C4T # 4, Comment 1
The teacher I had this week is Arvind S. Grover. His blog post was titled "Great Kid Teaches You About Transgender Identity." Arvind posted a video that warmed his heart. It is a video a guy did about kids whom are transgender. He talked about the book "When Kayla Was Kyle." He did this video while wearing a dress. He says that it is okay to be transgender and that kids who are should not be left out. Arvind says that the guy who did this video teaches clearly and assessibly about transgender identity. I commented and told him that I enjoyed the video, but felt like a book on transgender may not be appropriate for children of all ages. Here is the video if you would like to watch it:
C4T # 4, Comment 2
This week Arvind had a video of a commercial on his blog and he said " This video is a commercial for a new set of toys for girls that challenges limited views of what girls want to play with. Watch these great kids sing and build a dream-like Rube Goldberg device. Girls Rock!" I commented on this video and told Mr. Arvind that the commercial was hilarious but also very true. I really cannot explain the commercial in depth to you but please watch it below:
Blog Post By: Malary Booker
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
PLN Project # 2 Final Report
PLN Final Report
My personal learning network, or PLN, has been constantly growing. I started off with two websites and now I have a total of five website. Pretty soon I will have all open spaces on Symbaloo full of different websites that I can access. The two websites that I discussed in my progress report are The Teaching Channel blog page and BIE's website. For more information on those two sites just go to my blog post titled "Project #2 Progress Report." The three sites that I added and will be talking about in more detail later are the EDM 310 Class Blog, The Common Core Standards, and iCurio.
The first site that I added is the EDM 310 Class Blog . I added it because it is very helpful to me now since I am in that class and need to be aware of the updates. It also may be helpful for me in the future to show my students everything that I have learned with Dr. Strange.
The second website that I added was The Common Core Standards Website . This is the website to get all of the common core standards that I will need for my lesson plans now and when I start teaching. Common Core Standards are what I will need to follow as a teacher in creating the lesson plans for my students. They are the standards that the students have to meet before advancing to the next level of schooling.
The last website that I decided to add was The iCurio Website . Although I do not have a password for it yet, Dr. Strange was able to get us access to it for a while so that we could see what it was all about. I intend on using iCurio when I become a teacher. iCurio has so many wonderful resources for teachers and students. Teachers can research classroom tools and use them without having to worry if they meet the common core standards or not. Students can do research for different assignments on a safe and secure site and these days that is very important.It really is a win-win for everyone.
Creating my own Personal Learning Network has really helped me a lot. The wonderful thing bout it is that I can constantly add things to it whenever I need to. This is definitely a tool I will be using as a teacher to connect to every website I need in one place.
Blog Post By: Malary Booker
Smart Board Project # 12 Part B
The video below is of a SMART board lesson plan created by Malary Booker, Sarah Barnett, and Lauren Bradley:
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Blog Post # 14
I picked integrating the arts in an elementary school classroom for my created blog post directions and my created blog post because I am an elementary education major and I love the arts. Below are my blog post directions:
1.Watch the following video:
2. Write a post in which you discuss Mrs. Melanie Skankey's thoughts on art integration. After you have done this, give your own thoughts on art integration in the elementary school classroom.
My Blog Post on Art Integration
Melanie Skankey is a teacher at a STEAM school in Utah. She teaches art at a Science, Math, and technology school. She works as a specialist for the BTSAP ( Beverly Taylor Sorenson Arts Program .) Melanie says that art integration is not only hand printed turkeys and pictures. Art integration means that you teach a subject like Math using art. Students must actually understand Math through art. Melanie got her students to to create a dance to learn the stages of the water cycle. Doing this activity actually integrated art into the water cycle. Three things Melanie thinks we can all agree on are:
1. Children are important
2. Children need knowledge
3. Arts for children are good.
How are we going to prepare students for the future? Melanie tells us that the Common Core Standard help a lot with this. The standards really incorporate different subject matters. Art is learning through play. A quote by Fred Rogers says: "Play gives children the opportunity to practice what they are learning." This is so true. Art integration is all about playing while learning.
I feel like art integration is a very good idea for elementary school teachers as well as middle and high school teachers. It encourages students to have fun while still learning. I will definitely be using art in all of the subjects I will teach in the future as an elementary school teacher.
Blog Post By: Malary Booker
1.Watch the following video:
2. Write a post in which you discuss Mrs. Melanie Skankey's thoughts on art integration. After you have done this, give your own thoughts on art integration in the elementary school classroom.
My Blog Post on Art Integration
Melanie Skankey is a teacher at a STEAM school in Utah. She teaches art at a Science, Math, and technology school. She works as a specialist for the BTSAP ( Beverly Taylor Sorenson Arts Program .) Melanie says that art integration is not only hand printed turkeys and pictures. Art integration means that you teach a subject like Math using art. Students must actually understand Math through art. Melanie got her students to to create a dance to learn the stages of the water cycle. Doing this activity actually integrated art into the water cycle. Three things Melanie thinks we can all agree on are:
1. Children are important
2. Children need knowledge
3. Arts for children are good.
How are we going to prepare students for the future? Melanie tells us that the Common Core Standard help a lot with this. The standards really incorporate different subject matters. Art is learning through play. A quote by Fred Rogers says: "Play gives children the opportunity to practice what they are learning." This is so true. Art integration is all about playing while learning.
I feel like art integration is a very good idea for elementary school teachers as well as middle and high school teachers. It encourages students to have fun while still learning. I will definitely be using art in all of the subjects I will teach in the future as an elementary school teacher.
Blog Post By: Malary Booker
Monday, November 18, 2013
Blog Post # 13
Video 1: Alison Gopnik: What do babies think?
Alison Gopnik explains how babies and children think. She is a wonderful speaker and full of tons of information. She delivered this presentation beautifully. To sum up the video; she basically says that children and babies are like sponges. They soak up information better than adults. She showed a few pictures of a study of fifteen-eighteen month olds; the adult gave the children two bowls with broccoli and goldfish in the bowls. The adults then observed which bowl this children would choose. As you would imagine they mainly chose the goldfish, but who wouldn’t. Then the adults pretended to like the broccoli and not the goldfish, after that they asked the children to give them something out of the bowls.
This research showed that most of the eighteen month olds gave the adults the broccoli because the adults pretended they liked it. So, basically the eighteen month olds responded to instruction and absorbed what the task was to be done. Although, the fifteen month olds just stared and handed out goldfish. We learned from this video that in all actuality, children are the quickest and most efficient when it comes to learning. Children have brains that are always willing to learn new things. Alison Gopnik also said that when we (adults) say children are not paying attention, we are really saying they are bad at paying attention. This statement is so true because it takes children a few tries or experiments to figure out the correct answer. All in all we learned some great information.
Video 2: Shane Koyczan: To This Day...for the Bullied and Beautiful : Lauren Bradley
First off, wow; Shane Koyczan couldn't have presented a more brilliant speech. “To This Day...for the Bullied and the Beautiful” is a speech is on what it is like to be young and different in today’s world; and if you’re anything like me...grade school wasn’t easy. Koyczan talks about how he would constantly hear, “Just stand up for yourself, you have to stand up for yourself.” But how do we do this, if we don’t even know who we are. You know kids, one day they want to be a fireman, the next a dentist; but where is the fallacy in this? The education expects children to define themselves at such a young, inexperienced age; and if you did not define yourself, someone would for you; teachers, faculty, or even the students. Everyday another child is defining themselves by what other people say or think about them; fag, gay, stupid, ugly; and we are expected to accept this.
As you are being told what you are, with no say, you are being asked who you want to become. You know those high school days of visiting the counseling services and the career centers by force; being asked who you want to become. Well...I’m myself aren’t I? Koyczan experience with this was about the same as mine. He was asked, ‘’What do you want to be when you grow up?’’, “A writer.” Followed by, “Choose something realistic.” This is the fallacy in these types of actions; they asked him who he wanted to be, but told him what not to be. Why can’t we be who we already are? Why do people refuse to except that? We must somehow must become what we are not, sacrificing what we are, to inherit the masquerade of what we will be.
But what made his dreams so easily dismissible? Who has the power to shutdown someones elses dreams and tell them, “No, you can’t be that.” And at the same time, his dreams were being defined by some else also; being called stupid, unrealistic and so on. But like a boomerang, his dreams came back to him, and he used those dreams to take a stand. He told the audience one of the first lines of one of his first poems was about a world who demanded that he hate himself, and at age of fifteen through eighteen, he hated himself for becoming someone he knew he despised; a bully. When he was nineteen he wrote, “I will love myself, despite the ease in which I lean towards the opposite.”
With this he expressed that he was not the only kid who grew up like this, being bullied and hurt by people words and actions. So kids are growing up, being forced to believe they aren’t special, that no one will ever grow to love them, that that are unimportant. To this day kids are still being called names, still being hurt by other children who are raised to believe that looks and beauty are the of the utmost important; and anything less...is tossed aside. He says if you don’t think you are beautiful, if you don’t think you are perfect, get a new mirror, look a little closer, stare a little longer, because there is something inside you that made you keep going, that pushed you just a little further, despite everyone who told said, “You can’t.” As kids and as adults we must fight and push to believe that those people are wrong.
As educators we HAVE to take a stand. No longer “Kids will be kids” past my ears while another child sits in agony from the pain of fellow classmates . The education system does not understand that this type is behavior hinders learning in such a tremendous way, yet it continues to happens everyday in schools all around the world. We must find a way to change this, but first we must change ourselves. Maybe you were the bully or maybe you were the bullied, but no human life should ever have to go through this pain, especially in a place that should be embracing who you are and who you are going to become.
Video 3: Mae Jemison: Teach Arts and Sciences Together
Mae Jemison says that we are failing to act in the future. She says that our mission is to integrate Science and art together. If we keep thinking that Science and art are separate then we are in trouble. Many people say that scientists are not creative and this is not the case. Mae Jemison is an astronaut, a doctor, an art collector, and a dancer. She told stories from her own education and from her time in space. She calls on educators to teach both arts and sciences, both intuition and logic, as one to create bold thinkers. Mae told about how she became an astronaut and how she incorporated creativity into it. A quote from her is:
“Science and art are two parts of one thing. They come from one source and that source is creativity.”
This TED Talk video made us wonder about Mae Jemison’s whole biography so we looked it up. If you go to this link there is a mini biography video and a biography of Mae Jemison: Mae Jemison's Biography
Alison Gopnik explains how babies and children think. She is a wonderful speaker and full of tons of information. She delivered this presentation beautifully. To sum up the video; she basically says that children and babies are like sponges. They soak up information better than adults. She showed a few pictures of a study of fifteen-eighteen month olds; the adult gave the children two bowls with broccoli and goldfish in the bowls. The adults then observed which bowl this children would choose. As you would imagine they mainly chose the goldfish, but who wouldn’t. Then the adults pretended to like the broccoli and not the goldfish, after that they asked the children to give them something out of the bowls.
This research showed that most of the eighteen month olds gave the adults the broccoli because the adults pretended they liked it. So, basically the eighteen month olds responded to instruction and absorbed what the task was to be done. Although, the fifteen month olds just stared and handed out goldfish. We learned from this video that in all actuality, children are the quickest and most efficient when it comes to learning. Children have brains that are always willing to learn new things. Alison Gopnik also said that when we (adults) say children are not paying attention, we are really saying they are bad at paying attention. This statement is so true because it takes children a few tries or experiments to figure out the correct answer. All in all we learned some great information.
Video 2: Shane Koyczan: To This Day...for the Bullied and Beautiful : Lauren Bradley
First off, wow; Shane Koyczan couldn't have presented a more brilliant speech. “To This Day...for the Bullied and the Beautiful” is a speech is on what it is like to be young and different in today’s world; and if you’re anything like me...grade school wasn’t easy. Koyczan talks about how he would constantly hear, “Just stand up for yourself, you have to stand up for yourself.” But how do we do this, if we don’t even know who we are. You know kids, one day they want to be a fireman, the next a dentist; but where is the fallacy in this? The education expects children to define themselves at such a young, inexperienced age; and if you did not define yourself, someone would for you; teachers, faculty, or even the students. Everyday another child is defining themselves by what other people say or think about them; fag, gay, stupid, ugly; and we are expected to accept this.
As you are being told what you are, with no say, you are being asked who you want to become. You know those high school days of visiting the counseling services and the career centers by force; being asked who you want to become. Well...I’m myself aren’t I? Koyczan experience with this was about the same as mine. He was asked, ‘’What do you want to be when you grow up?’’, “A writer.” Followed by, “Choose something realistic.” This is the fallacy in these types of actions; they asked him who he wanted to be, but told him what not to be. Why can’t we be who we already are? Why do people refuse to except that? We must somehow must become what we are not, sacrificing what we are, to inherit the masquerade of what we will be.
But what made his dreams so easily dismissible? Who has the power to shutdown someones elses dreams and tell them, “No, you can’t be that.” And at the same time, his dreams were being defined by some else also; being called stupid, unrealistic and so on. But like a boomerang, his dreams came back to him, and he used those dreams to take a stand. He told the audience one of the first lines of one of his first poems was about a world who demanded that he hate himself, and at age of fifteen through eighteen, he hated himself for becoming someone he knew he despised; a bully. When he was nineteen he wrote, “I will love myself, despite the ease in which I lean towards the opposite.”
With this he expressed that he was not the only kid who grew up like this, being bullied and hurt by people words and actions. So kids are growing up, being forced to believe they aren’t special, that no one will ever grow to love them, that that are unimportant. To this day kids are still being called names, still being hurt by other children who are raised to believe that looks and beauty are the of the utmost important; and anything less...is tossed aside. He says if you don’t think you are beautiful, if you don’t think you are perfect, get a new mirror, look a little closer, stare a little longer, because there is something inside you that made you keep going, that pushed you just a little further, despite everyone who told said, “You can’t.” As kids and as adults we must fight and push to believe that those people are wrong.
As educators we HAVE to take a stand. No longer “Kids will be kids” past my ears while another child sits in agony from the pain of fellow classmates . The education system does not understand that this type is behavior hinders learning in such a tremendous way, yet it continues to happens everyday in schools all around the world. We must find a way to change this, but first we must change ourselves. Maybe you were the bully or maybe you were the bullied, but no human life should ever have to go through this pain, especially in a place that should be embracing who you are and who you are going to become.
Video 3: Mae Jemison: Teach Arts and Sciences Together
Mae Jemison says that we are failing to act in the future. She says that our mission is to integrate Science and art together. If we keep thinking that Science and art are separate then we are in trouble. Many people say that scientists are not creative and this is not the case. Mae Jemison is an astronaut, a doctor, an art collector, and a dancer. She told stories from her own education and from her time in space. She calls on educators to teach both arts and sciences, both intuition and logic, as one to create bold thinkers. Mae told about how she became an astronaut and how she incorporated creativity into it. A quote from her is:
“Science and art are two parts of one thing. They come from one source and that source is creativity.”
This TED Talk video made us wonder about Mae Jemison’s whole biography so we looked it up. If you go to this link there is a mini biography video and a biography of Mae Jemison: Mae Jemison's Biography
Thursday, November 14, 2013
C4K Assignments for November
C4K # 1
The kid I had this week was Porscha from Mrs. Nau and Mr. Burk's class in Auckland, New Zealand. Porscha's blog post was titled " My Planning." She has a picture of a four shot template. In each box she drew a picture of four different photo shots. The shots were: establishing shot, mid shot, cut away shot, and close up shot. Then she wrote a sentence telling the story of her photo shots. I commented and let her know that I really liked her story line and all of her shot drawings.
C4K # 2
This week I actually got to comment on a whole class blog instead of just one kids. The blog I had was Mrs. Yollis's Class Blog. The post I looked at was titled " Dr. and Mrs. Strange Visit!" It is so interesting to me that Dr. Strange actually got to visit with Mrs. Yollis's class. This post told me everything that they did and talked about. It also included pictures of them and the class. My favorite picture was the one of a little girl practicing her typing. Her fingers were all in the correct place! It is amazing to me how much these kids really do know. Dr. Strange told the kids a little bit about Alabama and the kids showed him what they know about technology. I commented on Mrs. Yollis's blog and told her that I am a student in Dr. Strange's class , but I believe her students may know more than me based on what I have seen. I am anxious to see her response. If you would like to view Mrs. Yollis's class blog then here is the link: Mrs. Yollis's Class Blog
Saturday, November 9, 2013
Blog Post # 12
Collaborative Blog Post: Sarah Barnett, Malary Booker, Lauren Bradley:
I’m sure many of you are familiar with the TED Talks Series; for those of you who are not familiar with TED Talks, it is a set of informative and educational conferences, presented by recognizable speakers from all around the world and runs under the slogan “Ideas Worth Sharing”. This particular TED Talks video was presented by Sir Ken Robinson. Ken Robinson led the British Government Advisory Committee in 1988 on creative and cultural education quest where we was eventually Knighted for his work. He is a New York Time’s Best Seller for the book The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything., and has been translated into twenty-one different languages, and has now gained millions of views for his TED Talks conference videos.
Changing Education Paradigms
What can we learn from Sir Ken Robinson? That was the question proposed in this video. Sir Ken Robinson explained a lot about how education was…and is today. He basically puts it like this; in the past people are expected to attend grade school, then college and then finally get a degree to get a job. The current education system today has schools that ring the bell at a certain time, divide children into age groups, and have separate subjects. By doing all these things, children tend to just follow the drill and not broaden their education. We have all been expected to do certain things a certain way and that is that, no questions asked. However, if we encourage children to learn and discover new ways that help them learn best rather than hindering their talents, they will be confident and will be able to achieve their goals.
Some children can work more efficiently in small/large groups, work better alone, or even may learn more efficiently at different times of the day. In today’s world we have access to so many electronics that when they get to school, they are bored! We have to make learning engaging and enjoyable while they are still students. Sir Ken Robinson talks a lot about ADHD. A cool fact about ADHD was that children more on the east coast are prescribed medication. He talks about too many children are on medication to focus in school. The reason children have ADHD is because they sit there and do busy work all day; while they have all this energy and curiosity balled up inside them. All in all we really enjoyed this video. Sir Ken Robinson did a great job explaining changing education paradigms. We hope you all go check out his video and learn just as much as we did.
The Importance of Creativity Video
In this video Sir Ken Robinson talks about creating an education system that nurtures rather than undermines creativity. He believes that creativity is as important as literacy. He told a story about a little girl who only paid attention in class during drawing time. When the teacher asked her what she was drawing she replied, “I am drawing God.” The teacher said, “No one knows what God looks like.” The little girl then replied, “They will in a minute.” This is an appealing story, but it also lets us know how creative and insightful children really can be. Who are we as teachers to stand in the way of that? Sir Ken Robinson said, “If you are not prepared to be wrong, then you will never come up with anything original.”
As future teachers, we will one day need to let our students know that it is okay to be wrong. Sir Robinson says that by teaching kids they are wrong; we are undermining their creativity. This could not be more true. Encourage kids that there is more than one way to do something. The one thing that we completely agree with is when Sir Ken Robinson said, “We do not grow into creativity, we grow out of it.” All kids are born with a creative gene. What they do with that gene when they get older makes them who they are. Education Systems are now based fully on academic ability. Creativity really needs to be pushed now more than ever. Academic ability is important for students to achieve, but so is creativity.
How to Escape Educations Death Valley
In Sir Ken Robinson’s TED Talks video titled “How to Escape Educations Death Valley.” he discusses three principles that are required for a fit and healthy mind and how your current education status actually works against these principles in what is called the educational “death valley”. He starts off by discussing the recent “No Child Left Behind Act”; he described it as “Ironic” because he says, “It is leaving millions of children behind.” He goes on to explain that in some parts of the country, the dropout rate of high school students is up to 60%, then in Native American communities, it is up to 80%. If you cut that number in half and estimate the net-gain earned by these students, it was be somewhere around...a trillion dollars; and that it actually costs more to come up with money and labor created by these so called “drop-outs”.
He states that what those statistics don’t show you, are the percentages of kids that are in school, yet are being disengaged, uninterested and not gaining any benefit from the educational system. Despite the fact that America spend more money on education and its progression than any other country, despite the fact that America on average has smaller classrooms than other countries, despite all the conferences, speaks and presentation, our progression is seems to be moving in the wrong direction. He suggests that real education gives weight to the arts, to the humanities, to physical education; not just science and math and gives recognition to other talents.
From here Robinson shares the three principles for the human mind to flourish. Let’s start with principle one, that humans are different and diverse by nature. He expressed that No Child Left Behind focuses more on conformity then celebrating children’s diversity. Principle number two states that curiosity is a great thing. Curiosity causes humans to learn with little or no assistance. He states that standardized testing is acceptable for measuring outcomes, but in no way should obstruct learning. Principle three states that human are curious by nature, but being stuck in a “paradigm of standardization” is killing our creativity.
So how do we change things and where do we even start? Robinson gave us some imperatives to counteract the principles. Imperative number one states that we MUST MUST MUST individualize learning and personalize our curriculum down to each and every student. Imperative number two states that we must hold high status’s and bars for the teaching profession, that it should be seen as an investment not a cost. Imperative number three says we must make our schools responsible for the decision making, who else knows what better decision to make about the students rather than their own school?
We believe a HUGE lesson is to be learned by all of us, thanks to Sir Ken Robinson. He speaks the truth when dealing with the education system, no longer is he ignoring the elephant in the room. If we want our future generations to be successful and to grow up and be able to compete with their peers in this swiftly changing world; we have to take a step back and focus on our students. No longer should it be about standardized testing and numbers, it should be about celebrating diversity.
I’m sure many of you are familiar with the TED Talks Series; for those of you who are not familiar with TED Talks, it is a set of informative and educational conferences, presented by recognizable speakers from all around the world and runs under the slogan “Ideas Worth Sharing”. This particular TED Talks video was presented by Sir Ken Robinson. Ken Robinson led the British Government Advisory Committee in 1988 on creative and cultural education quest where we was eventually Knighted for his work. He is a New York Time’s Best Seller for the book The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything., and has been translated into twenty-one different languages, and has now gained millions of views for his TED Talks conference videos.
Changing Education Paradigms
What can we learn from Sir Ken Robinson? That was the question proposed in this video. Sir Ken Robinson explained a lot about how education was…and is today. He basically puts it like this; in the past people are expected to attend grade school, then college and then finally get a degree to get a job. The current education system today has schools that ring the bell at a certain time, divide children into age groups, and have separate subjects. By doing all these things, children tend to just follow the drill and not broaden their education. We have all been expected to do certain things a certain way and that is that, no questions asked. However, if we encourage children to learn and discover new ways that help them learn best rather than hindering their talents, they will be confident and will be able to achieve their goals.
Some children can work more efficiently in small/large groups, work better alone, or even may learn more efficiently at different times of the day. In today’s world we have access to so many electronics that when they get to school, they are bored! We have to make learning engaging and enjoyable while they are still students. Sir Ken Robinson talks a lot about ADHD. A cool fact about ADHD was that children more on the east coast are prescribed medication. He talks about too many children are on medication to focus in school. The reason children have ADHD is because they sit there and do busy work all day; while they have all this energy and curiosity balled up inside them. All in all we really enjoyed this video. Sir Ken Robinson did a great job explaining changing education paradigms. We hope you all go check out his video and learn just as much as we did.
The Importance of Creativity Video
In this video Sir Ken Robinson talks about creating an education system that nurtures rather than undermines creativity. He believes that creativity is as important as literacy. He told a story about a little girl who only paid attention in class during drawing time. When the teacher asked her what she was drawing she replied, “I am drawing God.” The teacher said, “No one knows what God looks like.” The little girl then replied, “They will in a minute.” This is an appealing story, but it also lets us know how creative and insightful children really can be. Who are we as teachers to stand in the way of that? Sir Ken Robinson said, “If you are not prepared to be wrong, then you will never come up with anything original.”
As future teachers, we will one day need to let our students know that it is okay to be wrong. Sir Robinson says that by teaching kids they are wrong; we are undermining their creativity. This could not be more true. Encourage kids that there is more than one way to do something. The one thing that we completely agree with is when Sir Ken Robinson said, “We do not grow into creativity, we grow out of it.” All kids are born with a creative gene. What they do with that gene when they get older makes them who they are. Education Systems are now based fully on academic ability. Creativity really needs to be pushed now more than ever. Academic ability is important for students to achieve, but so is creativity.
How to Escape Educations Death Valley
In Sir Ken Robinson’s TED Talks video titled “How to Escape Educations Death Valley.” he discusses three principles that are required for a fit and healthy mind and how your current education status actually works against these principles in what is called the educational “death valley”. He starts off by discussing the recent “No Child Left Behind Act”; he described it as “Ironic” because he says, “It is leaving millions of children behind.” He goes on to explain that in some parts of the country, the dropout rate of high school students is up to 60%, then in Native American communities, it is up to 80%. If you cut that number in half and estimate the net-gain earned by these students, it was be somewhere around...a trillion dollars; and that it actually costs more to come up with money and labor created by these so called “drop-outs”.
He states that what those statistics don’t show you, are the percentages of kids that are in school, yet are being disengaged, uninterested and not gaining any benefit from the educational system. Despite the fact that America spend more money on education and its progression than any other country, despite the fact that America on average has smaller classrooms than other countries, despite all the conferences, speaks and presentation, our progression is seems to be moving in the wrong direction. He suggests that real education gives weight to the arts, to the humanities, to physical education; not just science and math and gives recognition to other talents.
From here Robinson shares the three principles for the human mind to flourish. Let’s start with principle one, that humans are different and diverse by nature. He expressed that No Child Left Behind focuses more on conformity then celebrating children’s diversity. Principle number two states that curiosity is a great thing. Curiosity causes humans to learn with little or no assistance. He states that standardized testing is acceptable for measuring outcomes, but in no way should obstruct learning. Principle three states that human are curious by nature, but being stuck in a “paradigm of standardization” is killing our creativity.
So how do we change things and where do we even start? Robinson gave us some imperatives to counteract the principles. Imperative number one states that we MUST MUST MUST individualize learning and personalize our curriculum down to each and every student. Imperative number two states that we must hold high status’s and bars for the teaching profession, that it should be seen as an investment not a cost. Imperative number three says we must make our schools responsible for the decision making, who else knows what better decision to make about the students rather than their own school?
We believe a HUGE lesson is to be learned by all of us, thanks to Sir Ken Robinson. He speaks the truth when dealing with the education system, no longer is he ignoring the elephant in the room. If we want our future generations to be successful and to grow up and be able to compete with their peers in this swiftly changing world; we have to take a step back and focus on our students. No longer should it be about standardized testing and numbers, it should be about celebrating diversity.
Saturday, November 2, 2013
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