The Magic 8 Ball says... you have sufficiently learned due to your completion of 8

In my book I read for class this semester I learned many things, one of them coming from the following question. "Is it possible that compelling people to do something guarantees that they will do it poorly, with a bad will, or indifferently?" (pg. 84 John Gatto, Dumbing Us Down).

I think it is more than possible, in fact it is likely that compelling people (students) to do something (blogs) guarantees that in most cases they will be done, to borrow from Gatto, "poorly, with a bad will, or indifferently" (84).

The point of blogging? People who blog get a kick out of it, they enjoy the conversations with people and get riled up about the causes! Blogging becomes interesting when the writer is passionate about the topic. The typical blogger blogs because they are fired up!

Blogging for the purpose of blogging almost defeats the purpose. Without passion and interest, a blog is nothing but the indifferent ramblings, and honestly, who wants to read that?

This is not to say that blogging has no place, I just think that having 8 or 10 or 2 blogs should be insignificant. The value is lost when it becomes how many blogs there are as opposed to the content. Are not 2 insightful blogs equal to 8 blogs written with indifference?

To close, this blog # 8, I want to question how education aims to educate students through compelling them to do things. Are we giving up valuable learning to have 4 papers and 8 blogs on the record? If intrinsic motivation and life-long learning are our goals, we are not accomplishing them through these means.

I leave this blog #8 with this question. Is it possible, if we stop compelling students to do something, it guarantees that when they are ready they will do activities greatly, with a good will, and great care and concern for their own learning?

Talking to each other

I think one of the biggest problems, and also one of the easiest to fix, is not talking to other people. In education especially, it seems that conversation is one of our biggest failings. Why?

Today, I had a conversation with my piano teacher. We talked about the studio's seminar time and how it was used. I voiced an opinion about really enjoying an activity we did one night, and that got the conversation rolling! Within 10 min. we had a whole new plan for seminar next semester. Now, is it perfect? I hardly think so, but it's a starting point! Why did it take so long to get going?

I can't help but think how our seminar would be different if I would have started this conversation by mentioning my opinion sooner. Why don't we mention our opinions?

We have these things called evaluations that are basically obsolete because... no one reads them! If we are really in the business of improving and learning, talking to each other is one of the most important aspects of this learning process!!

It was amazing to me how far we advanced in a simple 10 min. conversation. I felt like we each understood each other a little more and we got excited to try some new ideas. Now, what bout my lesson? I just missed out on 10 min. of piano instruction right? Wrong. This was part of my instruction, talking with my professor in order to come to a deeper understanding of piano and how to work as a seminar group to improve. Why isn't all teaching like this? Why can't we realize when it's necessary to stop following schedules and bells and rules just because a piece of paper or a clock tells us to? If we would just stop following the path and for a few minutes step off and talk about it, I think we would all be a lot happier.

Juicy Juice

Today I had to bring a snack to class to represent my philosophy of education in some way. I chose to bring in a bottle of juice. I'm sure the popular slogan, 100% Juice for 100% kids is just running over and over in your brain right now! And well, I guess these guys have a point.


My idea is that juice represents the teacher. There are many different kinds of juice, apple, orange, grape, kiwi, etc. There are also many different types of teachers. So, the thing about juice, is that it usually is not drunk directly from the bottle: it has to be poured. But into what? This is where the students come in. The teachers can pour(teach) their knowledge to many different students, but the students are all different. They come in different cups(or shapes or sizes). These cups affects the way the juice(the knowledge) is looked at in the future, or absorbed by the students. For instance some cups may have straws, so the juice is only absorbed a small bit at a time, while others may be huge and take in a bunch of knowledge all at once.

In essence, what I'm trying to say is that my philosophy of education involves acknowledgment of many different students. It is important to realize that every student receives and uses information differently, even if it comes from the same source.

Like the slogan says, Juice is for 100% of kids, just maybe not in equal ways or amounts.

Skype: The future of education?

Towards the end of this semester in Paideia we have had a few classes that involve skype calls. I couldn't help but think, is this the future of education?

How can this technology change our schools? We now have access to teachers literally anywhere in the world. And, not only can we communicate with them, we can SEE them! For me these two skype conversations were some of the most interesting days I had in Paideia 2.

Most recently we skyped with Luther grads who are teaching abroad in places around the world. My group discussed music and philosophy of education with a teacher in Seoul, Korea. We learned about why she decided to go abroad and how her experience has been in a different country. What this opportunity gave me though, was an insight into the real world. I was sitting in my classroom at Luther college, but hearing from people who are 'out there'. She was in the real world, Teaching!

Upon some simple follow-up research, I learned it is possible to connect with other classrooms through websites using skype. ePALS is one such organization of classrooms. Visit ePALS here to find out more. However, it is always valuable to use this tool on a local basis as well to connect with other schools in your area.

The following is a list I found on how students can use skype in the classroom.
From: http://novemberlearning.com/resources/handouts/using-skype/

Using Skype With Students

• Have foreign language students participate in Skype conversations with students from other countries.
• Allow students who are working on a collaborative project participate in a conference call from various locations.
• Use Skype to exchange documents with project partners.
• Have students present their work to an authentic audience, for example, presentations to other classrooms around the world or professionals in their community.
• Let parents listen in on their child’s presentation.
• Try setting up interviews with an author whose book your class is reading. Send an invitation to the author inviting him to join Skype and talk to your class.
• Invite a guest speaker to talk to your class via Skype.

This possibility of using skype as a learning tool still needs to be explored, but I find the idea very intriguing and I think skype will be a learning tool in most classrooms of the future!

Put on the Brakes

I had a presentation last semester at Luther about motivation. There are different kinds of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic. I think most of us can guess what those mean. Intrinsic, is internal motivation, extrinsic is external motivation. Duh?! TIME magazine recently published a story about paying students to succeed in classrooms. I think this idea is preposterous! One of the problems with our schools is in fact that students are unmotivated. I am not denying that fact. However, the way to fix this problem is not through monetary, extrinsic motivation.

Think about it. What information do you remember from school as a child? Was it the useless facts drilled into your head? Or was it the time on the playground when you discovered worms with your friends so you decided to dig some up and bring them to your teacher? I'm willing to bet it was the second option, or some similar situation. By starting education so vigorously so early in life, I believe we are causing students to lose the ambition to learn.

If we could only put on the brakes for a few more years and give students the opportunity to WANT to learn, I think we could be doing a huge favor for all future students. As my class heard in a homeschooling presentation, students can learn 'basic' information very quickly if it is presented at the right time. This allows them more time to explore what they want to learn about.

If as educators we want to promote life-long learning, then learning should be on the students terms. Intrinsic motivation should be the key. If a student doesn't want to learn. Don't force them to. Once they get bored of video games and television, they may just start to seek information on their own. Then is the time to act. We need to stop forcing education, stop paying children to act like we want them to, and foster that intrinsic motivation that is sadly lacking in our country.

If we can accomplish this, students will no longer be dreading school and looking forward to summer, but will use their time to learn more. Simply because they will be intrinsically motivated to learn on their own in ways that suit them.

When necessary, move on.

I think this a question that gets asked too often, and never answered enough. Or if it is answered, the answers are too numerous to count. And then, because they are so numerous, it is almost impossible to come up with a solution.

I do not think that there is a single answer to this question. There are many answers, and therefore many solutions. This means there is not one single solution. And I think that politicians are searching for the one catch all solution to this ever present question.

We have to realize that there is not one solution, there are many solutions, and in order to make things better, something has to happen. I'm reading a book right now about questioning everything, and although it has to do mainly with religious ideas, I think this idea is transferable to any situation "When necessary, move on" (The Sacredness of Questioning Everyting-David Dark).

In education we have reached a point where we need to move on. Enough talking, and complaining. It is necessary for us to do something, to try something, and if that isn't the right solution, then we move on again. We need to stop beating the dead horse and move forward. If we never move on, we will constantly stand still, and that is not fun for anyone involved.

Where to begin?

It seems as if recently I've been bombarded with information, readings, and media about how unequal the United States schooling system is. I've read about Indian Boarding Schools, about literacy issues, about how black and white students learn differently, and about the widening achievement gap. The only problem being, I don't see where to begin to solve any of these problem.

If as future educators we are striving to create equal opportunities for all children then we have to start acting now. Even if it's just a small decision, they have to start being made. The problem I keep coming across in looking for a place to begin is this: I am receiving a completely mixed message from my teachers and reading sources. It seems to me as if I keep hearing something like this, "You must treat all students the same, but all students learn differently so teach them differently." How can you treat all students the same but teach them differently?! I can't help feeling that this is the same contradictory message I am hearing over and over and over again.

So, where do I begin? How can I start to help low achieving students if I have to treat everyone the same? How can I take into account different learning styles if I'm supposed to treat everyone the same? How can I have a unified goal for every student when I am supposed to be teaching them differently?

It seems to me we need to stop looking at race and color as a factor in schools. It has been said that color is not something that is invisible, it is a part of every person, but a part of ever person individually. As teacher we need to work on an individual basis. Think Globally, Act Locally. Why aren't we being taught this in our education programs? Why aren't we being taught how to cater to our students needs, as INDIVIDUALS, not as a group of students of color? When we get out into the world, we will be well versed, as Delpit points out, in the negative situations in education. Why not the positive?

So, my question is where to begin? In an educational environment full of negatives and contradictions, how can we know where to start to make improvements? I know there are no definitive answers... but all we need is a place to begin, we can at least move FORWARD from there.

Where are the directions?

One of the ideas from Lisa Delpit's book, Other People's Chilcren:Cultural Conflict in the Classroom, that really struck me was the notion that perhaps as we go through a Westernized school system, we actually lose some of our individuality. She writes, "Despite the rhetoric of American education, it does not teach children to be independent, but rather to be dependent on external sources for direction, for truth, for meaning" (101). This response comes in the context of a conversation about literacy, and how it applies to people in different cultures. Specifically she is examining Native Alaskan schools and how literacy is a problem there, but she finds out it is because literacy is not valued in the community. In certain cultures, like that of the people she observed in Alaska, more focus is placed on action, and feeling than on language. For me, this was a mind blowing idea.

I had never thought of communication that would NOT revolve around literacy. But she brings up some good points that cause me to pause. If we are literate, we take our facts from other sources, we do not tend to follow our own knowledge, but take the truth of our world from newspapers, politicians, signs, and other forms of language. Do we do anything without being told? And aren't there some ideas that cannot be expressed through words?

We are taught constantly through school to follow directions and explain what we do in words. What if we cannot? Isn't there some part of our individuality that is so complex or unique that words cannot describe? There are only so many words. However, I do not believe there are only so many ways someone can be an individual. I would say one of my goals of being a future educator is to allow students to become individuals; but how can we accomplish this goal if as teachers we only teach them how to be just like everyone else? We ask students to all solve the same math problems, write papers on the same topics, and to explain why reactions happen to the chemicals we manipulate. But how does this create individual minds who look to themselves for direction and purpose? If we constantly teach our students to look to external sources for direction, they will not know how to think individually without directions.

And frankly, life doesn't have a set of directions.