10/10/10

This week I explored a new type of school assignment....one that I have assigned to many of my own students and even assigned myself but never actually had assigned by a teacher: the perusal of websites.  It made me realize that when I assign websites I do so for specific readings and worksheets, but never just to explore it as a resource.  It prompted me to start a running list of websites for professional use and referral.  I'd like to walk away from this graduate program (that felt good to type in itself) with a strong start to a running list of online resources I can hand my Antioch (teacher candidate) students.  So there you go Patrick Faverty, I've officially changed a cognition and behavior that will make me a better educator...well done buddy.  Experiential activity (trying something new) is like the holy grail for a teacher so have a glass for this little sip of change on me :)

The websites themselves challenged me to think about how I motivate students to learn and how I don't.  After watching some exciting videos (rollercoasters) and then some painfully boring videos (see the Joan Kuchner video on the Stony Brook website) I've come to a conclusion about education (for this week): if we don't at least try to engage more than one sense then we are wasting our students' time.  Eyes and ears are only two pathways to the brain...the hands, tongue, and nose are highly underutilized when it comes to all forms of education.  I realize that came out a bit weird, but it's true.  Perhaps missing most is the pathway of the "heart" (realistically our reward pathways in the brain) otherwise known as the intrinsic/ big-picture/ why-this-matters type stuff that makes school tangible and important.  In the current K-12 climate, consideration and planning to engage all of one's senses aren't even used for training students to the coveted (and ironically never used again) test scores.  Over and over again I hear, "Well there has to be some standard, some way to measure what students are learning" as the reason to focus on test scores.  To that I usually reply, "I agree, but sitting in a room with a pencil and filling in small bubbles about math and english I don't use anymore is a sad attempt to measure learning.  Students don't use latin prefixes and gradutes use calculators.  I think the test content is as sad as the methodology: humans are complex physical, mental and social animals that cannot be measured by one line of numbers.  Our genetic code is long, the subjects we learn about are varied, and our influences screw us up in beautifully different ways.  We've got to be able to at least get more experimental with the ways we prepare students for the test."  Of course I'm oversimplifying and playing to extremes, but my point is that one test is a sad attempt at understanding a human student.  Worse yet, training anyone to do anything with "high stakes" attached by sitting them down and engaging only their ears and eyes is like giving a car less than half the fuel it needs to run.  I think there should be 100s of different types of tests with 100s of different practicums attached to them.  Ask anyone who ever had the thought "I'm not good at math" or "i'm not athletic" if they felt the tests they took got them excited?  Chances are they learned to be so anxious they convinced themselves to avoid the subject.  ...And from there all my therapist friends get paid.
Rambles aside, I use the test example to highlight the difficulty of teaching and the variety of skills necessary to be a good teacher (as highlighted by the boring "teaching to the whole student" video on the Stony Brook website https://tlt.stonybrook.edu/facultyservices/IiE/Lists/Show%20List/DispForm.aspx?id=15).  How fitting that this video could have been edited to 3-5mins. 
It takes a special person to teach, with skills that are unmeasurable and measurable.  Equally, it takes a variety of inputs to stimulate the human brain...pencils, chalk, and talking aren't enough.  Come to think of it, this little body of text on a small illuminated screen isn't enough either.

Recipe for readers:  spread out on a countertop near you:

• a cut lime however you want
• 1 finger of some JW black label in a glass
• a shot glass filled with cheese-grated ginger root
• some rosemary clippings
• and some good california sage scrub from a local hillside

Directions: taste each separately, then rub each into your hands and smell them.  After repeating for each, reflect on which will leave a stronger residue on your life: the thing you just inhaled or the Kaplan class you spent thousands on to pass the last test you took?  At the end, reflect on which you will actually use ever again.