize families, educators, and policy makers for how to best prepare the youth of America to become healthy, bright, contributing and leading citizens,” Race to Nowhere website. Check the website to find a screening, go see it. Spread the news to educators, parents, students and your community. Join the Race to Nowhere Facebook Page in your area. This link is the Los Angeles page. If a page or community group is not available for your area, start one. Let’s continue to examine the facts regarding our educational system and make it our own again.
About the Author
Saturday, May 29, 2010
The Future of Educational Technology - Education 3.0
Thinking of what education might look like in the next decade, one quickly realizes that the trends in technology are leaving a large number of our students behind. We no longer live in an age of visible movement when it comes to progress and innovation. Today is an age of exponential change. New and ever-improving technologies are popping up every day and in every corner of society.
Educating the best and the brightest in this brave new world will take a new and improved educational paradigm. Allowing our educational tools to age in the corner of the classroom will be the mistake that may cost us our future. Throwing away masses of children to inequitable access will ensure that we languish at the bottom of the global pool of employable workers for decades to come.
The New Toolbox
I was at an auction a few years ago and noticed a few old woodworking tools that I thought I could use. For a few bucks, I was able to snag an assortment of hand tools that may have been in someone's toolbox for a generation or more. As the next decade passed, I used these tools in my shop for a wide variety of projects until my projects outgrew these old, dull tools. My woodworking creations continued to improve as did my skills and artistry. I quickly discovered that using improved tools would translate into improved craftsmanship. As any woodworker will tell you, new tools require new skills.
Woodworking is a great metaphor for shaping and molding students. There is simply no good substitute for a sharp tool. If you want to build the best projects possible, you need to use the best tools possible. Thinking in terms of the next decade for our country, we will be sorely disappointed in our projects if we fail to improve our tools.
Over the course of the next few days, I will attempt to paint a picture of how technology will shape the way we educate students in the next decade. I will attempt to show the amazing possibilities that lay before us if we will simply walk through the doorway of opportunity that is open to us.
My main focus in this series of articles will be this idea: Transforming the student from being a passenger to becoming a "user." You may be wondering what I mean by this. Let me explain.
Ask yourself what it means to be a "user." A user is not simply a person who uses. For the student, being a user should involve using the latest technology in a free and autonomous manner. This new-found freedom will allow the student to become an active participant in his/her education instead of a passive passenger. No other time in history have we been so able to make this a reality.
In our current technological society, being a user also means being tracked. Tracking has become a major part of our daily lives and is precisely the engine that should drive our educational process for the foreseeable future. Tracking a student means having the ability to target education toward weaknesses and strengths. The ability to accurately customize curriculum to the individual has been the holy grail of educational philosophy for many years. This golden age of technological development may soon enable this dream to become a reality.
Current educational curriculum and individual assessment is arbitrary at best. Being able to accurately asses a student can only be achieved by using modern tracking and database technologies. The means by which we can make this a reality is readily available and only needs to be taken off the shelf to be used. If Congress is looking for a shovel-ready project, this may be the one.
Imagine a world where every child has a tablet computer with ready access to the App of virtual photographic memory (internet). Further, imagine that every student can access all the knowledge of humankind freely at any moment in time. Continue to imagine a world where a misspelled word brings up a spelling challenge application instead of an auto correction. Try to contemplate what it would mean for a teacher to have a database of every misspelled word, every misunderstood concept or every missed equation for each of their students. Try to envision a teacher with the ability to customize the experience of the individual "user" with minimal effort. Imagine the curriculum being automatically targeted to the user through an intuitive educational platform that knows every strength and each unique weakness. I could go on, but I think you get the point.
The company that makes this standard available to the educational community will be the company that shapes the future of humankind. Will it be Google, Apple, Microsoft, or some other yet unknown pioneer?
Continuing from the thoughts in my last post, I would like to elaborate on the idea of the student as a user of a new standardized educational platform. It is obvious to me that the future of education will always mirror our everyday lives in one way or another. If you examine how technology has influenced your daily life already, you begin to put together a snapshot of what it will mean to be educated in the next decade.
In the last few hundred years, most individuals would consider an education as something you receive. You often hear the question asked, "Where did you receive your education?" As we proceed through the next decade, education will slowly move away from reception and toward being custom designed for the individual user. New technology will not only allow us to receive an education, but also develop an education. The question we might ask in 10 years is, "How did you develop your education?" The question of where will still be important, but the how of the matter will be the focus that defines the individual.
To make this a reality we will need a standardized platform from which to develop a student's unique education. This standardized platform will allow us to tailor a custom curriculum that will be matched to talents, interests and life goals. For the educator, a standardized platform will create a way to assist the student in discovering a true purpose in life through a unique educational experience. The basics of reading, writing and arithmetic will not be taught as much as they will be discovered and used. Learning will become a reciprocal experience between the teacher, the student and the machine.
Under a standardized platform, each of these three participants will have a role to play. The teacher will be the facilitator, assisting the development of the curriculum and inspiring the direction the student takes. The student will be the user, gathering resources, skills and knowledge in an efficient and measured sequence. The machine will do the work of data gathering and analysis, which will assist the teacher and student in refining the curriculum. This data gathering work of the machine will also free the teacher from the burden of record-keeping and tedious tasks that currently distract from the real job of teaching and learning.
Under a standardized system, grade level will be far less important. Achievement and progression will be measured by accomplishment and intelligence as a benchmark for success. The question of failure or success will be irrelevant and replaced with a standard and consistent measurement of potential and overall intelligence. Information will no longer be missed but continually rehearsed and monitored for retention by the machine.
In our current educational paradigm, the teacher is in charge of arbitrarily constructing curriculum. This approach to curriculum development is based on inexperience in some cases, outdated materials, inadequate funding and a shortage of time. Measuring the success of a specific curriculum is currently impossible. With a standardized system, comparisons of curricular success can be made across the entire spectrum of education and then continually reformulated and enhanced by the machine.
Sadly, teachers today are bogged down with an assortment of mind-numbing tasks that would be better suited to an off-the-shelf automated system. Tasks such as data tracking, reporting and record keeping are currently accomplished manually. These tasks could easily be delegated to an intuitive database. Developing a standard to follow would eliminate these tasks and free the teacher to do their main job of teaching students.
Education 3.0
Throughout history, man has sought to pass on knowledge to the next generation. This process started with oral tradition, storytelling and writing. With the advent of the printing press, knowledge and information slowly became available to the masses. The amount of information that could be gained by one human in a lifetime was severely limited by his access to printed materials and wealth. The majority of learning was gained through observation and imitation. We can call this Education 1.0.
Education 2.0 starts around the late eighteen hundreds with universal literacy movements throughout newly industrialized regions of the world. Improvements in education slowly transitioned from apprenticeship to formal education and training. Despite our movements toward universal education, access to knowledge and opportunity continues to be inequitable throughout the world. Even with the arrival of the computer revolution, access to the tools of learning continues to define the learner.
The next decade may mark the moment in history when all men are granted equal access to the greatest treasure a soul can possess. I use the word may in the last sentence because there is the chance that we will miss this golden opportunity. Access to Education 3.0 will only be gained through investment and universal standardization. If we continue to divert wealth toward fruitless goals and corporate greed, this opportunity will be lost or hopelessly delayed.
Education 3.0, when it arrives, will be the age of universal enlightenment. Platforms for education and learning will slowly standardize and become globally accessible and affordable. The poorest to the wealthiest will have access to the machine that runs the platform.
The thought on your mind at this point is most likely wondering what machine I keep referring to. The machine in question is the one we have been so busy teaching and training since roughly 1969. You've probably guessed it by now that I am referring to the internet. The great cloud of knowledge that we call the internet is precisely the mechanism that we will use to build the platform of Education 3.0. When the platform is finally in place, the decade to follow will see the greatest amount of wealth, discoveries and use of human potential that we have witnessed during our time on this earth. The only question that remains to be answered is the point at which I will leave this series of articles.
When will we allow the user to use the machine to its potential?
About the Author
Stephen McClard has been the Director of Bands at Bolivar High School since 2002. Mr. McClard graduated from Southeast Missouri State University in 1990. He started his teaching career in Southeast Missouri before moving to Illinois where he taught band for 8 years.
In 2006, Mr. McClard was named by SBO Magazine as one of the 50 Directors Who Make a Difference. In 2006, 2008 and 2009, Bolivar RI School district was named one of the "Best 100 Communities for Music Education" in America by the American Music Conference. Mr. McClard was previously featured on the cover of the 2003 issue of SBO Magazine for his work with music technology.
His first book, The Superior Educator, A Calm and Assertive Approach to Classroom Management and Large Group Motivation, is due out in Early July, 2009 and will be available on Amazon as well as many other book outlets.
Educating the best and the brightest in this brave new world will take a new and improved educational paradigm. Allowing our educational tools to age in the corner of the classroom will be the mistake that may cost us our future. Throwing away masses of children to inequitable access will ensure that we languish at the bottom of the global pool of employable workers for decades to come.
The New Toolbox
I was at an auction a few years ago and noticed a few old woodworking tools that I thought I could use. For a few bucks, I was able to snag an assortment of hand tools that may have been in someone's toolbox for a generation or more. As the next decade passed, I used these tools in my shop for a wide variety of projects until my projects outgrew these old, dull tools. My woodworking creations continued to improve as did my skills and artistry. I quickly discovered that using improved tools would translate into improved craftsmanship. As any woodworker will tell you, new tools require new skills.
Woodworking is a great metaphor for shaping and molding students. There is simply no good substitute for a sharp tool. If you want to build the best projects possible, you need to use the best tools possible. Thinking in terms of the next decade for our country, we will be sorely disappointed in our projects if we fail to improve our tools.
Over the course of the next few days, I will attempt to paint a picture of how technology will shape the way we educate students in the next decade. I will attempt to show the amazing possibilities that lay before us if we will simply walk through the doorway of opportunity that is open to us.
My main focus in this series of articles will be this idea: Transforming the student from being a passenger to becoming a "user." You may be wondering what I mean by this. Let me explain.
Ask yourself what it means to be a "user." A user is not simply a person who uses. For the student, being a user should involve using the latest technology in a free and autonomous manner. This new-found freedom will allow the student to become an active participant in his/her education instead of a passive passenger. No other time in history have we been so able to make this a reality.
In our current technological society, being a user also means being tracked. Tracking has become a major part of our daily lives and is precisely the engine that should drive our educational process for the foreseeable future. Tracking a student means having the ability to target education toward weaknesses and strengths. The ability to accurately customize curriculum to the individual has been the holy grail of educational philosophy for many years. This golden age of technological development may soon enable this dream to become a reality.
Current educational curriculum and individual assessment is arbitrary at best. Being able to accurately asses a student can only be achieved by using modern tracking and database technologies. The means by which we can make this a reality is readily available and only needs to be taken off the shelf to be used. If Congress is looking for a shovel-ready project, this may be the one.
Imagine a world where every child has a tablet computer with ready access to the App of virtual photographic memory (internet). Further, imagine that every student can access all the knowledge of humankind freely at any moment in time. Continue to imagine a world where a misspelled word brings up a spelling challenge application instead of an auto correction. Try to contemplate what it would mean for a teacher to have a database of every misspelled word, every misunderstood concept or every missed equation for each of their students. Try to envision a teacher with the ability to customize the experience of the individual "user" with minimal effort. Imagine the curriculum being automatically targeted to the user through an intuitive educational platform that knows every strength and each unique weakness. I could go on, but I think you get the point.
The company that makes this standard available to the educational community will be the company that shapes the future of humankind. Will it be Google, Apple, Microsoft, or some other yet unknown pioneer?
Continuing from the thoughts in my last post, I would like to elaborate on the idea of the student as a user of a new standardized educational platform. It is obvious to me that the future of education will always mirror our everyday lives in one way or another. If you examine how technology has influenced your daily life already, you begin to put together a snapshot of what it will mean to be educated in the next decade.
In the last few hundred years, most individuals would consider an education as something you receive. You often hear the question asked, "Where did you receive your education?" As we proceed through the next decade, education will slowly move away from reception and toward being custom designed for the individual user. New technology will not only allow us to receive an education, but also develop an education. The question we might ask in 10 years is, "How did you develop your education?" The question of where will still be important, but the how of the matter will be the focus that defines the individual.
To make this a reality we will need a standardized platform from which to develop a student's unique education. This standardized platform will allow us to tailor a custom curriculum that will be matched to talents, interests and life goals. For the educator, a standardized platform will create a way to assist the student in discovering a true purpose in life through a unique educational experience. The basics of reading, writing and arithmetic will not be taught as much as they will be discovered and used. Learning will become a reciprocal experience between the teacher, the student and the machine.
Under a standardized platform, each of these three participants will have a role to play. The teacher will be the facilitator, assisting the development of the curriculum and inspiring the direction the student takes. The student will be the user, gathering resources, skills and knowledge in an efficient and measured sequence. The machine will do the work of data gathering and analysis, which will assist the teacher and student in refining the curriculum. This data gathering work of the machine will also free the teacher from the burden of record-keeping and tedious tasks that currently distract from the real job of teaching and learning.
Under a standardized system, grade level will be far less important. Achievement and progression will be measured by accomplishment and intelligence as a benchmark for success. The question of failure or success will be irrelevant and replaced with a standard and consistent measurement of potential and overall intelligence. Information will no longer be missed but continually rehearsed and monitored for retention by the machine.
In our current educational paradigm, the teacher is in charge of arbitrarily constructing curriculum. This approach to curriculum development is based on inexperience in some cases, outdated materials, inadequate funding and a shortage of time. Measuring the success of a specific curriculum is currently impossible. With a standardized system, comparisons of curricular success can be made across the entire spectrum of education and then continually reformulated and enhanced by the machine.
Sadly, teachers today are bogged down with an assortment of mind-numbing tasks that would be better suited to an off-the-shelf automated system. Tasks such as data tracking, reporting and record keeping are currently accomplished manually. These tasks could easily be delegated to an intuitive database. Developing a standard to follow would eliminate these tasks and free the teacher to do their main job of teaching students.
Education 3.0
Throughout history, man has sought to pass on knowledge to the next generation. This process started with oral tradition, storytelling and writing. With the advent of the printing press, knowledge and information slowly became available to the masses. The amount of information that could be gained by one human in a lifetime was severely limited by his access to printed materials and wealth. The majority of learning was gained through observation and imitation. We can call this Education 1.0.
Education 2.0 starts around the late eighteen hundreds with universal literacy movements throughout newly industrialized regions of the world. Improvements in education slowly transitioned from apprenticeship to formal education and training. Despite our movements toward universal education, access to knowledge and opportunity continues to be inequitable throughout the world. Even with the arrival of the computer revolution, access to the tools of learning continues to define the learner.
The next decade may mark the moment in history when all men are granted equal access to the greatest treasure a soul can possess. I use the word may in the last sentence because there is the chance that we will miss this golden opportunity. Access to Education 3.0 will only be gained through investment and universal standardization. If we continue to divert wealth toward fruitless goals and corporate greed, this opportunity will be lost or hopelessly delayed.
Education 3.0, when it arrives, will be the age of universal enlightenment. Platforms for education and learning will slowly standardize and become globally accessible and affordable. The poorest to the wealthiest will have access to the machine that runs the platform.
The thought on your mind at this point is most likely wondering what machine I keep referring to. The machine in question is the one we have been so busy teaching and training since roughly 1969. You've probably guessed it by now that I am referring to the internet. The great cloud of knowledge that we call the internet is precisely the mechanism that we will use to build the platform of Education 3.0. When the platform is finally in place, the decade to follow will see the greatest amount of wealth, discoveries and use of human potential that we have witnessed during our time on this earth. The only question that remains to be answered is the point at which I will leave this series of articles.
When will we allow the user to use the machine to its potential?
About the Author
Stephen McClard has been the Director of Bands at Bolivar High School since 2002. Mr. McClard graduated from Southeast Missouri State University in 1990. He started his teaching career in Southeast Missouri before moving to Illinois where he taught band for 8 years.
In 2006, Mr. McClard was named by SBO Magazine as one of the 50 Directors Who Make a Difference. In 2006, 2008 and 2009, Bolivar RI School district was named one of the "Best 100 Communities for Music Education" in America by the American Music Conference. Mr. McClard was previously featured on the cover of the 2003 issue of SBO Magazine for his work with music technology.
His first book, The Superior Educator, A Calm and Assertive Approach to Classroom Management and Large Group Motivation, is due out in Early July, 2009 and will be available on Amazon as well as many other book outlets.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Dealing With Criticism, Guilt and Shame in the Classroom
When you think of shame, what comes to your mind? How about guilt? Many people associate shame and guilt as one emotion, but in reality they are very different. By definition, guilt is the "I have done someting bad" emotion. By contrast, shame is the "I am bad" emotion. As you continue reading, consider how your actions can impact guilt or shame in a child. Ask yourself if there may be ways to change these emotions into success for your students.
Shame is felt when others are aware of our incorrect intentions or actions and can often lead to feelings of worthlessness. Guilt, on the other hand, is the emotion that is felt when no one else knows about our intentions or actions. I clarify this because it makes a noticeable difference to the person making the choice. The difference between success and failure in dealing with our classroom management can depend on our perception of these two emotions.
A high percentage of poor behavior in the classroom will elicit neither shame nor guilt. This is because the individual taking the action may be unaware of the impact his/her actions have on others, or they may simply lack the related values associated with their actions. Dealing with poor behavior then boils down to the impact we have as educators when revealing the poor behavior to the student.
Evoking a guilt response in the student is an inevitable result of negative feedback. Avoiding this certainty will only allow the problem to fester. If we can first elicit a guilt response indirectly, we create the best chance for success. Allowing the student the autonomy to choose the correct path will be the most effective way to make first contact with poor behavior. Evoking guilt in a student indirectly can be very powerful and may allow the student to avoid shame. Guilt can lead to empathy if skillfully managed for the success of the student.
When it becomes necessary for us to take a student aside or openly correct a repeated poor behavior, the emotion can then become shame. When our corrections reveal shame in a student, the reaction can differ depending on the personality of the student. In some cases, we will have success and in other cases the student will choose to react poorly. The defining factor in this will be determined by the approach we take.
Delivering negative feedback can be a dicey proposition. Our approach can make all the difference and will determine our overall ability to build or kill rapport with our students. Here are a few tips to take these emotions of the heart and turn them into success every time:
Tips for Delivering Negative Feedback
1. Be the Bigger Person
The first step to success is to answer the main question: Why am I correcting this student? If the answer to this question is anything other than allowing the student to become a better person, then our motives are not true. If we are merely in a bad mood, wanting to take revenge or looking for someone to use as an example, then correction will only backfire. Revealing your contempt builds ground for the student to stand against you. Remaining calm and assertive will allow you to build ground for the student to walk with you.
2. Eliminate Bias
In his book, Verbal Judo, George Thompson says that it is important to eliminate bias in communication at all costs. A calm and assertive attitude will be the key to overcoming the natural gut reaction of the student. Keep your anger, harsh emotion and condescension out of your approach to discipline. Within the tone of your voice and the words you use, you can either turn off a student forever or create ground for him/her to walk with you. The inner voice is normally grumpy, so ignore it. Learn to control it and make it obey with positive intentions.
3. Sprinkle on the Praise!
Praise builds rapport and gives you ground to stand with the student when negative feedback is necessary. Praise often and be specific. Don’t just say, "Good job, Tom." Be specific and create a mental picture. Praise can be effective, but praise for what is expected should be avoided. Instead, praise what is unexpected.
"Tom, I loved the way you played that solo. You showed so much emotion. It was hard to believe you kept yourself so focused. I'm impressed. I can't wait to hear you again tomorrow."
4. Praise Last with Correction First
If you are going to add correction and praise together, do not praise first.
"I loved the way you played that solo Tom, but you need to stay away from B natural in this key."
This is an ineffective way to praise and correct because your students will learn to anticipate "but" as a negative at the end of all your praise. On the other hand, if you criticize first and then praise, the praise is the focus of the argument and will assist you in building ground with the student.
"Tom, I noticed that you used a B natural in the key of B flat. We can work on that, but I was very impressed with your tone quality and mature sound. Great job!"
This "but" comes across much better. Your "but" should have as much impact as possible. While you are laughing at that last sentence, remember this tip: Use humor often.
5. Create Context
Creating context with your students can be an amazing force multiplier. Simply asking or telling a student to change a behavior is not nearly as powerful as asking with a picture.
"Tom, can you please refrain from blurting out (ask)? The class will run much more efficiently if only one person speaks at a time (why). In addition, you avoid taking the chance of getting in trouble (why not). You will have a much better chance of avoiding a detention if you show me that you can be respectful (positive ending)."
Creating context will also involve answering the why for everything you say. Answer the question, “Why is this important to me?”
6. Paint a mental pictures.
Using a metaphor to further build context for proper behavior is one of the most entertaining and pleasant exercises a teacher can endeavor to accomplish. A metaphor paints a mental picture that contains all the elements of a well thought-out lesson. Evoking a previously learned metaphor can bring the lesson back to a student’s mind in a matter of seconds. The following is an example of a great metaphor that I use in my band classes:
I use a metaphor that I call the consistency principle. The consistency principle states that all people want to be seen as consistent. I ask the students to mentally place themselves in my position in the front of the room. I ask them to imagine what expectations they would have if they were the teacher needing to teach the class. I then ask them to remain consistent with these expectations. It is like a magic trick and gets them to empathize with me. All I have to do is have them imagine what it would be like to be me. The fact that I made them believe in being consistent sets up the expectation that they should. I can then continue reminding them each day to be consistent.
Final Thoughts
All of these suggestions create a basic foundation for pushing students to create their own high expectations and walk with us instead of against us. It is one thing for us to have high expectations for our students, but when the students create their own high expectations, we are likely to minimize the need for consequences all together. When we take this step, we create the best possible environment for students to turn guilt and shame into success.
About the Author
Stephen McClard has been the Director of Bands at Bolivar High School since 2002. Mr. McClard graduated from Southeast Missouri State University in 1990. He started his teaching career in Southeast Missouri before moving to Illinois where he taught band for 8 years.
In 2006, Mr. McClard was named by SBO Magazine as one of the 50 Directors Who Make a Difference. In 2006, 2008 and 2009, Bolivar RI School district was named one of the "Best 100 Communities for Music Education" in America by the American Music Conference. Mr. McClard was previously featured on the cover of the 2003 issue of SBO Magazine for his work with music technology.
His first book, The Superior Educator, A Calm and Assertive Approach to Classroom Management and Large Group Motivation, is due out in Early July, 2009 and will be available on Amazon as well as many other book outlets.
Shame is felt when others are aware of our incorrect intentions or actions and can often lead to feelings of worthlessness. Guilt, on the other hand, is the emotion that is felt when no one else knows about our intentions or actions. I clarify this because it makes a noticeable difference to the person making the choice. The difference between success and failure in dealing with our classroom management can depend on our perception of these two emotions.
A high percentage of poor behavior in the classroom will elicit neither shame nor guilt. This is because the individual taking the action may be unaware of the impact his/her actions have on others, or they may simply lack the related values associated with their actions. Dealing with poor behavior then boils down to the impact we have as educators when revealing the poor behavior to the student.
Evoking a guilt response in the student is an inevitable result of negative feedback. Avoiding this certainty will only allow the problem to fester. If we can first elicit a guilt response indirectly, we create the best chance for success. Allowing the student the autonomy to choose the correct path will be the most effective way to make first contact with poor behavior. Evoking guilt in a student indirectly can be very powerful and may allow the student to avoid shame. Guilt can lead to empathy if skillfully managed for the success of the student.
When it becomes necessary for us to take a student aside or openly correct a repeated poor behavior, the emotion can then become shame. When our corrections reveal shame in a student, the reaction can differ depending on the personality of the student. In some cases, we will have success and in other cases the student will choose to react poorly. The defining factor in this will be determined by the approach we take.
Delivering negative feedback can be a dicey proposition. Our approach can make all the difference and will determine our overall ability to build or kill rapport with our students. Here are a few tips to take these emotions of the heart and turn them into success every time:
Tips for Delivering Negative Feedback
1. Be the Bigger Person
The first step to success is to answer the main question: Why am I correcting this student? If the answer to this question is anything other than allowing the student to become a better person, then our motives are not true. If we are merely in a bad mood, wanting to take revenge or looking for someone to use as an example, then correction will only backfire. Revealing your contempt builds ground for the student to stand against you. Remaining calm and assertive will allow you to build ground for the student to walk with you.
2. Eliminate Bias
In his book, Verbal Judo, George Thompson says that it is important to eliminate bias in communication at all costs. A calm and assertive attitude will be the key to overcoming the natural gut reaction of the student. Keep your anger, harsh emotion and condescension out of your approach to discipline. Within the tone of your voice and the words you use, you can either turn off a student forever or create ground for him/her to walk with you. The inner voice is normally grumpy, so ignore it. Learn to control it and make it obey with positive intentions.
3. Sprinkle on the Praise!
Praise builds rapport and gives you ground to stand with the student when negative feedback is necessary. Praise often and be specific. Don’t just say, "Good job, Tom." Be specific and create a mental picture. Praise can be effective, but praise for what is expected should be avoided. Instead, praise what is unexpected.
"Tom, I loved the way you played that solo. You showed so much emotion. It was hard to believe you kept yourself so focused. I'm impressed. I can't wait to hear you again tomorrow."
4. Praise Last with Correction First
If you are going to add correction and praise together, do not praise first.
"I loved the way you played that solo Tom, but you need to stay away from B natural in this key."
This is an ineffective way to praise and correct because your students will learn to anticipate "but" as a negative at the end of all your praise. On the other hand, if you criticize first and then praise, the praise is the focus of the argument and will assist you in building ground with the student.
"Tom, I noticed that you used a B natural in the key of B flat. We can work on that, but I was very impressed with your tone quality and mature sound. Great job!"
This "but" comes across much better. Your "but" should have as much impact as possible. While you are laughing at that last sentence, remember this tip: Use humor often.
5. Create Context
Creating context with your students can be an amazing force multiplier. Simply asking or telling a student to change a behavior is not nearly as powerful as asking with a picture.
"Tom, can you please refrain from blurting out (ask)? The class will run much more efficiently if only one person speaks at a time (why). In addition, you avoid taking the chance of getting in trouble (why not). You will have a much better chance of avoiding a detention if you show me that you can be respectful (positive ending)."
Creating context will also involve answering the why for everything you say. Answer the question, “Why is this important to me?”
6. Paint a mental pictures.
Using a metaphor to further build context for proper behavior is one of the most entertaining and pleasant exercises a teacher can endeavor to accomplish. A metaphor paints a mental picture that contains all the elements of a well thought-out lesson. Evoking a previously learned metaphor can bring the lesson back to a student’s mind in a matter of seconds. The following is an example of a great metaphor that I use in my band classes:
I use a metaphor that I call the consistency principle. The consistency principle states that all people want to be seen as consistent. I ask the students to mentally place themselves in my position in the front of the room. I ask them to imagine what expectations they would have if they were the teacher needing to teach the class. I then ask them to remain consistent with these expectations. It is like a magic trick and gets them to empathize with me. All I have to do is have them imagine what it would be like to be me. The fact that I made them believe in being consistent sets up the expectation that they should. I can then continue reminding them each day to be consistent.
Final Thoughts
All of these suggestions create a basic foundation for pushing students to create their own high expectations and walk with us instead of against us. It is one thing for us to have high expectations for our students, but when the students create their own high expectations, we are likely to minimize the need for consequences all together. When we take this step, we create the best possible environment for students to turn guilt and shame into success.
About the Author
Stephen McClard has been the Director of Bands at Bolivar High School since 2002. Mr. McClard graduated from Southeast Missouri State University in 1990. He started his teaching career in Southeast Missouri before moving to Illinois where he taught band for 8 years.
In 2006, Mr. McClard was named by SBO Magazine as one of the 50 Directors Who Make a Difference. In 2006, 2008 and 2009, Bolivar RI School district was named one of the "Best 100 Communities for Music Education" in America by the American Music Conference. Mr. McClard was previously featured on the cover of the 2003 issue of SBO Magazine for his work with music technology.
His first book, The Superior Educator, A Calm and Assertive Approach to Classroom Management and Large Group Motivation, is due out in Early July, 2009 and will be available on Amazon as well as many other book outlets.
Friday, May 21, 2010
The Future of Educational Technology - Education 3.0
Thinking of what education might look like in the next decade, one quickly realizes that the trends in technology are leaving a large number of our students behind. We no longer live in an age of visible movement when it comes to progress and innovation. Today is an age of exponential change. New and ever-improving technologies are popping up every day and in every corner of society.
Educating the best and the brightest in this brave new world will take a new and improved educational paradigm. Allowing our educational tools to age in the corner of the classroom will be the mistake that may cost us our future. Throwing away masses of children to inequitable access will ensure that we languish at the bottom of the global pool of employable workers for decades to come.
The New Toolbox
I was at an auction a few years ago and noticed a few old woodworking tools that I thought I could use. For a few bucks, I was able to snag an assortment of hand tools that may have been in someone's toolbox for a generation or more. As the next decade passed, I used these tools in my shop for a wide variety of projects until my projects outgrew these old, dull tools. My woodworking creations continued to improve as did my skills and artistry. I quickly discovered that using improved tools would translate into improved craftsmanship. As any woodworker will tell you, new tools require new skills.
Woodworking is a great metaphor for shaping and molding students. There is simply no good substitute for a sharp tool. If you want to build the best projects possible, you need to use the best tools possible. Thinking in terms of the next decade for our country, we will be sorely disappointed in our projects if we fail to improve our tools.
Over the course of the next few days, I will attempt to paint a picture of how technology will shape the way we educate students in the next decade. I will attempt to show the amazing possibilities that lay before us if we will simply walk through the doorway of opportunity that is open to us.
My main focus in this series of articles will be this idea: Transforming the student from being a passenger to becoming a "user." You may be wondering what I mean by this. Let me explain.
Ask yourself what it means to be a "user." A user is not simply a person who uses. For the student, being a user should involve using the latest technology in a free and autonomous manner. This new-found freedom will allow the student to become an active participant in his/her education instead of a passive passenger. No other time in history have we been so able to make this a reality.
In our current technological society, being a user also means being tracked. Tracking has become a major part of our daily lives and is precisely the engine that should drive our educational process for the foreseeable future. Tracking a student means having the ability to target education toward weaknesses and strengths. The ability to accurately customize curriculum to the individual has been the holy grail of educational philosophy for many years. This golden age of technological development may soon enable this dream to become a reality.
Current educational curriculum and individual assessment is arbitrary at best. Being able to accurately asses a student can only be achieved by using modern tracking and database technologies. The means by which we can make this a reality is readily available and only needs to be taken off the shelf to be used. If Congress is looking for a shovel-ready project, this may be the one.
Imagine a world where every child has a tablet computer with ready access to the App of virtual photographic memory (internet). Further, imagine that every student can access all the knowledge of humankind freely at any moment in time. Continue to imagine a world where a misspelled word brings up a spelling challenge application instead of an auto correction. Try to contemplate what it would mean for a teacher to have a database of every misspelled word, every misunderstood concept or every missed equation for each of their students. Try to envision a teacher with the ability to customize the experience of the individual "user" with minimal effort. Imagine the curriculum being automatically targeted to the user through an intuitive educational platform that knows every strength and each unique weakness. I could go on, but I think you get the point.
The company that makes this standard available to the educational community will be the company that shapes the future of humankind. Will it be Google, Apple, Microsoft, or some other yet unknown pioneer?
Continuing from the thoughts in my last post, I would like to elaborate on the idea of the student as a user of a new standardized educational platform. It is obvious to me that the future of education will always mirror our everyday lives in one way or another. If you examine how technology has influenced your daily life already, you begin to put together a snapshot of what it will mean to be educated in the next decade.
In the last few hundred years, most individuals would consider an education as something you receive. You often hear the question asked, "Where did you receive your education?" As we proceed through the next decade, education will slowly move away from reception and toward being custom designed for the individual user. New technology will not only allow us to receive an education, but also develop an education. The question we might ask in 10 years is, "How did you develop your education?" The question of where will still be important, but the how of the matter will be the focus that defines the individual.
To make this a reality we will need a standardized platform from which to develop a student's unique education. This standardized platform will allow us to tailor a custom curriculum that will be matched to talents, interests and life goals. For the educator, a standardized platform will create a way to assist the student in discovering a true purpose in life through a unique educational experience. The basics of reading, writing and arithmetic will not be taught as much as they will be discovered and used. Learning will become a reciprocal experience between the teacher, the student and the machine.
Under a standardized platform, each of these three participants will have a role to play. The teacher will be the facilitator, assisting the development of the curriculum and inspiring the direction the student takes. The student will be the user, gathering resources, skills and knowledge in an efficient and measured sequence. The machine will do the work of data gathering and analysis, which will assist the teacher and student in refining the curriculum. This data gathering work of the machine will also free the teacher from the burden of record-keeping and tedious tasks that currently distract from the real job of teaching and learning.
Under a standardized system, grade level will be far less important. Achievement and progression will be measured by accomplishment and intelligence as a benchmark for success. The question of failure or success will be irrelevant and replaced with a standard and consistent measurement of potential and overall intelligence. Information will no longer be missed but continually rehearsed and monitored for retention by the machine.
In our current educational paradigm, the teacher is in charge of arbitrarily constructing curriculum. This approach to curriculum development is based on inexperience in some cases, outdated materials, inadequate funding and a shortage of time. Measuring the success of a specific curriculum is currently impossible. With a standardized system, comparisons of curricular success can be made across the entire spectrum of education and then continually reformulated and enhanced by the machine.
Sadly, teachers today are bogged down with an assortment of mind-numbing tasks that would be better suited to an off-the-shelf automated system. Tasks such as data tracking, reporting and record keeping are currently accomplished manually. These tasks could easily be delegated to an intuitive database. Developing a standard to follow would eliminate these tasks and free the teacher to do their main job of teaching students.
Education 3.0
Throughout history, man has sought to pass on knowledge to the next generation. This process started with oral tradition, storytelling and writing. With the advent of the printing press, knowledge and information slowly became available to the masses. The amount of information that could be gained by one human in a lifetime was severely limited by his access to printed materials and wealth. The majority of learning was gained through observation and imitation. We can call this Education 1.0.
Education 2.0 starts around the late eighteen hundreds with universal literacy movements throughout newly industrialized regions of the world. Improvements in education slowly transitioned from apprenticeship to formal education and training. Despite our movements toward universal education, access to knowledge and opportunity continues to be inequitable throughout the world. Even with the arrival of the computer revolution, access to the tools of learning continues to define the learner.
The next decade may mark the moment in history when all men are granted equal access to the greatest treasure a soul can possess. I use the word may in the last sentence because there is the chance that we will miss this golden opportunity. Access to Education 3.0 will only be gained through investment and universal standardization. If we continue to divert wealth toward fruitless goals and corporate greed, this opportunity will be lost or hopelessly delayed.
Education 3.0, when it arrives, will be the age of universal enlightenment. Platforms for education and learning will slowly standardize and become globally accessible and affordable. The poorest to the wealthiest will have access to the machine that runs the platform.
The thought on your mind at this point is most likely wondering what machine I keep referring to. The machine in question is the one we have been so busy teaching and training since roughly 1969. You've probably guessed it by now that I am referring to the internet. The great cloud of knowledge that we call the internet is precisely the mechanism that we will use to build the platform of Education 3.0. When the platform is finally in place, the decade to follow will see the greatest amount of wealth, discoveries and use of human potential that we have witnessed during our time on this earth. The only question that remains to be answered is the point at which I will leave this series of articles.
When will we allow the user to use the machine to its potential?
About the Author
Stephen McClard has been the Director of Bands at Bolivar High School since 2002. Mr. McClard graduated from Southeast Missouri State University in 1990. He started his teaching career in Southeast Missouri before moving to Illinois where he taught band for 8 years.
In 2006, Mr. McClard was named by SBO Magazine as one of the 50 Directors Who Make a Difference. In 2006, 2008 and 2009, Bolivar RI School district was named one of the "Best 100 Communities for Music Education" in America by the American Music Conference. Mr. McClard was previously featured on the cover of the 2003 issue of SBO Magazine for his work with music technology.
His first book, The Superior Educator, A Calm and Assertive Approach to Classroom Management and Large Group Motivation, is due out in Early July, 2009 and will be available on Amazon as well as many other book outlets.
Educating the best and the brightest in this brave new world will take a new and improved educational paradigm. Allowing our educational tools to age in the corner of the classroom will be the mistake that may cost us our future. Throwing away masses of children to inequitable access will ensure that we languish at the bottom of the global pool of employable workers for decades to come.
The New Toolbox
I was at an auction a few years ago and noticed a few old woodworking tools that I thought I could use. For a few bucks, I was able to snag an assortment of hand tools that may have been in someone's toolbox for a generation or more. As the next decade passed, I used these tools in my shop for a wide variety of projects until my projects outgrew these old, dull tools. My woodworking creations continued to improve as did my skills and artistry. I quickly discovered that using improved tools would translate into improved craftsmanship. As any woodworker will tell you, new tools require new skills.
Woodworking is a great metaphor for shaping and molding students. There is simply no good substitute for a sharp tool. If you want to build the best projects possible, you need to use the best tools possible. Thinking in terms of the next decade for our country, we will be sorely disappointed in our projects if we fail to improve our tools.
Over the course of the next few days, I will attempt to paint a picture of how technology will shape the way we educate students in the next decade. I will attempt to show the amazing possibilities that lay before us if we will simply walk through the doorway of opportunity that is open to us.
My main focus in this series of articles will be this idea: Transforming the student from being a passenger to becoming a "user." You may be wondering what I mean by this. Let me explain.
Ask yourself what it means to be a "user." A user is not simply a person who uses. For the student, being a user should involve using the latest technology in a free and autonomous manner. This new-found freedom will allow the student to become an active participant in his/her education instead of a passive passenger. No other time in history have we been so able to make this a reality.
In our current technological society, being a user also means being tracked. Tracking has become a major part of our daily lives and is precisely the engine that should drive our educational process for the foreseeable future. Tracking a student means having the ability to target education toward weaknesses and strengths. The ability to accurately customize curriculum to the individual has been the holy grail of educational philosophy for many years. This golden age of technological development may soon enable this dream to become a reality.
Current educational curriculum and individual assessment is arbitrary at best. Being able to accurately asses a student can only be achieved by using modern tracking and database technologies. The means by which we can make this a reality is readily available and only needs to be taken off the shelf to be used. If Congress is looking for a shovel-ready project, this may be the one.
Imagine a world where every child has a tablet computer with ready access to the App of virtual photographic memory (internet). Further, imagine that every student can access all the knowledge of humankind freely at any moment in time. Continue to imagine a world where a misspelled word brings up a spelling challenge application instead of an auto correction. Try to contemplate what it would mean for a teacher to have a database of every misspelled word, every misunderstood concept or every missed equation for each of their students. Try to envision a teacher with the ability to customize the experience of the individual "user" with minimal effort. Imagine the curriculum being automatically targeted to the user through an intuitive educational platform that knows every strength and each unique weakness. I could go on, but I think you get the point.
The company that makes this standard available to the educational community will be the company that shapes the future of humankind. Will it be Google, Apple, Microsoft, or some other yet unknown pioneer?
Continuing from the thoughts in my last post, I would like to elaborate on the idea of the student as a user of a new standardized educational platform. It is obvious to me that the future of education will always mirror our everyday lives in one way or another. If you examine how technology has influenced your daily life already, you begin to put together a snapshot of what it will mean to be educated in the next decade.
In the last few hundred years, most individuals would consider an education as something you receive. You often hear the question asked, "Where did you receive your education?" As we proceed through the next decade, education will slowly move away from reception and toward being custom designed for the individual user. New technology will not only allow us to receive an education, but also develop an education. The question we might ask in 10 years is, "How did you develop your education?" The question of where will still be important, but the how of the matter will be the focus that defines the individual.
To make this a reality we will need a standardized platform from which to develop a student's unique education. This standardized platform will allow us to tailor a custom curriculum that will be matched to talents, interests and life goals. For the educator, a standardized platform will create a way to assist the student in discovering a true purpose in life through a unique educational experience. The basics of reading, writing and arithmetic will not be taught as much as they will be discovered and used. Learning will become a reciprocal experience between the teacher, the student and the machine.
Under a standardized platform, each of these three participants will have a role to play. The teacher will be the facilitator, assisting the development of the curriculum and inspiring the direction the student takes. The student will be the user, gathering resources, skills and knowledge in an efficient and measured sequence. The machine will do the work of data gathering and analysis, which will assist the teacher and student in refining the curriculum. This data gathering work of the machine will also free the teacher from the burden of record-keeping and tedious tasks that currently distract from the real job of teaching and learning.
Under a standardized system, grade level will be far less important. Achievement and progression will be measured by accomplishment and intelligence as a benchmark for success. The question of failure or success will be irrelevant and replaced with a standard and consistent measurement of potential and overall intelligence. Information will no longer be missed but continually rehearsed and monitored for retention by the machine.
In our current educational paradigm, the teacher is in charge of arbitrarily constructing curriculum. This approach to curriculum development is based on inexperience in some cases, outdated materials, inadequate funding and a shortage of time. Measuring the success of a specific curriculum is currently impossible. With a standardized system, comparisons of curricular success can be made across the entire spectrum of education and then continually reformulated and enhanced by the machine.
Sadly, teachers today are bogged down with an assortment of mind-numbing tasks that would be better suited to an off-the-shelf automated system. Tasks such as data tracking, reporting and record keeping are currently accomplished manually. These tasks could easily be delegated to an intuitive database. Developing a standard to follow would eliminate these tasks and free the teacher to do their main job of teaching students.
Education 3.0
Throughout history, man has sought to pass on knowledge to the next generation. This process started with oral tradition, storytelling and writing. With the advent of the printing press, knowledge and information slowly became available to the masses. The amount of information that could be gained by one human in a lifetime was severely limited by his access to printed materials and wealth. The majority of learning was gained through observation and imitation. We can call this Education 1.0.
Education 2.0 starts around the late eighteen hundreds with universal literacy movements throughout newly industrialized regions of the world. Improvements in education slowly transitioned from apprenticeship to formal education and training. Despite our movements toward universal education, access to knowledge and opportunity continues to be inequitable throughout the world. Even with the arrival of the computer revolution, access to the tools of learning continues to define the learner.
The next decade may mark the moment in history when all men are granted equal access to the greatest treasure a soul can possess. I use the word may in the last sentence because there is the chance that we will miss this golden opportunity. Access to Education 3.0 will only be gained through investment and universal standardization. If we continue to divert wealth toward fruitless goals and corporate greed, this opportunity will be lost or hopelessly delayed.
Education 3.0, when it arrives, will be the age of universal enlightenment. Platforms for education and learning will slowly standardize and become globally accessible and affordable. The poorest to the wealthiest will have access to the machine that runs the platform.
The thought on your mind at this point is most likely wondering what machine I keep referring to. The machine in question is the one we have been so busy teaching and training since roughly 1969. You've probably guessed it by now that I am referring to the internet. The great cloud of knowledge that we call the internet is precisely the mechanism that we will use to build the platform of Education 3.0. When the platform is finally in place, the decade to follow will see the greatest amount of wealth, discoveries and use of human potential that we have witnessed during our time on this earth. The only question that remains to be answered is the point at which I will leave this series of articles.
When will we allow the user to use the machine to its potential?
About the Author
Stephen McClard has been the Director of Bands at Bolivar High School since 2002. Mr. McClard graduated from Southeast Missouri State University in 1990. He started his teaching career in Southeast Missouri before moving to Illinois where he taught band for 8 years.
In 2006, Mr. McClard was named by SBO Magazine as one of the 50 Directors Who Make a Difference. In 2006, 2008 and 2009, Bolivar RI School district was named one of the "Best 100 Communities for Music Education" in America by the American Music Conference. Mr. McClard was previously featured on the cover of the 2003 issue of SBO Magazine for his work with music technology.
His first book, The Superior Educator, A Calm and Assertive Approach to Classroom Management and Large Group Motivation, is due out in Early July, 2009 and will be available on Amazon as well as many other book outlets.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
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Hello NAME,
I want to tell you about a great site I found. They pay me to read e-mail,
visit web sites and much more.
It's free to join and easy to sign up! CLICK THIS
LINK TO VISIT: http://goldbizs.com/pages/index.php?refid=saad245
Guide Your Special Needs Child To Unlock Their Inner Greatness!
Children with special learning needs have experienced more failure and disappointment than other children. Parenting children with special learning needs can be difficult, and calls forth from their parents an extra measure of care in “planting the seeds of greatness.”
Seeds of “greatness” grow into strong, confident children—skilled learners who make bold choices and expect the best for their lives. They see setbacks as temporary and know they can find ways to surmount the obstacles that present themselves.
Children grown from greatness develop a “winner” mentality that supports them when life becomes challenging. Children grown from these seeds problem-solve; they test out theories; they create wonderful new platforms from which to explore and conquer life; they carve out a strong personal identity. They reject thoughts of failure. They create. They succeed. These children lead.
But what happens if children do not have a strong sense of their own internal greatness? These children harbor self-doubt. They have come to expect defeat. They prepare to lose. They defend themselves from the pain of failure. They make choices which are restricted to those options that are guaranteed to produce the least amount of pain. They wither in the face of challenges, moving through life like ghosts of themselves, restricting their life to the least painful alternatives, rarely reaching beyond the safety of what they are sure they can do without failure. They see challenges as yet another instance of humiliation, and they resist humiliation at all costs.
How can parents plant the seeds of greatness in their children?
A child learns to believe in his or her greatness through his or her interaction with parents. There are many ways parents can “sow greatness” into their child’s life. The following two strategies applied consistently will nurture your child’s desire to tackle life’s challenges with confidence.
Review your child’s successes with him (her) on a daily basis!
Never let your child doubt his capacity to ultimately prevail. Resist the temptation to criticize. If your child does not behave in a way that pleases you, remember that the cause of your child’s bad behavior is his feelings of disempowerment and insecurity.
Help your child to feel more secure! Express faith and confidence in his ability to handle the challenges of life and to select appropriate behavior next time. Guide him to believe that he can make the best choices for each situation.
Keep your child’s successes front and center in your mind and in your child’s mind!
Parent your child from an attitude of strong belief in his abilities and in his ultimate achievements. If you feel any doubts, banish them. Let go of any beliefs in your child’s limitations. Cultivate your child’s mindset of greatness.
Daily affirmation for greatness:
My child has the power to make successful decisions and have a glorious life. His talents are so strong that I have every reason to expect success. I believe in him. My child is brilliant and amazing; his life is evolving toward greatness. I admire the way he meets challenges head on. I can trust his judgment.
Children who have experienced failure have, unfortunately, begun to grow seeds of self-doubt. Like a gardener pulling weeds that block the sun, parents can crusade against self-doubt and nurture the seeds of greatness!
About the Author
Dr. Kari Miller is a Board Certified Educational Therapist and Director of Miller Educational Excellence in Los Angeles. She began her career almost twenty-five years ago as a special education resource teacher. She has worked with students in a vast array of capacities, including special education teacher and educational therapist. Dr. Miller has a PhD in Educational Psychology and Mathematical Statistics, a master’s degree in Learning Disabilities, Gifted Education and Educational Diagnosis, and a bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education and Behavior Disorders.
To contact Dr. Miller
Email: klmiller555@sbcglobal.net
Website: www.millereducationalexcellence.com
Phone: 310-280-9813
Seeds of “greatness” grow into strong, confident children—skilled learners who make bold choices and expect the best for their lives. They see setbacks as temporary and know they can find ways to surmount the obstacles that present themselves.
Children grown from greatness develop a “winner” mentality that supports them when life becomes challenging. Children grown from these seeds problem-solve; they test out theories; they create wonderful new platforms from which to explore and conquer life; they carve out a strong personal identity. They reject thoughts of failure. They create. They succeed. These children lead.
But what happens if children do not have a strong sense of their own internal greatness? These children harbor self-doubt. They have come to expect defeat. They prepare to lose. They defend themselves from the pain of failure. They make choices which are restricted to those options that are guaranteed to produce the least amount of pain. They wither in the face of challenges, moving through life like ghosts of themselves, restricting their life to the least painful alternatives, rarely reaching beyond the safety of what they are sure they can do without failure. They see challenges as yet another instance of humiliation, and they resist humiliation at all costs.
How can parents plant the seeds of greatness in their children?
A child learns to believe in his or her greatness through his or her interaction with parents. There are many ways parents can “sow greatness” into their child’s life. The following two strategies applied consistently will nurture your child’s desire to tackle life’s challenges with confidence.
Review your child’s successes with him (her) on a daily basis!
Never let your child doubt his capacity to ultimately prevail. Resist the temptation to criticize. If your child does not behave in a way that pleases you, remember that the cause of your child’s bad behavior is his feelings of disempowerment and insecurity.
Help your child to feel more secure! Express faith and confidence in his ability to handle the challenges of life and to select appropriate behavior next time. Guide him to believe that he can make the best choices for each situation.
Keep your child’s successes front and center in your mind and in your child’s mind!
Parent your child from an attitude of strong belief in his abilities and in his ultimate achievements. If you feel any doubts, banish them. Let go of any beliefs in your child’s limitations. Cultivate your child’s mindset of greatness.
Daily affirmation for greatness:
My child has the power to make successful decisions and have a glorious life. His talents are so strong that I have every reason to expect success. I believe in him. My child is brilliant and amazing; his life is evolving toward greatness. I admire the way he meets challenges head on. I can trust his judgment.
Children who have experienced failure have, unfortunately, begun to grow seeds of self-doubt. Like a gardener pulling weeds that block the sun, parents can crusade against self-doubt and nurture the seeds of greatness!
About the Author
Dr. Kari Miller is a Board Certified Educational Therapist and Director of Miller Educational Excellence in Los Angeles. She began her career almost twenty-five years ago as a special education resource teacher. She has worked with students in a vast array of capacities, including special education teacher and educational therapist. Dr. Miller has a PhD in Educational Psychology and Mathematical Statistics, a master’s degree in Learning Disabilities, Gifted Education and Educational Diagnosis, and a bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education and Behavior Disorders.
To contact Dr. Miller
Email: klmiller555@sbcglobal.net
Website: www.millereducationalexcellence.com
Phone: 310-280-9813
Monday, May 17, 2010
Debating Current Issues
Debating current issues is a great way to develop a student’s critical thinking skills and maximize student participation in the classroom. Successful debates involve the selection of audience centered topics. In preparation for the debates students utilize research from library databases and the internet. On the day of the debate students should bring copies of research, notes, and speech outlines.
A basic format for the Cross Examination Debate includes the following:
Participants: 2 teams- Affirmative and Negative (2 students in each team)
Class -debate judges
Room setup: Two tables, podium in the center, student debaters face the audience
Format:
The constructive speech is designed to give students an opportunity to prepare an extemporaneous speech using the Toulmin Model of Argumentation.
First Affirmative Constructive speech (6 minutes)
Outline format:
Attention getting introduction
Debate Resolution
Definitions- key terms in the debate resolution
Body- utilize a modified Toulmin Model containing a claim statement, evidence (sources must be cited), and impact (personal opinion describing the significance of the argument). Three claims must be presented.
Conclusion- brief conclusion summarizing key arguments and concluding with an attention getter.
Cross Examination (3 minutes) by a member of the Negative team- each participant is expected to participate as a questioner and as a respondent during the debate.
First Negative Constructive speech (6 minutes)
Outline format:
Attention getting introduction
Debate Resolution- negative team indicates that they disagree with the debate resolution
Definitions- key terms in the debate resolution
Body- utilize a modified Toulmin Model containing a claim statement, evidence (sources must be cited), and impact (personal opinion describing the significance of the argument). Three claims must be presented.
Conclusion- brief conclusion summarizing key arguments and concluding with an attention getter.
Cross Examination (3 minutes) by a member of the Affirmative team
Second Affirmative Constructive speech (6 minutes)
Outline format:
Attention getting introduction
The second speaker does not repeat the debate resolution and definitions- goes directly to the body of the speech
Body- utilize a modified Toulmin Model format – claim statement, evidence (sources must be cited), and impact (personal opinion describing the significance of the argument). Second speaker has two must pick one of two options for the body of the speech- (first option) present three, new independent claims (4, 5, 6) on the issue; (second option) reiterate claims presented by the first speaker, adding more evidence- examples, case studies, statistics, quotations.
Conclusion- brief conclusion summarizing key arguments and concluding with an attention getter.
Cross Examination (3 minutes) by a member of the Negative team
Second Negative Constructive speech (6 minutes)
Outline format:
Attention getting introduction
The second speaker does not repeat the debate resolution and definitions- goes directly to the body of the speech.
Body- utilize a modified Toulmin Model format – claim statement, evidence (sources must be cited), and impact (personal opinion describing the significance of the argument). Second speaker has two must pick one of two options for the body of the speech- (first option) present three, new independent claims (4, 5, 6) on the issue; (second option) reiterate claims presented by the first speaker, adding more evidence- examples, case studies, statistics, quotations.
Conclusion- brief conclusion summarizing key arguments and concluding with an attention getter.
Cross Examination (3 minutes) by a member of the Affirmative team
Preparation (prep time) for the rebuttal (5 minutes)
The rebuttal is an impromptu speech designed to give students the opportunity to think critically, analyze their opponents’ arguments, and develop a strong closing statement.
First Affirmative Rebuttal speech (4 minutes)
Outline format:
Attention getting introduction
Body of the speech- focus on at least three voting issues- presenting reasons why the class (acting as judges) should vote for the Affirmative team. Speaker needs to be responsive to opponents’ arguments, identify fallacies, and emphasize key arguments from the constructive speech.
Conclusion- brief summary and attention getter
First Negative Rebuttal speech (4 minutes)
Outline format:
Attention getting introduction
Body of the speech- focus on at least three voting issues- presenting reasons why the class (acting as judges) should vote for the Affirmative team. Speaker needs to be responsive to opponents’ arguments, identify fallacies, and emphasize key arguments from the constructive speech.
Conclusion- brief summary and attention getter.
Second Affirmative Rebuttal speech (4 minutes)
Outline format:
Attention getting introduction
Body of the speech- focus on at least three voting issues- presenting reasons why the class (acting as judges) should vote for the Affirmative team. Speaker needs to be responsive to opponents’ arguments, identify fallacies, and emphasize key arguments from the constructive speech.
Conclusion- brief summary and attention getter.
Second Negative Rebuttal speech (4 minutes)
Outline format:
Attention getting introduction
Body of the speech- focus on at least three voting issues- (presenting reasons) why the class (acting as judges) should vote for the Affirmative team. Speaker needs to be responsive to opponents’ arguments, identify fallacies, and emphasize key arguments from the constructive speech.
Conclusion- brief summary and attention getter.
Cross Examination rules and strategies:
Questioner-
1. Take the time to research and read about arguments on both sides of the issue
2. Prepare questions in advance of the debate (but keep in mind that spontaneous questions have the greatest impact)
3. Use follow up questions, if necessary
4. Avoid general questions
5. Ask specific, probing questions
6. No personal questions (personal questions are irrelevant)
7. Use your research to reference questions
8. You may ask questions about any issue or idea related to the debate topic
9. Face the audience as you ask questions
10. Avoid the shotgun approach to asking questions
11. Don’t let the respondent ramble- feel free to interrupt the respondent after they have given a fair response to a question
12. Use your time wisely- ask your best questions first
13. Take notes during your opponent’s speeches
14. The cross examination is for questions, not rebuttal speeches
Respondent-
1. Take the time to read several resources in preparation for your debate
2. Practice responding to questions with your debate team member in advance of the debate
3. Avoid responding like a politician- make sure you answer the question
4. Take advantage of generalized questions- feel free to elaborate on your response- it is the responsibility of the questioner to interrupt your response and ask another question
5. Don’t respond to personal questions (personal questions are irrelevant)
6. Use your research to reference question
7. Face the audience as you respond to questions
8. Remember- your debate team member cannot answer questions for you- be prepared
Classroom audience:
*Class members are expected to attend the debates and serve as debate judges. Each class member will use the argument flowsheet method of note taking during the debate. At the end of the debate class members will write down the name of the team that did the best job of debating the issues. Describe the reasons why you were persuaded to vote for that team. Make sure your name in is on the argument flowsheet.
*Class members need to set aside their personal opinions as debate judges. Judges are expected to be fair and impartial judges. Do not ask questions or interrupt the debate participants.
*Class members need to turn in their argument flowsheet at the end of the debate to receive credit for the assignment.
Debate preparation:
*Debate team members and opponents work together to prepare a debate resolution. This is a competitive debate- do not work with your opponents after a decision on a resolution has been made. Canned debates will receive significant grade reductions.
*Do not sit during the presentation of your speeches and cross examination.
*Results of the class vote will be announced at the end of the debate by the professor.
*Fairness doctrine applies to each speech delivered- speakers must stop speaking when the time limit has been reached. Student participants may use a stopwatch during the debate.
*Students are required to turn in copies of their research at the end of the debate.
*Laptops may not be used during the debate.
*Visuals are not required for this assignment. Do not use PowerPoint- the focus of the debate is on the development of verbal images and ideas.
About the Author
Reed Markham teaches junior and senior high school students in the Early College Program at Daytona State College. Markham was a speechwriter for the United States Supreme Court.
A basic format for the Cross Examination Debate includes the following:
Participants: 2 teams- Affirmative and Negative (2 students in each team)
Class -debate judges
Room setup: Two tables, podium in the center, student debaters face the audience
Format:
The constructive speech is designed to give students an opportunity to prepare an extemporaneous speech using the Toulmin Model of Argumentation.
First Affirmative Constructive speech (6 minutes)
Outline format:
Attention getting introduction
Debate Resolution
Definitions- key terms in the debate resolution
Body- utilize a modified Toulmin Model containing a claim statement, evidence (sources must be cited), and impact (personal opinion describing the significance of the argument). Three claims must be presented.
Conclusion- brief conclusion summarizing key arguments and concluding with an attention getter.
Cross Examination (3 minutes) by a member of the Negative team- each participant is expected to participate as a questioner and as a respondent during the debate.
First Negative Constructive speech (6 minutes)
Outline format:
Attention getting introduction
Debate Resolution- negative team indicates that they disagree with the debate resolution
Definitions- key terms in the debate resolution
Body- utilize a modified Toulmin Model containing a claim statement, evidence (sources must be cited), and impact (personal opinion describing the significance of the argument). Three claims must be presented.
Conclusion- brief conclusion summarizing key arguments and concluding with an attention getter.
Cross Examination (3 minutes) by a member of the Affirmative team
Second Affirmative Constructive speech (6 minutes)
Outline format:
Attention getting introduction
The second speaker does not repeat the debate resolution and definitions- goes directly to the body of the speech
Body- utilize a modified Toulmin Model format – claim statement, evidence (sources must be cited), and impact (personal opinion describing the significance of the argument). Second speaker has two must pick one of two options for the body of the speech- (first option) present three, new independent claims (4, 5, 6) on the issue; (second option) reiterate claims presented by the first speaker, adding more evidence- examples, case studies, statistics, quotations.
Conclusion- brief conclusion summarizing key arguments and concluding with an attention getter.
Cross Examination (3 minutes) by a member of the Negative team
Second Negative Constructive speech (6 minutes)
Outline format:
Attention getting introduction
The second speaker does not repeat the debate resolution and definitions- goes directly to the body of the speech.
Body- utilize a modified Toulmin Model format – claim statement, evidence (sources must be cited), and impact (personal opinion describing the significance of the argument). Second speaker has two must pick one of two options for the body of the speech- (first option) present three, new independent claims (4, 5, 6) on the issue; (second option) reiterate claims presented by the first speaker, adding more evidence- examples, case studies, statistics, quotations.
Conclusion- brief conclusion summarizing key arguments and concluding with an attention getter.
Cross Examination (3 minutes) by a member of the Affirmative team
Preparation (prep time) for the rebuttal (5 minutes)
The rebuttal is an impromptu speech designed to give students the opportunity to think critically, analyze their opponents’ arguments, and develop a strong closing statement.
First Affirmative Rebuttal speech (4 minutes)
Outline format:
Attention getting introduction
Body of the speech- focus on at least three voting issues- presenting reasons why the class (acting as judges) should vote for the Affirmative team. Speaker needs to be responsive to opponents’ arguments, identify fallacies, and emphasize key arguments from the constructive speech.
Conclusion- brief summary and attention getter
First Negative Rebuttal speech (4 minutes)
Outline format:
Attention getting introduction
Body of the speech- focus on at least three voting issues- presenting reasons why the class (acting as judges) should vote for the Affirmative team. Speaker needs to be responsive to opponents’ arguments, identify fallacies, and emphasize key arguments from the constructive speech.
Conclusion- brief summary and attention getter.
Second Affirmative Rebuttal speech (4 minutes)
Outline format:
Attention getting introduction
Body of the speech- focus on at least three voting issues- presenting reasons why the class (acting as judges) should vote for the Affirmative team. Speaker needs to be responsive to opponents’ arguments, identify fallacies, and emphasize key arguments from the constructive speech.
Conclusion- brief summary and attention getter.
Second Negative Rebuttal speech (4 minutes)
Outline format:
Attention getting introduction
Body of the speech- focus on at least three voting issues- (presenting reasons) why the class (acting as judges) should vote for the Affirmative team. Speaker needs to be responsive to opponents’ arguments, identify fallacies, and emphasize key arguments from the constructive speech.
Conclusion- brief summary and attention getter.
Cross Examination rules and strategies:
Questioner-
1. Take the time to research and read about arguments on both sides of the issue
2. Prepare questions in advance of the debate (but keep in mind that spontaneous questions have the greatest impact)
3. Use follow up questions, if necessary
4. Avoid general questions
5. Ask specific, probing questions
6. No personal questions (personal questions are irrelevant)
7. Use your research to reference questions
8. You may ask questions about any issue or idea related to the debate topic
9. Face the audience as you ask questions
10. Avoid the shotgun approach to asking questions
11. Don’t let the respondent ramble- feel free to interrupt the respondent after they have given a fair response to a question
12. Use your time wisely- ask your best questions first
13. Take notes during your opponent’s speeches
14. The cross examination is for questions, not rebuttal speeches
Respondent-
1. Take the time to read several resources in preparation for your debate
2. Practice responding to questions with your debate team member in advance of the debate
3. Avoid responding like a politician- make sure you answer the question
4. Take advantage of generalized questions- feel free to elaborate on your response- it is the responsibility of the questioner to interrupt your response and ask another question
5. Don’t respond to personal questions (personal questions are irrelevant)
6. Use your research to reference question
7. Face the audience as you respond to questions
8. Remember- your debate team member cannot answer questions for you- be prepared
Classroom audience:
*Class members are expected to attend the debates and serve as debate judges. Each class member will use the argument flowsheet method of note taking during the debate. At the end of the debate class members will write down the name of the team that did the best job of debating the issues. Describe the reasons why you were persuaded to vote for that team. Make sure your name in is on the argument flowsheet.
*Class members need to set aside their personal opinions as debate judges. Judges are expected to be fair and impartial judges. Do not ask questions or interrupt the debate participants.
*Class members need to turn in their argument flowsheet at the end of the debate to receive credit for the assignment.
Debate preparation:
*Debate team members and opponents work together to prepare a debate resolution. This is a competitive debate- do not work with your opponents after a decision on a resolution has been made. Canned debates will receive significant grade reductions.
*Do not sit during the presentation of your speeches and cross examination.
*Results of the class vote will be announced at the end of the debate by the professor.
*Fairness doctrine applies to each speech delivered- speakers must stop speaking when the time limit has been reached. Student participants may use a stopwatch during the debate.
*Students are required to turn in copies of their research at the end of the debate.
*Laptops may not be used during the debate.
*Visuals are not required for this assignment. Do not use PowerPoint- the focus of the debate is on the development of verbal images and ideas.
About the Author
Reed Markham teaches junior and senior high school students in the Early College Program at Daytona State College. Markham was a speechwriter for the United States Supreme Court.
What’d You Say? Strategies To Build Attention During Listening
It was a hot, sticky afternoon in Mrs. Hall’s 5th grade classroom. The students were sleepy and Mrs. Hall was convinced they weren’t paying attention. Mrs. Hall knew that listening is an active, conscious process that has a huge impact on learning. She realized there were strategies she could use to wake up the students’ brains, interest and ability to listen.
She had them listen to classical music. Classical music by composers such as Mozart and Tchaikovsky encourages the brain to enter a relaxed, focused state which is highly conducive to learning. This has been termed “The Mozart Effect.”
She had them take movement breaks. A few minutes of movement exercises at transition times can re-energize the nervous system for better listening, attention, and learning. A great source of powerful movement techniques is Hands On: How to use Brain Gym in the Classroom available at http://braingym.com/html/our_products.html.
Mrs. Hall taught students how to bracket their distracting thoughts, showing them how to classify thoughts into three groups:
Now: thoughts that promote full involvement in the lesson.
Later: appropriate to pursue later, for example, an interesting related idea, a clarifying question or an important task to perform.
Never: not an appropriate thought, for example, a discouraging or negative thought such as “I can’t get this,” or “This is stupid.”
She showed the students how to visualize a container such as a chest or jewelry box to put their “Later” thoughts into until a better time to think about them and how to visualize putting their “Never” thoughts into a trashcan!
Because Mrs. Hall understood how important visualization is for building comprehension while listening, she taught her students how to anchor visualizations. As she began a discussion of the reading, she had them direct their attention to a particular spot in the classroom, for example, the door, the chalkboard, or a picture on the wall. The spot became the visual and spatial storing place for the details of the reading that she wanted them to remember. When she wanted a student to recall an important fact from the reading, Mrs. Hall had the student look at the spot that anchored the information to jog their memory.
For students who had great difficulty listening, she realized the training had to go deeper. She thought of the Samonas Auditory Intervention program. She knew that some students have auditory inefficiencies that cause them to become very fatigued when listening and they eventually run out of the energy needed to pay attention. The Samonas program helps students develop skills such as phonemic awareness, attention, memory, concentration, organization, social communication, verbal and written expression, comprehension, body awareness, and frustration tolerance. Samonas therapeutic listening plans are individually developed to target a student’s unique learning needs.
About the Author
Dr. Kari Miller is a Board Certified Educational Therapist and Director of Miller Educational Excellence in Los Angeles. She began her career almost twenty-five years ago as a special education resource teacher. She has worked with students in a vast array of capacities, including special education teacher and educational therapist. Dr. Miller has a PhD in Educational Psychology and Mathematical Statistics, a master’s degree in Learning Disabilities, Gifted Education and Educational Diagnosis, and a bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education and Behavior Disorders.
She had them listen to classical music. Classical music by composers such as Mozart and Tchaikovsky encourages the brain to enter a relaxed, focused state which is highly conducive to learning. This has been termed “The Mozart Effect.”
She had them take movement breaks. A few minutes of movement exercises at transition times can re-energize the nervous system for better listening, attention, and learning. A great source of powerful movement techniques is Hands On: How to use Brain Gym in the Classroom available at http://braingym.com/html/our_products.html.
Mrs. Hall taught students how to bracket their distracting thoughts, showing them how to classify thoughts into three groups:
Now: thoughts that promote full involvement in the lesson.
Later: appropriate to pursue later, for example, an interesting related idea, a clarifying question or an important task to perform.
Never: not an appropriate thought, for example, a discouraging or negative thought such as “I can’t get this,” or “This is stupid.”
She showed the students how to visualize a container such as a chest or jewelry box to put their “Later” thoughts into until a better time to think about them and how to visualize putting their “Never” thoughts into a trashcan!
Because Mrs. Hall understood how important visualization is for building comprehension while listening, she taught her students how to anchor visualizations. As she began a discussion of the reading, she had them direct their attention to a particular spot in the classroom, for example, the door, the chalkboard, or a picture on the wall. The spot became the visual and spatial storing place for the details of the reading that she wanted them to remember. When she wanted a student to recall an important fact from the reading, Mrs. Hall had the student look at the spot that anchored the information to jog their memory.
For students who had great difficulty listening, she realized the training had to go deeper. She thought of the Samonas Auditory Intervention program. She knew that some students have auditory inefficiencies that cause them to become very fatigued when listening and they eventually run out of the energy needed to pay attention. The Samonas program helps students develop skills such as phonemic awareness, attention, memory, concentration, organization, social communication, verbal and written expression, comprehension, body awareness, and frustration tolerance. Samonas therapeutic listening plans are individually developed to target a student’s unique learning needs.
About the Author
Dr. Kari Miller is a Board Certified Educational Therapist and Director of Miller Educational Excellence in Los Angeles. She began her career almost twenty-five years ago as a special education resource teacher. She has worked with students in a vast array of capacities, including special education teacher and educational therapist. Dr. Miller has a PhD in Educational Psychology and Mathematical Statistics, a master’s degree in Learning Disabilities, Gifted Education and Educational Diagnosis, and a bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education and Behavior Disorders.
When Boys Don’t Read, Here’s What To Do
I like it when the New York Times agrees with me. Nicholas Kristof’s recent column “Boys have fallen behind” (April 4) is an exact echo of my column on CanadaFreePress a few weeks before (March 15).
My piece was titled “Our Schools Are Skilled At Making Sure Boys Don’t Read." It’s longer, more aggressive, with more suggestions on how to deal with this very huge problem, namely, that boys don’t read well or they don’t read at all. (Also, my article drew helpful comments from readers in several countries.)
If boys not reading is an aspect of your life, please see this article.
Now I want to mention the big difference between my article and the one in the Times. Kristof earnestly discusses several theories about why boys can’t seem to keep up with girls. It’s very helpful to discuss these theories, and as much as I like mocking the New York Times, Kristof deserves credit for that.
But Kristof doesn’t mention the essential problem, which is that reading methods used in public schools are often ineffective and destructive. Specifically, the Education Establishment still pushes sight-words and Dolch words. All the phonics people say that the very process of memorizing these words will prevent the child from becoming a good reader. So you see the crime is being committed in plain sight.
Let’s say a boy is 10 or 12 years old and he doesn’t like to read. You don’t actually know whether he is avoiding books as a matter of preference, or he is unable to use books as a matter of never having been properly taught. This is a HUGE distinction. If the Times had thrown its authority behind investigating this distinction, we might make some progress. In any event, my piece on CanadaFreePress ends with some quick diagnostics you can use on this hypothetical boy so you know what his problem really is.
I can sum up this issue by saying the big reason boys can't read is not being taught properly, and then the bad results are glossed over. It happens, you know, that children can be in the fourth grade, unable to read, but taking home A's on their report card. For me, that's criminally irresponsible, and what we need to correct ASAP.
My piece was titled “Our Schools Are Skilled At Making Sure Boys Don’t Read." It’s longer, more aggressive, with more suggestions on how to deal with this very huge problem, namely, that boys don’t read well or they don’t read at all. (Also, my article drew helpful comments from readers in several countries.)
If boys not reading is an aspect of your life, please see this article.
Now I want to mention the big difference between my article and the one in the Times. Kristof earnestly discusses several theories about why boys can’t seem to keep up with girls. It’s very helpful to discuss these theories, and as much as I like mocking the New York Times, Kristof deserves credit for that.
But Kristof doesn’t mention the essential problem, which is that reading methods used in public schools are often ineffective and destructive. Specifically, the Education Establishment still pushes sight-words and Dolch words. All the phonics people say that the very process of memorizing these words will prevent the child from becoming a good reader. So you see the crime is being committed in plain sight.
Let’s say a boy is 10 or 12 years old and he doesn’t like to read. You don’t actually know whether he is avoiding books as a matter of preference, or he is unable to use books as a matter of never having been properly taught. This is a HUGE distinction. If the Times had thrown its authority behind investigating this distinction, we might make some progress. In any event, my piece on CanadaFreePress ends with some quick diagnostics you can use on this hypothetical boy so you know what his problem really is.
I can sum up this issue by saying the big reason boys can't read is not being taught properly, and then the bad results are glossed over. It happens, you know, that children can be in the fourth grade, unable to read, but taking home A's on their report card. For me, that's criminally irresponsible, and what we need to correct ASAP.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Proposed causes of autism: Disorder in glutamate regulation and microglial activity
The incidence of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) has increased to the alarming rate of approximately 1 in 100, and in some areas of the country, as many as 1 in 67 males are afflicted with the condition.
ASD is a related group of neurodevelopmental disorders including autism, Asperger’s syndrome, Rett’s syndrome, childhood disintegrative syndrome, and pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS).
Until now, researchers have not proposed a theory that pinpoints a single mechanism responsible for causing the diverse constellation of behaviors characteristic of ASD. A research study published in Current Medicinal Chemistry proposes that environmental and dietary factors may trigger a devastating cycle of events affecting certain activities of the brain.
In their recent paper, researchers R.L. Blaylock and A. Strunecka propose that increased levels of glutamate, a neurotransmitter involved in more than half of the brain’s neural transmissions, is implicated in ASD.
Glutamate is essential for learning, memory, motor coordination, and many other brain functions. However, too much glutamate in the brain has toxic effects. The level of glutamate is regulated by a sophisticated feedback system. If this complex feedback system becomes impaired, a condition called excitotoxicity occurs which can trigger abnormal development of the nervous system. Studies have indicated that there is a genetic abnormality in the regulation of glutamate in individuals with ASD.
Also a part of the picture is an inflammatory process in the central nervous system (CNS). Immune cells in the CNS, called microglia, remove damaged nerve cells from the brain and CNS. However, when microglia are chronically active, they release damaging chemicals.
Chronic activity of the microglial cells leads to CNS damage and has been implicated in a number of neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and multiple sclerosis. In 2005, brain autopsies of individuals with ASD confirmed the presence of significantly increased levels of microglial cell activation.
Blaylock and Strunecka comment, “As a multifaceted disorder, ASD requires a multifaceted approach, one that should include the protection against excitotoxicity/microglial activation.”
They warn of the significant dangers of long-term fluoride use, ingestion of aluminum, and diets containing processed foods, and aspartate-containing additives. They recommend “nutrition with special nutrients that have been shown to reduce excitotoxicity and microglial activation.”
They encourage the use of these compounds and supplements to reduce excitotoxicity:
*
Methylcobalamin (vitamin B12)
*
Pyridoxal-5 phosphate (vitamin B6)
*
Vitamin E (mixed tocopherols)
*
Vitamin C (buffered)
*
CoQ10
*
Acetyl-L-carnitine
*
Alpha-lipoic acid
*
Magnesium glycinate or lactate
*
Zinc
*
Flavonoids
They suggest the use of these supplements and compounds which reduce microglial activation:
*
Ibupropen
*
Mincycline
*
Ferulic acid
*
DHEA
*
Curcumin
*
Quercetin
*
Silymarin
*
Baicalein
*
Resveratrol
*
DHA/EPA
About the Author
Dr. Kari Miller is a Board Certified Educational Therapist and Director of Miller Educational Excellence in Los Angeles. She began her career almost twenty-five years ago as a special education resource teacher. She has worked with students in a vast array of capacities, including special education teacher and educational therapist. Dr. Miller has a PhD in Educational Psychology and Mathematical Statistics, a master’s degree in Learning Disabilities, Gifted Education and Educational Diagnosis, and a bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education and Behavior Disorders.
ASD is a related group of neurodevelopmental disorders including autism, Asperger’s syndrome, Rett’s syndrome, childhood disintegrative syndrome, and pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS).
Until now, researchers have not proposed a theory that pinpoints a single mechanism responsible for causing the diverse constellation of behaviors characteristic of ASD. A research study published in Current Medicinal Chemistry proposes that environmental and dietary factors may trigger a devastating cycle of events affecting certain activities of the brain.
In their recent paper, researchers R.L. Blaylock and A. Strunecka propose that increased levels of glutamate, a neurotransmitter involved in more than half of the brain’s neural transmissions, is implicated in ASD.
Glutamate is essential for learning, memory, motor coordination, and many other brain functions. However, too much glutamate in the brain has toxic effects. The level of glutamate is regulated by a sophisticated feedback system. If this complex feedback system becomes impaired, a condition called excitotoxicity occurs which can trigger abnormal development of the nervous system. Studies have indicated that there is a genetic abnormality in the regulation of glutamate in individuals with ASD.
Also a part of the picture is an inflammatory process in the central nervous system (CNS). Immune cells in the CNS, called microglia, remove damaged nerve cells from the brain and CNS. However, when microglia are chronically active, they release damaging chemicals.
Chronic activity of the microglial cells leads to CNS damage and has been implicated in a number of neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and multiple sclerosis. In 2005, brain autopsies of individuals with ASD confirmed the presence of significantly increased levels of microglial cell activation.
Blaylock and Strunecka comment, “As a multifaceted disorder, ASD requires a multifaceted approach, one that should include the protection against excitotoxicity/microglial activation.”
They warn of the significant dangers of long-term fluoride use, ingestion of aluminum, and diets containing processed foods, and aspartate-containing additives. They recommend “nutrition with special nutrients that have been shown to reduce excitotoxicity and microglial activation.”
They encourage the use of these compounds and supplements to reduce excitotoxicity:
*
Methylcobalamin (vitamin B12)
*
Pyridoxal-5 phosphate (vitamin B6)
*
Vitamin E (mixed tocopherols)
*
Vitamin C (buffered)
*
CoQ10
*
Acetyl-L-carnitine
*
Alpha-lipoic acid
*
Magnesium glycinate or lactate
*
Zinc
*
Flavonoids
They suggest the use of these supplements and compounds which reduce microglial activation:
*
Ibupropen
*
Mincycline
*
Ferulic acid
*
DHEA
*
Curcumin
*
Quercetin
*
Silymarin
*
Baicalein
*
Resveratrol
*
DHA/EPA
About the Author
Dr. Kari Miller is a Board Certified Educational Therapist and Director of Miller Educational Excellence in Los Angeles. She began her career almost twenty-five years ago as a special education resource teacher. She has worked with students in a vast array of capacities, including special education teacher and educational therapist. Dr. Miller has a PhD in Educational Psychology and Mathematical Statistics, a master’s degree in Learning Disabilities, Gifted Education and Educational Diagnosis, and a bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education and Behavior Disorders.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Move to Learn – Unlock the Potential of the Brain
There are about as many nerve cells in the brain as there are stars in the Milky Way galaxy. The unique set of connections between neurons that each of us develops determines how we view the world, shapes our future experiences, and indeed, determines who we are. Successful students have developed rich, connected networks of neurons. Many factors encourage neurons to branch and communicate with each other. In this newsletter, our topic will be the vital role of movement in brain development.
In our quest to fathom intelligent behavior, we have failed to appreciate that learning does not occur strictly in the mind. Learning and creativity are a “whole body” phenomenon and cannot occur independently. We teach “to the head” only, asking students to sit in chairs for long periods of time, listening and looking almost exclusively at abstract symbols, even when they are very young. We don’t fully appreciate that the mind cannot excel without the support of the body. We don’t “get it” that we must move to learn.
What is the role of movement in learning?
Movement stimulates the growth of neural networks upon which learning depends. It affords us the opportunity to explore our world and gather the sensory data that fuels the development of intelligence, in other words, it provokes learning. Movement provides feedback that the brain requires in order to learn. Movement allows us to express knowledge and therefore advance to the next plateau in our understanding.
What can parents do to encourage stronger learning in their children?
Not very many years ago, children played in their yards for hours each day. They ran, climbed trees, built forts, made mud pies and pretended to fly. These experiences developed rich neural networks that supported brain development in these children. Young people today spend far less time moving. They watch considerably more television and play significantly more video games.
We can integrate movement into our children’s daily lives and augment their capacity to succeed. In particular, children who have learning issues benefit from the systematic inclusion of movement into their daily lives.
Each “body” learns in its own unique way. The following activities can be stimulating to the development of strong brain networks. Allow your child to experiment during homework time and find the particular combination of activities that are most effective.
Most students remember new information better when they talk, write or draw. Encourage your child to “teach” new information to others in the household. For those students who anchor information best by writing, provide them with a white board and erasable markers or encourage them to take notes on paper. It isn’t always necessary to keep notes or read them later in order to anchor information in memory. The act of writing down the information promotes the development of connections among concepts. Demonstrating the concepts of the learning is another powerful way to incorporate the new learning into existing neural networks. Allow your child to act out what has been read, build a model, draw a diagram or chart, sing or dance.
Many students attend, concentrate and learn better when engaged in a repetitive, low concentration task such as doodling, folding paper, rocking, or squeezing a ball. Your child can also try walking around the room while reading or studying. Suggest to your child that he or she do this every 15 minutes while completing homework.
Because the mouth is an important site of neural integration and is closely tied to brain development, some students find that chewing can be a highly integrating activity that promotes concentration and understanding. Chewing gum can actually be an effective way to focus! It’s best to keep it simple. Crunchy, spicy, salty or sour foods can be effective concentration boosters. Have your child try carrot sticks, sugar free gum, pretzels or a small sour candy.
Encourage your child to engage in cross lateral physical activity for five minutes every hour. Cross lateral movements engage hand and foot on opposite sides of the body. Most of these movements are more effective when done standing. The addition of rhythmic music provides a boost. Some cross lateral movements students enjoy are:
* Touch hand (or elbow) to opposite knee.
* Lazy 8. Use one hand to trace a large infinity sign in front of the body, following the hand with the eyes. Alternate hands and continue.
* Cross the arms in front of the face in the shape of an “X” tracing a lazy 8. Be sure to watch the path of the 8 while tracing it.
* Karate Cross Crawl: Kick while punching or chopping with alternate hand and foot (right hand chops while left foot kicks).
* Cross Crawl Sit-ups. While lying on the back with hands clasped behind the head for support, sit up and touch the right elbow to the left knee. Alternate touching elbow to opposite knee.
* Double Doodle. Draw a design with both hands simultaneously. Be sure the designs are mirror images of each other, rather than facing the same direction.
About the Author
Dr. Kari Miller is a Board Certified Educational Therapist and Director of Miller Educational Excellence in Los Angeles. She began her career almost twenty-five years ago as a special education resource teacher. She has worked with students in a vast array of capacities, including special education teacher and educational therapist. Dr. Miller has a PhD in Educational Psychology and Mathematical Statistics, a master’s degree in Learning Disabilities, Gifted Education and Educational Diagnosis, and a bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education and Behavior Disorders.
In our quest to fathom intelligent behavior, we have failed to appreciate that learning does not occur strictly in the mind. Learning and creativity are a “whole body” phenomenon and cannot occur independently. We teach “to the head” only, asking students to sit in chairs for long periods of time, listening and looking almost exclusively at abstract symbols, even when they are very young. We don’t fully appreciate that the mind cannot excel without the support of the body. We don’t “get it” that we must move to learn.
What is the role of movement in learning?
Movement stimulates the growth of neural networks upon which learning depends. It affords us the opportunity to explore our world and gather the sensory data that fuels the development of intelligence, in other words, it provokes learning. Movement provides feedback that the brain requires in order to learn. Movement allows us to express knowledge and therefore advance to the next plateau in our understanding.
What can parents do to encourage stronger learning in their children?
Not very many years ago, children played in their yards for hours each day. They ran, climbed trees, built forts, made mud pies and pretended to fly. These experiences developed rich neural networks that supported brain development in these children. Young people today spend far less time moving. They watch considerably more television and play significantly more video games.
We can integrate movement into our children’s daily lives and augment their capacity to succeed. In particular, children who have learning issues benefit from the systematic inclusion of movement into their daily lives.
Each “body” learns in its own unique way. The following activities can be stimulating to the development of strong brain networks. Allow your child to experiment during homework time and find the particular combination of activities that are most effective.
Most students remember new information better when they talk, write or draw. Encourage your child to “teach” new information to others in the household. For those students who anchor information best by writing, provide them with a white board and erasable markers or encourage them to take notes on paper. It isn’t always necessary to keep notes or read them later in order to anchor information in memory. The act of writing down the information promotes the development of connections among concepts. Demonstrating the concepts of the learning is another powerful way to incorporate the new learning into existing neural networks. Allow your child to act out what has been read, build a model, draw a diagram or chart, sing or dance.
Many students attend, concentrate and learn better when engaged in a repetitive, low concentration task such as doodling, folding paper, rocking, or squeezing a ball. Your child can also try walking around the room while reading or studying. Suggest to your child that he or she do this every 15 minutes while completing homework.
Because the mouth is an important site of neural integration and is closely tied to brain development, some students find that chewing can be a highly integrating activity that promotes concentration and understanding. Chewing gum can actually be an effective way to focus! It’s best to keep it simple. Crunchy, spicy, salty or sour foods can be effective concentration boosters. Have your child try carrot sticks, sugar free gum, pretzels or a small sour candy.
Encourage your child to engage in cross lateral physical activity for five minutes every hour. Cross lateral movements engage hand and foot on opposite sides of the body. Most of these movements are more effective when done standing. The addition of rhythmic music provides a boost. Some cross lateral movements students enjoy are:
* Touch hand (or elbow) to opposite knee.
* Lazy 8. Use one hand to trace a large infinity sign in front of the body, following the hand with the eyes. Alternate hands and continue.
* Cross the arms in front of the face in the shape of an “X” tracing a lazy 8. Be sure to watch the path of the 8 while tracing it.
* Karate Cross Crawl: Kick while punching or chopping with alternate hand and foot (right hand chops while left foot kicks).
* Cross Crawl Sit-ups. While lying on the back with hands clasped behind the head for support, sit up and touch the right elbow to the left knee. Alternate touching elbow to opposite knee.
* Double Doodle. Draw a design with both hands simultaneously. Be sure the designs are mirror images of each other, rather than facing the same direction.
About the Author
Dr. Kari Miller is a Board Certified Educational Therapist and Director of Miller Educational Excellence in Los Angeles. She began her career almost twenty-five years ago as a special education resource teacher. She has worked with students in a vast array of capacities, including special education teacher and educational therapist. Dr. Miller has a PhD in Educational Psychology and Mathematical Statistics, a master’s degree in Learning Disabilities, Gifted Education and Educational Diagnosis, and a bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education and Behavior Disorders.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Teachers as Pawns
Teachers as Pawns
Myles B. Hoenig
March 14, 2010
It is reported in an exclusive article in The Baltimore Sun that a principal last year in a
Baltimore City high school had signed teachers in her school to sell Mary Kay products.
(1) As unbelievable as this is, what makes
matters worse is that these exploited teachers were some of the 600 or so Filipino
teachers working for this system. In their culture, when asked by a boss to do
something, it is expected that a subordinate will comply. In this case, the threat of not
renewing a visa could have hung in the balance as well. As of the release of the article,
nearly a year later, the principal has remained on the job and receives a paycheck.
A
?failing? Rhode Island high school is firing its staff due to the poor performances of its
students. This gets a big thumbs up from Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and
President Obama.
Kansas City, Missouri is closing half of its schools due to similarly poor performing
schools.
In all these cases, the teachers are either the scapegoats, or at the mercy, and the
financial mercy, of their principals or their school districts. With public sentiment against
teachers in general, there is little chance that they can fight this in the public arena. We
all hear people say when told that an individual is a teacher, “I give you a lot of credit. I
could never do that.” And, oh, by the way,
It?s your fault that the schools are in such poor shape.”
Why are things so bad for teachers and other educational professionals? We have one
of the best higher educational system in the world but our K-12 lags far behind others in
spending. (2) What is the culture that creates a broken system yet blames its victims or
those fighting overwhelming odds against them to change it?
In a large part, it'
s the unions to blame. Not because they are perceived as always
coming to the defense of poor teachers or demand too many days off or whatever else
the public sees as to why they are an obstruction to their child'
s education. The
problem with the unions is that they keep endorsing, and working for, the very
legislators that keep their school systems in shambles.
Nearly a trillion dollars has been allocated for two illegal wars of aggression in Iraq and
Afghanistan. Nearly a trillion dollars is allocated for a bloated military budget, without
debate, and almost unanimously. And, nearly a trillion dollars is spent bailing out banks
and Wall Street investment houses that have only themselves in mind and are not
required to be held accountable for how the money is spent. Soon they will be bailing
out the health insurance industry to who knows how many billions. Money certainly
doesn
?t solve all problems but with the schools we need more teachers for smaller
classes, school buildings for the 21st century, (including toilet paper in all the
bathrooms); schools with libraries that have books, computers and librarians; computers
available for all students; etc. Both parties are complicit in denying the needed funds.
They are much to blame for our schools
? demise yet it?s the teachers who are the first to
be blamed.
Nearly $70 billion is allocated to the Department of Education, a trifling number
compared to what we throw away on the military and our imperial ambitions abroad. Ten
times that much has gone to the banks. This $70 billion isn'
t just for K-12 but for all
aspects of federal money to education.
We have a Congress, both Democrat and Republican, and presidents, of both parties,
that stand behind No Child Left Behind. Sounds good but sees education in simple
numbers. What was made up in excessive testing of language and math skills was lost
in the skills taught for the humanities; those subjects that truly rounds out an individual
in their earliest stages of education. “
Because the law demanded progress only in reading and math, schools were incentivized to show gains only on those subjects. Hundreds of millions
of dollars were invested in test-preparation materials. Meanwhile, there was no incentive to teach
the arts, science, history, literature, geography, civics, foreign languages or physical
education.” (3)
We see with the politics of education that teachers are easy targets. They are often
contractually bound not to fight for real reform. A teachers
? strike often results in a quick
decertification of the union. Our elected officials prefer the slow death of unions, through
charter schools.
Our leaders also believe in the creation of a numbers-crunching principal class as a way
of reducing the role, and to deny the experience, of a teaching staff. How many
principals out there have minimal teaching experience yet stand in
?professional? judgment of teachers experienced enough to have theoretically been their grade school
teachers? They come from all fields and not necessarily from the field of education.
With foundations like Gates
and others churning out charter school principals with
insulting salaries we see the role of the teacher being reduced to peonage status. (4)
Teachers need to take over their schools and set the priorities. It is the teachers, and
usually those who have been at the same school for years, who know what works and
what doesn
?t. Principals come and go with the wind. Their short term investment does
not serve the long term goals of the schools. Principals should be there to help manage
the resources.
What
?s missing is a political will to make a difference. We have weak unions that froth at
the mouth every time there
?s a challenger to the Democratic Party from the outside, and
doesn
?t believe an ?outside? even exists as a possibility for real change. Would a
teachers
? union ever endorse a candidate from another party that says reverse the
budget for education and the military? Regardless of whether that candidate could win,
the union is unlikely to back it, if it is not a Democrat.
Lastly, teachers need to be the vanguard of a new political party. Whether it be a Labor
Party or something else, it must break away from the established party that has neither
the principles or backbone to stand up for what
?s needed in our schools today. The
teachers unions, like many, have been under the thumb of the Democratic Party for so
long it thinks it
?s part of the hand. (5)
(1)
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/education/balmd.
marykay14mar14,0,4270416.story
(2)
epi.3cdn.net/bb997c612d96e34be7_svm6bhj0f.pdf
(3)
http://online.wsj.com/article/
SB10001424052748704869304575109443305343962.html
(4)
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/2/11/charter_roundtable
(5)
http://dissidentvoice.org/2008/12/time-for-a-real-labor-party/
About the Author
Myles B. Hoenig is a veteran ESL teacher in Maryland. He has served in educational
leadership positions as President of Maryland TESOL,as local co-chair for the
International TESOL Convention in Baltimore in 2003 and Chair Elect for Secondary
Schools Interest Section of TESOL (2010-2011). Mr. Hoenig's concerns have often
focused on the 'human' side of teaching through his work with teachers' unions and
advocacy within his affiliate.
Myles B. Hoenig
March 14, 2010
It is reported in an exclusive article in The Baltimore Sun that a principal last year in a
Baltimore City high school had signed teachers in her school to sell Mary Kay products.
(1) As unbelievable as this is, what makes
matters worse is that these exploited teachers were some of the 600 or so Filipino
teachers working for this system. In their culture, when asked by a boss to do
something, it is expected that a subordinate will comply. In this case, the threat of not
renewing a visa could have hung in the balance as well. As of the release of the article,
nearly a year later, the principal has remained on the job and receives a paycheck.
A
?failing? Rhode Island high school is firing its staff due to the poor performances of its
students. This gets a big thumbs up from Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and
President Obama.
Kansas City, Missouri is closing half of its schools due to similarly poor performing
schools.
In all these cases, the teachers are either the scapegoats, or at the mercy, and the
financial mercy, of their principals or their school districts. With public sentiment against
teachers in general, there is little chance that they can fight this in the public arena. We
all hear people say when told that an individual is a teacher, “I give you a lot of credit. I
could never do that.” And, oh, by the way,
It?s your fault that the schools are in such poor shape.”
Why are things so bad for teachers and other educational professionals? We have one
of the best higher educational system in the world but our K-12 lags far behind others in
spending. (2) What is the culture that creates a broken system yet blames its victims or
those fighting overwhelming odds against them to change it?
In a large part, it'
s the unions to blame. Not because they are perceived as always
coming to the defense of poor teachers or demand too many days off or whatever else
the public sees as to why they are an obstruction to their child'
s education. The
problem with the unions is that they keep endorsing, and working for, the very
legislators that keep their school systems in shambles.
Nearly a trillion dollars has been allocated for two illegal wars of aggression in Iraq and
Afghanistan. Nearly a trillion dollars is allocated for a bloated military budget, without
debate, and almost unanimously. And, nearly a trillion dollars is spent bailing out banks
and Wall Street investment houses that have only themselves in mind and are not
required to be held accountable for how the money is spent. Soon they will be bailing
out the health insurance industry to who knows how many billions. Money certainly
doesn
?t solve all problems but with the schools we need more teachers for smaller
classes, school buildings for the 21st century, (including toilet paper in all the
bathrooms); schools with libraries that have books, computers and librarians; computers
available for all students; etc. Both parties are complicit in denying the needed funds.
They are much to blame for our schools
? demise yet it?s the teachers who are the first to
be blamed.
Nearly $70 billion is allocated to the Department of Education, a trifling number
compared to what we throw away on the military and our imperial ambitions abroad. Ten
times that much has gone to the banks. This $70 billion isn'
t just for K-12 but for all
aspects of federal money to education.
We have a Congress, both Democrat and Republican, and presidents, of both parties,
that stand behind No Child Left Behind. Sounds good but sees education in simple
numbers. What was made up in excessive testing of language and math skills was lost
in the skills taught for the humanities; those subjects that truly rounds out an individual
in their earliest stages of education. “
Because the law demanded progress only in reading and math, schools were incentivized to show gains only on those subjects. Hundreds of millions
of dollars were invested in test-preparation materials. Meanwhile, there was no incentive to teach
the arts, science, history, literature, geography, civics, foreign languages or physical
education.” (3)
We see with the politics of education that teachers are easy targets. They are often
contractually bound not to fight for real reform. A teachers
? strike often results in a quick
decertification of the union. Our elected officials prefer the slow death of unions, through
charter schools.
Our leaders also believe in the creation of a numbers-crunching principal class as a way
of reducing the role, and to deny the experience, of a teaching staff. How many
principals out there have minimal teaching experience yet stand in
?professional? judgment of teachers experienced enough to have theoretically been their grade school
teachers? They come from all fields and not necessarily from the field of education.
With foundations like Gates
and others churning out charter school principals with
insulting salaries we see the role of the teacher being reduced to peonage status. (4)
Teachers need to take over their schools and set the priorities. It is the teachers, and
usually those who have been at the same school for years, who know what works and
what doesn
?t. Principals come and go with the wind. Their short term investment does
not serve the long term goals of the schools. Principals should be there to help manage
the resources.
What
?s missing is a political will to make a difference. We have weak unions that froth at
the mouth every time there
?s a challenger to the Democratic Party from the outside, and
doesn
?t believe an ?outside? even exists as a possibility for real change. Would a
teachers
? union ever endorse a candidate from another party that says reverse the
budget for education and the military? Regardless of whether that candidate could win,
the union is unlikely to back it, if it is not a Democrat.
Lastly, teachers need to be the vanguard of a new political party. Whether it be a Labor
Party or something else, it must break away from the established party that has neither
the principles or backbone to stand up for what
?s needed in our schools today. The
teachers unions, like many, have been under the thumb of the Democratic Party for so
long it thinks it
?s part of the hand. (5)
(1)
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/education/balmd.
marykay14mar14,0,4270416.story
(2)
epi.3cdn.net/bb997c612d96e34be7_svm6bhj0f.pdf
(3)
http://online.wsj.com/article/
SB10001424052748704869304575109443305343962.html
(4)
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/2/11/charter_roundtable
(5)
http://dissidentvoice.org/2008/12/time-for-a-real-labor-party/
About the Author
Myles B. Hoenig is a veteran ESL teacher in Maryland. He has served in educational
leadership positions as President of Maryland TESOL,as local co-chair for the
International TESOL Convention in Baltimore in 2003 and Chair Elect for Secondary
Schools Interest Section of TESOL (2010-2011). Mr. Hoenig's concerns have often
focused on the 'human' side of teaching through his work with teachers' unions and
advocacy within his affiliate.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Rudolph Flesch's Message Is Still Crucial
"Why Johnny Can't Read" was published 55 years ago. It remains a vital, relevant document and will, i believe, be ranked as one of the most important non-fiction books of the 20th century.
Here's the main reason. The Education Establishment CONTINUES to promote all the counter-productive ideas that Flesch condemned. Sight-words, in short, are why Johnny can't read.
I've been conducting my own 55th anniversary celebration of Flesch's great achievement. (Remember, he went up against the entire Education Establishment, which was solidly entrenched in 1955 and uniformly hostile to even a whisper about phonics.)
I published several articles that might be of interest to anyone who wants to know what exactly Flesch is all about.
"Rudolph Flesch Rules the World of Reading" is somewhat longer, about 900 words. But it has a great quote from a sight-word teacher who doesn't even realize that her students can't read BECAUSE of sight-words (on CanadaFreePress). (There's a video on YouTube with same title.)
"Rudolph Flesch: Facts, Fluency & Felicity vs. Fossils, Felony & Failure" is somewhat snappier, at 600 words (on AmericanChronicles).
...
Both articles try to explain our continuing debt to the great Rudolph Flesch. If our schools had been allowed to do what Flesh suggested, I suspect we'd have almost 50,000,000 fewer functional illiterates.
Saving reading is, I think, the main job of anyone trying to help American education.
Here's the main reason. The Education Establishment CONTINUES to promote all the counter-productive ideas that Flesch condemned. Sight-words, in short, are why Johnny can't read.
I've been conducting my own 55th anniversary celebration of Flesch's great achievement. (Remember, he went up against the entire Education Establishment, which was solidly entrenched in 1955 and uniformly hostile to even a whisper about phonics.)
I published several articles that might be of interest to anyone who wants to know what exactly Flesch is all about.
"Rudolph Flesch Rules the World of Reading" is somewhat longer, about 900 words. But it has a great quote from a sight-word teacher who doesn't even realize that her students can't read BECAUSE of sight-words (on CanadaFreePress). (There's a video on YouTube with same title.)
"Rudolph Flesch: Facts, Fluency & Felicity vs. Fossils, Felony & Failure" is somewhat snappier, at 600 words (on AmericanChronicles).
...
Both articles try to explain our continuing debt to the great Rudolph Flesch. If our schools had been allowed to do what Flesh suggested, I suspect we'd have almost 50,000,000 fewer functional illiterates.
Saving reading is, I think, the main job of anyone trying to help American education.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
The Future of Educational Technology - Education 3.0
Thinking of what education might look like in the next decade, one quickly realizes that the trends in technology are leaving a large number of our students behind. We no longer live in an age of visible movement when it comes to progress and innovation. Today is an age of exponential change. New and ever-improving technologies are popping up every day and in every corner of society.
Educating the best and the brightest in this brave new world will take a new and improved educational paradigm. Allowing our educational tools to age in the corner of the classroom will be the mistake that may cost us our future. Throwing away masses of children to inequitable access will ensure that we languish at the bottom of the global pool of employable workers for decades to come.
The New Toolbox
I was at an auction a few years ago and noticed a few old woodworking tools that I thought I could use. For a few bucks, I was able to snag an assortment of hand tools that may have been in someone's toolbox for a generation or more. As the next decade passed, I used these tools in my shop for a wide variety of projects until my projects outgrew these old, dull tools. My woodworking creations continued to improve as did my skills and artistry. I quickly discovered that using improved tools would translate into improved craftsmanship. As any woodworker will tell you, new tools require new skills.
Woodworking is a great metaphor for shaping and molding students. There is simply no good substitute for a sharp tool. If you want to build the best projects possible, you need to use the best tools possible. Thinking in terms of the next decade for our country, we will be sorely disappointed in our projects if we fail to improve our tools.
Over the course of the next few days, I will attempt to paint a picture of how technology will shape the way we educate students in the next decade. I will attempt to show the amazing possibilities that lay before us if we will simply walk through the doorway of opportunity that is open to us.
My main focus in this series of articles will be this idea: Transforming the student from being a passenger to becoming a "user." You may be wondering what I mean by this. Let me explain.
Ask yourself what it means to be a "user." A user is not simply a person who uses. For the student, being a user should involve using the latest technology in a free and autonomous manner. This new-found freedom will allow the student to become an active participant in his/her education instead of a passive passenger. No other time in history have we been so able to make this a reality.
In our current technological society, being a user also means being tracked. Tracking has become a major part of our daily lives and is precisely the engine that should drive our educational process for the foreseeable future. Tracking a student means having the ability to target education toward weaknesses and strengths. The ability to accurately customize curriculum to the individual has been the holy grail of educational philosophy for many years. This golden age of technological development may soon enable this dream to become a reality.
Current educational curriculum and individual assessment is arbitrary at best. Being able to accurately asses a student can only be achieved by using modern tracking and database technologies. The means by which we can make this a reality is readily available and only needs to be taken off the shelf to be used. If Congress is looking for a shovel-ready project, this may be the one.
Imagine a world where every child has a tablet computer with ready access to the App of virtual photographic memory (internet). Further, imagine that every student can access all the knowledge of humankind freely at any moment in time. Continue to imagine a world where a misspelled word brings up a spelling challenge application instead of an auto correction. Try to contemplate what it would mean for a teacher to have a database of every misspelled word, every misunderstood concept or every missed equation for each of their students. Try to envision a teacher with the ability to customize the experience of the individual "user" with minimal effort. Imagine the curriculum being automatically targeted to the user through an intuitive educational platform that knows every strength and each unique weakness. I could go on, but I think you get the point.
The company that makes this standard available to the educational community will be the company that shapes the future of humankind. Will it be Google, Apple, Microsoft, or some other yet unknown pioneer?
Continuing from the thoughts in my last post, I would like to elaborate on the idea of the student as a user of a new standardized educational platform. It is obvious to me that the future of education will always mirror our everyday lives in one way or another. If you examine how technology has influenced your daily life already, you begin to put together a snapshot of what it will mean to be educated in the next decade.
In the last few hundred years, most individuals would consider an education as something you receive. You often hear the question asked, "Where did you receive your education?" As we proceed through the next decade, education will slowly move away from reception and toward being custom designed for the individual user. New technology will not only allow us to receive an education, but also develop an education. The question we might ask in 10 years is, "How did you develop your education?" The question of where will still be important, but the how of the matter will be the focus that defines the individual.
To make this a reality we will need a standardized platform from which to develop a student's unique education. This standardized platform will allow us to tailor a custom curriculum that will be matched to talents, interests and life goals. For the educator, a standardized platform will create a way to assist the student in discovering a true purpose in life through a unique educational experience. The basics of reading, writing and arithmetic will not be taught as much as they will be discovered and used. Learning will become a reciprocal experience between the teacher, the student and the machine.
Under a standardized platform, each of these three participants will have a role to play. The teacher will be the facilitator, assisting the development of the curriculum and inspiring the direction the student takes. The student will be the user, gathering resources, skills and knowledge in an efficient and measured sequence. The machine will do the work of data gathering and analysis, which will assist the teacher and student in refining the curriculum. This data gathering work of the machine will also free the teacher from the burden of record-keeping and tedious tasks that currently distract from the real job of teaching and learning.
Under a standardized system, grade level will be far less important. Achievement and progression will be measured by accomplishment and intelligence as a benchmark for success. The question of failure or success will be irrelevant and replaced with a standard and consistent measurement of potential and overall intelligence. Information will no longer be missed but continually rehearsed and monitored for retention by the machine.
In our current educational paradigm, the teacher is in charge of arbitrarily constructing curriculum. This approach to curriculum development is based on inexperience in some cases, outdated materials, inadequate funding and a shortage of time. Measuring the success of a specific curriculum is currently impossible. With a standardized system, comparisons of curricular success can be made across the entire spectrum of education and then continually reformulated and enhanced by the machine.
Sadly, teachers today are bogged down with an assortment of mind-numbing tasks that would be better suited to an off-the-shelf automated system. Tasks such as data tracking, reporting and record keeping are currently accomplished manually. These tasks could easily be delegated to an intuitive database. Developing a standard to follow would eliminate these tasks and free the teacher to do their main job of teaching students.
Education 3.0
Throughout history, man has sought to pass on knowledge to the next generation. This process started with oral tradition, storytelling and writing. With the advent of the printing press, knowledge and information slowly became available to the masses. The amount of information that could be gained by one human in a lifetime was severely limited by his access to printed materials and wealth. The majority of learning was gained through observation and imitation. We can call this Education 1.0.
Education 2.0 starts around the late eighteen hundreds with universal literacy movements throughout newly industrialized regions of the world. Improvements in education slowly transitioned from apprenticeship to formal education and training. Despite our movements toward universal education, access to knowledge and opportunity continues to be inequitable throughout the world. Even with the arrival of the computer revolution, access to the tools of learning continues to define the learner.
The next decade may mark the moment in history when all men are granted equal access to the greatest treasure a soul can possess. I use the word may in the last sentence because there is the chance that we will miss this golden opportunity. Access to Education 3.0 will only be gained through investment and universal standardization. If we continue to divert wealth toward fruitless goals and corporate greed, this opportunity will be lost or hopelessly delayed.
Education 3.0, when it arrives, will be the age of universal enlightenment. Platforms for education and learning will slowly standardize and become globally accessible and affordable. The poorest to the wealthiest will have access to the machine that runs the platform.
The thought on your mind at this point is most likely wondering what machine I keep referring to. The machine in question is the one we have been so busy teaching and training since roughly 1969. You've probably guessed it by now that I am referring to the internet. The great cloud of knowledge that we call the internet is precisely the mechanism that we will use to build the platform of Education 3.0. When the platform is finally in place, the decade to follow will see the greatest amount of wealth, discoveries and use of human potential that we have witnessed during our time on this earth. The only question that remains to be answered is the point at which I will leave this series of articles.
When will we allow the user to use the machine to its potential?
About the Author
Stephen McClard has been the Director of Bands at Bolivar High School since 2002. Mr. McClard graduated from Southeast Missouri State University in 1990. He started his teaching career in Southeast Missouri before moving to Illinois where he taught band for 8 years.
In 2006, Mr. McClard was named by SBO Magazine as one of the 50 Directors Who Make a Difference. In 2006, 2008 and 2009, Bolivar RI School district was named one of the "Best 100 Communities for Music Education" in America by the American Music Conference. Mr. McClard was previously featured on the cover of the 2003 issue of SBO Magazine for his work with music technology.
His first book, The Superior Educator, A Calm and Assertive Approach to Classroom Management and Large Group Motivation, is due out in Early July, 2009 and will be available on Amazon as well as many other book outlets.
Educating the best and the brightest in this brave new world will take a new and improved educational paradigm. Allowing our educational tools to age in the corner of the classroom will be the mistake that may cost us our future. Throwing away masses of children to inequitable access will ensure that we languish at the bottom of the global pool of employable workers for decades to come.
The New Toolbox
I was at an auction a few years ago and noticed a few old woodworking tools that I thought I could use. For a few bucks, I was able to snag an assortment of hand tools that may have been in someone's toolbox for a generation or more. As the next decade passed, I used these tools in my shop for a wide variety of projects until my projects outgrew these old, dull tools. My woodworking creations continued to improve as did my skills and artistry. I quickly discovered that using improved tools would translate into improved craftsmanship. As any woodworker will tell you, new tools require new skills.
Woodworking is a great metaphor for shaping and molding students. There is simply no good substitute for a sharp tool. If you want to build the best projects possible, you need to use the best tools possible. Thinking in terms of the next decade for our country, we will be sorely disappointed in our projects if we fail to improve our tools.
Over the course of the next few days, I will attempt to paint a picture of how technology will shape the way we educate students in the next decade. I will attempt to show the amazing possibilities that lay before us if we will simply walk through the doorway of opportunity that is open to us.
My main focus in this series of articles will be this idea: Transforming the student from being a passenger to becoming a "user." You may be wondering what I mean by this. Let me explain.
Ask yourself what it means to be a "user." A user is not simply a person who uses. For the student, being a user should involve using the latest technology in a free and autonomous manner. This new-found freedom will allow the student to become an active participant in his/her education instead of a passive passenger. No other time in history have we been so able to make this a reality.
In our current technological society, being a user also means being tracked. Tracking has become a major part of our daily lives and is precisely the engine that should drive our educational process for the foreseeable future. Tracking a student means having the ability to target education toward weaknesses and strengths. The ability to accurately customize curriculum to the individual has been the holy grail of educational philosophy for many years. This golden age of technological development may soon enable this dream to become a reality.
Current educational curriculum and individual assessment is arbitrary at best. Being able to accurately asses a student can only be achieved by using modern tracking and database technologies. The means by which we can make this a reality is readily available and only needs to be taken off the shelf to be used. If Congress is looking for a shovel-ready project, this may be the one.
Imagine a world where every child has a tablet computer with ready access to the App of virtual photographic memory (internet). Further, imagine that every student can access all the knowledge of humankind freely at any moment in time. Continue to imagine a world where a misspelled word brings up a spelling challenge application instead of an auto correction. Try to contemplate what it would mean for a teacher to have a database of every misspelled word, every misunderstood concept or every missed equation for each of their students. Try to envision a teacher with the ability to customize the experience of the individual "user" with minimal effort. Imagine the curriculum being automatically targeted to the user through an intuitive educational platform that knows every strength and each unique weakness. I could go on, but I think you get the point.
The company that makes this standard available to the educational community will be the company that shapes the future of humankind. Will it be Google, Apple, Microsoft, or some other yet unknown pioneer?
Continuing from the thoughts in my last post, I would like to elaborate on the idea of the student as a user of a new standardized educational platform. It is obvious to me that the future of education will always mirror our everyday lives in one way or another. If you examine how technology has influenced your daily life already, you begin to put together a snapshot of what it will mean to be educated in the next decade.
In the last few hundred years, most individuals would consider an education as something you receive. You often hear the question asked, "Where did you receive your education?" As we proceed through the next decade, education will slowly move away from reception and toward being custom designed for the individual user. New technology will not only allow us to receive an education, but also develop an education. The question we might ask in 10 years is, "How did you develop your education?" The question of where will still be important, but the how of the matter will be the focus that defines the individual.
To make this a reality we will need a standardized platform from which to develop a student's unique education. This standardized platform will allow us to tailor a custom curriculum that will be matched to talents, interests and life goals. For the educator, a standardized platform will create a way to assist the student in discovering a true purpose in life through a unique educational experience. The basics of reading, writing and arithmetic will not be taught as much as they will be discovered and used. Learning will become a reciprocal experience between the teacher, the student and the machine.
Under a standardized platform, each of these three participants will have a role to play. The teacher will be the facilitator, assisting the development of the curriculum and inspiring the direction the student takes. The student will be the user, gathering resources, skills and knowledge in an efficient and measured sequence. The machine will do the work of data gathering and analysis, which will assist the teacher and student in refining the curriculum. This data gathering work of the machine will also free the teacher from the burden of record-keeping and tedious tasks that currently distract from the real job of teaching and learning.
Under a standardized system, grade level will be far less important. Achievement and progression will be measured by accomplishment and intelligence as a benchmark for success. The question of failure or success will be irrelevant and replaced with a standard and consistent measurement of potential and overall intelligence. Information will no longer be missed but continually rehearsed and monitored for retention by the machine.
In our current educational paradigm, the teacher is in charge of arbitrarily constructing curriculum. This approach to curriculum development is based on inexperience in some cases, outdated materials, inadequate funding and a shortage of time. Measuring the success of a specific curriculum is currently impossible. With a standardized system, comparisons of curricular success can be made across the entire spectrum of education and then continually reformulated and enhanced by the machine.
Sadly, teachers today are bogged down with an assortment of mind-numbing tasks that would be better suited to an off-the-shelf automated system. Tasks such as data tracking, reporting and record keeping are currently accomplished manually. These tasks could easily be delegated to an intuitive database. Developing a standard to follow would eliminate these tasks and free the teacher to do their main job of teaching students.
Education 3.0
Throughout history, man has sought to pass on knowledge to the next generation. This process started with oral tradition, storytelling and writing. With the advent of the printing press, knowledge and information slowly became available to the masses. The amount of information that could be gained by one human in a lifetime was severely limited by his access to printed materials and wealth. The majority of learning was gained through observation and imitation. We can call this Education 1.0.
Education 2.0 starts around the late eighteen hundreds with universal literacy movements throughout newly industrialized regions of the world. Improvements in education slowly transitioned from apprenticeship to formal education and training. Despite our movements toward universal education, access to knowledge and opportunity continues to be inequitable throughout the world. Even with the arrival of the computer revolution, access to the tools of learning continues to define the learner.
The next decade may mark the moment in history when all men are granted equal access to the greatest treasure a soul can possess. I use the word may in the last sentence because there is the chance that we will miss this golden opportunity. Access to Education 3.0 will only be gained through investment and universal standardization. If we continue to divert wealth toward fruitless goals and corporate greed, this opportunity will be lost or hopelessly delayed.
Education 3.0, when it arrives, will be the age of universal enlightenment. Platforms for education and learning will slowly standardize and become globally accessible and affordable. The poorest to the wealthiest will have access to the machine that runs the platform.
The thought on your mind at this point is most likely wondering what machine I keep referring to. The machine in question is the one we have been so busy teaching and training since roughly 1969. You've probably guessed it by now that I am referring to the internet. The great cloud of knowledge that we call the internet is precisely the mechanism that we will use to build the platform of Education 3.0. When the platform is finally in place, the decade to follow will see the greatest amount of wealth, discoveries and use of human potential that we have witnessed during our time on this earth. The only question that remains to be answered is the point at which I will leave this series of articles.
When will we allow the user to use the machine to its potential?
About the Author
Stephen McClard has been the Director of Bands at Bolivar High School since 2002. Mr. McClard graduated from Southeast Missouri State University in 1990. He started his teaching career in Southeast Missouri before moving to Illinois where he taught band for 8 years.
In 2006, Mr. McClard was named by SBO Magazine as one of the 50 Directors Who Make a Difference. In 2006, 2008 and 2009, Bolivar RI School district was named one of the "Best 100 Communities for Music Education" in America by the American Music Conference. Mr. McClard was previously featured on the cover of the 2003 issue of SBO Magazine for his work with music technology.
His first book, The Superior Educator, A Calm and Assertive Approach to Classroom Management and Large Group Motivation, is due out in Early July, 2009 and will be available on Amazon as well as many other book outlets.
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