I come from a line of teachers. My dad was an English teacher for over 30 years and my brother is currently a teacher like I am. Therefore, my family and I have lots of "philosophical" (if you can call them that) conversations about education today.
My brother works at a charter school in Florida. He was telling me a story about breaking up a fight between two young ladies at his school. A cop had to be present because of the background of one of the young ladies and the other young lady was in and out of school all year from suspensions, etc.
That spurred my brother and I on a very important question, "Why do we HAVE to provide these students with an education?"
Please do not get me wrong, I fully believe in turning a new leaf and students coming back from things like juvenile correctional facilities having learned their lesson. However, I have a student who is 17, has no hope of graduating even if he passes every class this year, and yet he is still in my classroom. He disrupts the learning environment, distracts others, in blatantly disobedient... so why can't we say "you have lost the privilege of getting a free education"?
Many conversations talk about what other countries are doing better. It's simple. They are holding their students/children accountable. If a student is not appreciative of their current educational surroundings they are gone - where as our system gives them plenty of ways to get around rules and through loopholes. We keep students in the education system even if they've been suspended in the double digits AND cause trouble in our schools. Even the students who don't "cause trouble" are lazy because they know if they cry to mommy and daddy about their grades that their teacher will give them 5,000 ways to make up their grade! And if the teacher doesn't (i've tried that) they get chastised for it.
What's wrong with our education system? Lack of accountability. Plain and simple. If I show up late to my job more than a few times - i'm fired. Why is school not the same? If I don't turn in my project for work on time - I'm punished and possibly fired if it happens again. Why is school not the same? If I get arrested, it is pretty impossible to find a job after that. Why is school not the same?
Saturday, November 29, 2014
Monday, November 3, 2014
Monday November 3rd, 2014
The time has come to fill you guys in on the gaming experiment/project my class was a part of! If you were not following my older blogs, my math classes as well as others in my building tested the effectiveness of a computer programming game that also taught math in comparison to a traditional way of teaching (we used IXL as "traditional"). These are unofficial results that have not been published yet and therefore I can't be too specific and can only paraphrase, but I'll do my best!
One observation was that boys and girls were both equally engaged in the program. I initially thought that this would be a pretty obvious observation, however the facilitator of the results mentioned that because of the programming aspect of the game itself, they were thinking males would have more engagement. I'm glad to hear it was equal. This could be something to encourage more women in the math and science fields of engineering and computer programming!
Another observation was that the game had a greater learning impact on the lower level of students. (By lower level I mean the students in the earlier course offered at the school). This made a lot of sense to me because the higher class that we used had already learned that particular math concept so I expected the other group to show more growth.
This last observation is one that I will primarily focus on. Of all the sub-groups, boys from primarily spanish-speaking households had the MOST engagement on the game, and the LEAST engagement on the traditional track. I wonder why that is? The game was progressive and went step by step like any normal lesson would. In fact, I actually found it more difficult than some of the progressions I ask for in class. So I wonder why his particular subgroup needs more engagement? What is their lifestyles makes them require more interactivity and realness?
Something to think about...
One observation was that boys and girls were both equally engaged in the program. I initially thought that this would be a pretty obvious observation, however the facilitator of the results mentioned that because of the programming aspect of the game itself, they were thinking males would have more engagement. I'm glad to hear it was equal. This could be something to encourage more women in the math and science fields of engineering and computer programming!
Another observation was that the game had a greater learning impact on the lower level of students. (By lower level I mean the students in the earlier course offered at the school). This made a lot of sense to me because the higher class that we used had already learned that particular math concept so I expected the other group to show more growth.
This last observation is one that I will primarily focus on. Of all the sub-groups, boys from primarily spanish-speaking households had the MOST engagement on the game, and the LEAST engagement on the traditional track. I wonder why that is? The game was progressive and went step by step like any normal lesson would. In fact, I actually found it more difficult than some of the progressions I ask for in class. So I wonder why his particular subgroup needs more engagement? What is their lifestyles makes them require more interactivity and realness?
Something to think about...
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