Note: To really grasp the metaphor I am attempting here it would be beneficial to read my previous post.
For so many years we the teachers, in the interest of public education, plough through the curriculum and accumulate grades. Our focus: to fill the kids up with information that someone from a different place has deemed essential for them to know. We force them to memorize facts that mean nothing to them and then regurgitate this information onto a quiz which will accumulate into a mark that will be displayed proudly on their report card connected to a comment that makes no sense to parents, students or other teachers. Here's the issue: ask the same students 2 months later one of the quiz questions and see if they know the answer. Astoundingly, they won't even remember learning the information. This must be why we need to teach them what an adjective is every year only to have them look at us as though they never knew such a commodity existed. I tell you, the "youth of today"...
Every year the same thing, blame it on short attention spans caused by video games, kids who lack motivation, violence on tv, and parents who don't support the education system. It could not possibly be our method of teaching. We could not possibly be that bee, stubbornly continuing on the same unsuccessful path only to feel we are not making any progress no matter how hard we try. Here enters the heroine, in her long blond braids and Abercrombie shirt and capris. Let's listen to her for a moment and really hear what she is saying, as she is the "youth of today". She hates math because it doesn't make sense. She is bored in science since it requires a lot of note taking and then memorization for an end of unit test. She once loved to read, but now finds it a tedious, clinical procedure where dissection of a story has taken over the enjoyment of the plot. Yet, after a one hour nature hike in a provincial park she is able to recite for her parents every plant and animal scat they encountered, the life cycle of a frog and how a forest develops through the stages of succession.
What if we are the bee?
What if we stop focusing on the same unsuccessful strategies used in years gone by? What if we teach the curriculum through essential life skills instead of overheads and worksheets?
What if we assess the students learning on meaningful tasks that apply the facts instead of quizzes that test the memory capability?
What if we stop blaming the students of today and instead focus on finding the open hatch?
For so many years we the teachers, in the interest of public education, plough through the curriculum and accumulate grades. Our focus: to fill the kids up with information that someone from a different place has deemed essential for them to know. We force them to memorize facts that mean nothing to them and then regurgitate this information onto a quiz which will accumulate into a mark that will be displayed proudly on their report card connected to a comment that makes no sense to parents, students or other teachers. Here's the issue: ask the same students 2 months later one of the quiz questions and see if they know the answer. Astoundingly, they won't even remember learning the information. This must be why we need to teach them what an adjective is every year only to have them look at us as though they never knew such a commodity existed. I tell you, the "youth of today"...
Every year the same thing, blame it on short attention spans caused by video games, kids who lack motivation, violence on tv, and parents who don't support the education system. It could not possibly be our method of teaching. We could not possibly be that bee, stubbornly continuing on the same unsuccessful path only to feel we are not making any progress no matter how hard we try. Here enters the heroine, in her long blond braids and Abercrombie shirt and capris. Let's listen to her for a moment and really hear what she is saying, as she is the "youth of today". She hates math because it doesn't make sense. She is bored in science since it requires a lot of note taking and then memorization for an end of unit test. She once loved to read, but now finds it a tedious, clinical procedure where dissection of a story has taken over the enjoyment of the plot. Yet, after a one hour nature hike in a provincial park she is able to recite for her parents every plant and animal scat they encountered, the life cycle of a frog and how a forest develops through the stages of succession.
What if we are the bee?
What if we stop focusing on the same unsuccessful strategies used in years gone by? What if we teach the curriculum through essential life skills instead of overheads and worksheets?
What if we assess the students learning on meaningful tasks that apply the facts instead of quizzes that test the memory capability?
What if we stop blaming the students of today and instead focus on finding the open hatch?