Article Review
After reading the excerpt from Leo Buscaglia's book Living, Loving, Learning please reflect on your thoughts and feelings.
(This article has been emailed to you)
The following questions were created to be thought provoking:
( you do not have to answer them all but they may aid you in your responses/reflections)
1) What were some of the AHA's (ideas that stood out to you) that you encountered?
2) How can you utilize this information in your classroom?
3) Do you feel/think that this excerpt from the 1970's is still true today?
4) Please comment on one other course members comments
**Click on comments to read and leave your personal ideas**
10 comments:
The AHA that stood out for me was the statement, "As an individual,you must not be satisfied with just becoming like everybody else. You must think for yourself." For classroom use it is important to constantly be aware of particular student's strengths and struggles and make modifications. I do think some of this is true today. I find some students, particularly in Social Studies, are afraid to make comments for fear of being wrong.
The idea that stood out to me was the part where the art teacher was expecting everyone in the class to draw exactly the same tree she drew. It seems to me that the teacher expected no creativity on the part of the student. As long as the student drew exactly what she drew, the drawing was right or acceptble.
People learn and see things in different ways. Not everybody is the same. What works for a student does not necessarily work for another. Different ways of presenting the information should be introduced in your classroom. Students need variety and choices. Students need to see, hear, and/or manipulate the information. Nobody learns in the same way every time. It even varies from academic subject to academic subject.
In regard to the comment made by Sue Shea about students being afraid of making comments for fear of being wrong, I agree with her. Many times as a student, I did not feel comfortable making any kind of comments.
In general, I also think that teachers teach in similar ways as they were taught, or in ways that they learn best.
The story about the animals really made me think. The idea that stood out was the fact that the animals had to learn something that doesn't pertain to them in order to learn to be disciplined. Why do all students need to learn the same material?? Does a brilliant writer really need to know trigonometry? This is very true in the world today. We have to prepare students for state tests and they need to meet certain criteria in order to advance to the next level. I agree with Sue that we need to be aware of strengths and weaknesses and make modifications. I will remember the story of the animals and I will always see my students as individuals and make modifications when needed.
Sandy said...
At Kindergarten level, I let the kids explore their world in many areas. They still have to learn the materials but we use many varieties of explorations.
The students also learn who is good at what. I use this as a teachable time where the kids go and help teach others their skills too. It is good for the children to teach others things too. They may be able to get the message across in another way other than how I try it. They are usually like cheerleaders for each other with encouragement and praise....they follow the teachers examples. So, it is a teachable moment for all of us. They do follow examples but expand on it too.
The AHA's that stood out were that I see this occur more in high school and college level classes/courses where we and students are expected to give the instructors the answers they desire. I have found this to be true with my own children in high school, and also in some courses that I have taken. The instructors want to hear only their views given back. I have even told my own children that with some instructors will grade you on how you respond to their views...not yours.
Sad to say, but there still are instructors out that only want to hear their views given back to them. I don't see this view as widespread as it was it was in the 70's but it still is present!
I agree with Mari that we need to see each child as an individual and make modifications as needed.
An idea that stood out to me from the article was similar to what stood out for Mari Z.; expecting students to master something just because it is "good intellectual and emotional discipline" seems counterintuitive to maximizing their potential in their areas of strength. However, I do believe that it is important to have a well-rounded education for all students that touches on different subjects, similar to the liberal arts educations some colleges require. Expecting perfection in all disciplines, though, doesn't take account for a deeper focus on the individual talents and passions that make all of us great at specific things.
Even though this excerpt is from the 1970s, the message still rings true today, and, I believe, even more so now. The students we are educating will become part of a different kind of society than we know. Technology will continue to increase and our world is becoming more and more interconnected. Therefore, I think there is even more incentive to encourage creativity, innovation, and problem solving from our students so they can reach their goals. I try to encourage this in my classroom as much as possible and feel strongly about igniting and nurturing ingenuity and originality among students.
Like Sue noted, knowing our students as individuals and understanding their strengths/challenges allows me to make modifications appropriate for my students. For me, this can be tricky while balancing the load of teaching all subjects. I'm fortunate to work on a team of seven other teachers in the same grade level, and I appreciate their insight and tips.
I thought the Buscaglia excerpt was quite interesting. The AHA that stood out the most to me was the story of the animals and how they had to take all of the courses. There is no possible way that each of them could learn everything (such as the rabbit learning to fly). We see situations such as this every day in our schools. There are many teachers that have unrealistic expectations for their students.
Most students learn in different ways. Each and every one of them need choices given to them on how and what they need to know/learn.
I agree with Sue that we as educators need to take our student's strengths and weaknesses into account and teach accordingly. As I mentioned earlier, I don't think that all children learn the same way and I think all teachers need to realize this.
The thing about this article that caught my attention was how a complicated educational issue became so obvious with a simple animal story.
I agree with Andrea that a well rounded education is important because it gives our students a variety of experiences.
We have many teachers on staff who push their students to think for themselves, but some students are still fearful of giving the wrong answer. We have to keep nudging them in that direction.
The idea that me me think was how this story can be related to math. Sometimes you want students to solve a problem a certain way by using a formula. In 6th grade math we practice solving similiar problems with the same formulas. But at other times you want students to become more "critical thinkers" to find their own method to solve problems. For instance like at a math meet when there are no formulas given.
There does need to be a balance of working together as a class and working more as an individual. In the end as a math teacher I want my students to have the basic skills to be successful but yet have the ability to think outside of the box . Becasue this ability to think outside of the box is what will help them get and maintain a job in this ever changing world.
Two concepts stood out to me in this story. First, we need to be careful to avoid giving high marks for the mere regurgitation of the facts. The assignment to reproduce "my" tree was an assignment of regurgitation. Idealy, students should know about and understand trees. Then, armed with that information they should draw thier interpertation of the tree. In this way we can check for understanding not just memorization.
The second concept that stood out was the ability to think outside the box. In my field of Industrial Technology people are paid a great deal of money to think outside the box and create new products, processes and materials. Here is a recent example. I have a colleauge that works in paper sales. He sells a product that can be printed on and stuck to the side of commercial buses. This is the paper that advertisments are often printed on. One of the advantages of this paper is that it has millions of small holes in it so that the passengers inside the bus may see out the windows whil those outside the bus see the advertisement. While selling paper to a distributor in Texas the client was talking about the problem of a great number birds flying into the windows in the area. It had become quite a problem for local residents. My colleauge said "I have this material for busses. It comes in plain white or we can print any color on it you want. If you placed it on your window it would make the window visible to the birds whil allowing the home owner to still see outside." The rest is history. He has created a new market for an existing product.
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