Week '7'

What have people said that's interesting?

“You get more with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone.”

-Al Capone

          Bear with me; I'm not saying classroom threats are the way to take this. I had a teacher a while back that wanted anything but to be that resented, hated, strict teacher, so she dove in the opposite direction and was probably the sweetest teacher I'll ever know, but not the best teacher. See, she had a problem getting kids to turn work in on time, and she couldn't figure out why her reminders weren't encouraging them much. Well, that's because her reminders were less 'this HAS to be turned in by next Friday, okay? Let me see it before then' and were more 'it'd be really cool if you could get this to me as really fast, ok?' As you could imagine, most kids smiled, said 'sure,' and went on their way ignoring what they were told to do. She gave them too much slack and it made them not respect her deadlines. Years later I saw her again and she's gotten a bit better, giving penalties for late work, but she also gave her students the opportunity to say, at any time, 'I need another day,' and, no excuses, she'd give it to them because she 'understood' that life happens. I think she was a bit too understanding. Teachers can be nice, but they really also have to give kids reason to want to turn in work and respect what they tell them. Cool? Cool.

What's happening in education?

http://www.educationnews.org/k-12-schools/4-school-houses-its-not-hogwarts-its-danville-kentucky/     

          Educationnews.org's Julia Lawrence reports that a school in Danville, Kentucky is trying a new education strategy for its freshmen highschoolers that crosses a bit into J. K. Rowling's fantastic world of Hogwarts Houses. At Danville, however, the seperated class communities are labeled less like Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw and more like the Tech house and the Arts house. Students are being dissected into 100 person groups categorized by career interest in an attempt to help its lower income populace transition into highschool's expectations and social stress. I, personally, love the idea. Apparently Danville students do, as well, because the technique seems to be working. Attendance rates have gone up, graduation rates have gone up, and dropout rates have took a plummeted. It would be so cool starting out highschool with peers that have the same passions as you, and, I imagine, it's very inspiring and encouraging, as well!  

And what have I learned this weak?

          My spectacular teacher cadet class has been exploring children with 'barriers,' whether they be disabilities or abuse or labels, all week, and what has really astounded me is the methods people have made to put 'regular' people into the barriered perspective. It's truly eye opening, the difficulties some kids are born with, and in a video we watched, participants were dumbfounded at how arduous a task as overlooked as reading or writing became. What was more shocking was when the instructor in the video showed the studying class of therapists and parents a picture of a skull and asked them to title it. One woman he called on gave the title 'Death Stalker' and the instructor became extremely upset, spouting that she was wrong and not explaining why as though she were idiotic for not knowing. He enlarged the picture and it turned out to be an illusion; a woman was looking at herself in the mirror and it appeared, at a distance, to be a skull. He explained that a teacher could be astounded and angered at a title like 'Death Stalker' made for a woman looking at herself, and that the perspective of impaired children can be confusing to them because people react without being fully aware of their reasoning. I don't know. The power of stepping into their reality for a few activities amazed me, and it was so easy to understand their hardships so much better. As a whole I would encourage taking steps to understand what those around you could be going through or seeing things through. Perspective is a powerful game changer.