Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Managing Conflicts and Solving Problems/Researching and Teaching Today's Adolescents-Tomorrow!

Answer the questions

posted by Barney Slowey at 6:42 PM

2 Comments:

Blogger Barney Slowey said...

Hi all...this is only my second class online and I find it difficult to figure out when I should give some of my thoughts and when i should just let you share...So I decided this time to let you all get some of your ideas out and then give some general comments...so here goes...I have been an avid participant in the whole brain research thing for about 15 years and because most of the books on this have been written in that time I have found it fascinating when it comes time to bring it into the classroom...Here is an exercise I do in every class, inservice or other staff development workshop I present..I ask you to think of the thing you most like to do outside of your job...how did you learn to like it, anybody help you, etc...then I have them share it (also a great way to get to know the people you are working with, students included)...Then I really talk about learning...I don't think many of us learned it out of a textbook...we learned it because we had a choice, it was interesting to us and relevant to our lives, there was physical activity and much emotional buy in, and finally we reflected often on what we were doing and as a result improved...Those are the 6 ingredients that the brain people say have to be in every one of our lessons in order to learn...Learning is taking the knowledge we have and applying it ...so often in schools we just dispense the knowledge and as a result we don't know what a dangling participle is, how to figure out the square footage of our house, or what our return will be on our investments...even though we probably passed a test on it when we went to school...Someone smater than me once said to compose a test so that if it were taken a year from now everyone would still be able to get the right answers...I demand of my college freshmen a demonstration of learning where they can explain to me what they learned and I know that they know...If I stand and talk all hour the only person that is learning is me...we need to turn over learning to the students and become facilitators of learning...We are in essence learning environmentalists
...creating the learning environment in our classrooms is so important and basically thats why I chose the two books you are reading because I think they make you think of that...6 KEY QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF...1 What are you teaching?...2Why are you teaching that?...3How are you teaching it?...4Why are you teaching it that way?...5How do you know the kids are getting it?...6How do the kids know they are getting it?...It's why the multiple intelligence approach to teaching is so important...How can we fail a student if they have not been taught in their strong intelligence?...unless they refuse to give any effort...I'd like you to think about homework...why do we give it?...Heere's a real life example...My wife and i have 2 Masters degrees plus...We have a 16 year old daughter at home yet and I remember around 5th grade (middle school, 7 or 8 subjects) and our house turned into a war zone...one semester we counted over 200 worksheets came home with throw away information...I didn't know what the instructions were from the teacher and later I ran out of math problems I knew how to do...fortunately my wife was more well versed in math and could help...but it was a battle everynight and all the teachers felt compelled to give homework so we would average 2-3 hours a night...and again it was usually inane assignments...I had learned in my 7th year of teaching not to give any homework unless it was something that involved the student going on a ride along with the police or interviewing grandma about the depression, etc...If I am the professional then I believe I should be teaching the student and if it was important to their learning then it should be done in my room with me orchestrating it...My last stop was principal in a middle school and we went to a block schedule which was very successful...We virtually eliminated homework except the kind I suggested above...I had some parents( the elitest in most cases) come in early in the year complaining that there kids weren't getting any homework and after I explained our philosophy, I always added that if they wanted to have their student have homework I could arrange for it but that i wouldn't impose it on anyone else...that usually ended the conversation and in our evaluation at the end of the year 98%of the parents and kids listed that as their top reason for liking the system...Remember also that not every child goes home to a place where there are 2 Masters degrees and even if they do so what...think about it...now some indiviual comments...I sent Ana, Jeanette, and Dan some information on MI and Brain base stuff...Betty if you want it let me know...if you have questions call or email me...Ana, I think it was you that wanted to know more about Betty's Peace curriculum and because she is finished with the course I don't know if she will sign on again so her email is stlouisschool@ncis.net...Dan, I like your ideas for writing in math...they did some big time research in southeastern Wisconsin with what they called 90-90-90 schools...90%free lunch, 90%minority, and 90%proficient on state tests...I'm not a proponent of testing but it showed that the one thing all schools did to raise their scores was everyone including band and pe had their kids write for 20 minutes a week...Jeanette, I have done an exercise that addresses put downs and other nasty comments...cut out a heart thats pretty good size and have kids give insults that they hear others saying to their classmates and wrinkle the heart a little at a time until you have it in a ball...then have them give compliments until you have the heart up again...note with them how you can still see the scars in the heart...I have done this all the way up to adults...I have classmates that graduated with my class that never come to reunions...I wonder why "Stinky" never comes?...enough of the saop box...what do you think?...Thanks for reading...Barney

9:19 AM  
Blogger Barney Slowey said...

PS...We also have introduced Restorative Justice Practices in our schools in Barron County and one middle school threw out their demerits,detentions,etc and their suspensions went from over 100 to 3 in one year...Of course the teachers bought in and thats why it works...If you want more information let me know...Barney

9:22 AM  

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