An Important Reminder

Today I was again reminded of a fact which I have to remember when I move on in my learning how to teach, how to handle large groups.

I can relate with kids well, I can help them on their work. I can do all the things that a teacher ought to do...except when a large group is involved.

One, two, even three kids is fine for me. But usually anything above five, the amount of authority I can physically give starts to be spread thin.

Order falls apart.

I know that eventually I'm gonna have to learn how to handle these large groups, but for now, it remains my largest, and most dangerous, challenge.

Grades or Competence?

As spoken about in the last post, there's a big difference between telling kids they worked hard than to just tell them they're smart. When you congratulate a kid on a grade, or you give them a trophy, and then just walk away without talking about it, you leave the kid to just assume they're smart. And so, when that good grade or award is denied them, they figure they must not be smart anymore and give up in despair.

Instead of just saying, "Great job on that A" ask the kid, "I saw you got an A. What you learn in school today?" Keep the kids learning. Don't let them think that just because grades are in that it's over and they don't need to worry anymore.

The same goes for if the DON'T get a good grade. Say things like "Hey, I saw you got a D. What do you think we oughta do to fix that? Do you want help from me for anything?"

Just like in the last post, we have to teach our kids that work is better than smarts. Arbitrary grades and concrete reward can often muddle that picture. We have to leave that message clear if we want our kids to succeed.

Life is a journey, not a destination.

Although this quote was Ralph Waldo Emerson, it's philosophy goes back to the very roots of Buddhist Southeast Asia.

A recent article I read told the following story about how school in Japan is often taught.

In a fourth grade geometry class, the teacher was attempting to teach her students how to draw a cube on a flat piece of paper. One of the students was really struggling with getting it right. The teacher, noticing this, asked the student to come up to the board. An action like this could have caught some western educators off guard a bit. Why should the struggling kid be used as an example?

The teacher asked the kid to draw a cube on the board. After each attempt, she would ask the class if he had gotten it right, and every time the other students said, "No, not quite." Finally, after a host of attempts, the kid did finally get it somewhat correct. When the teacher asked the class, they all said, "YES! YOU GOT IT!!!" The student was then reminded of how he could solve problems on his own, and was sent back to his seat with a new source of pride. He had accomplished something through hard work!'

Doesn't that last sentence define a core lesson we want ALL our students here in the West to learn? And yet, why don't we see strategies used like this more often?

It seems that we Americans, though we speak so idealistically about the rewards begotten of hard work, we resent the idea of struggle. When we see a child struggling at a certain subject, we tend to dismiss it, essentially saying, "Oh, he's just not so smart in this area."

The article I read compared different means of praising kids. When we say things like, "You're smart!", "Wow, you really know this stuff!", and the like, we essentially inform them that they don't have to strive to any higher goals, they're smart already! Whereas, if we say "Good work!", "You must have worked hard at this!", and "See? Anythings possible if you work hard!", these messages are the ones we need to be giving our students, as this always leaves the door open for advancement.

We need to involve more of that Japanese Teacher's actions into our own system. It shouldn't be the ONLY thing we do, by any means, but we ought to do it more often at least. 

The Meaning of Achievement and What It's Worth

Another article I recently read reminded me once again of one of the details of Montessori I may have never succeeded without. The idea that EVERY advancement of ANY kind was celebrated as a breakthrough.

Everyone keeps preaching about making school be more like the adult world. Adults have good days and bad days, why should schools be any different? We shouldn't coddle kids from the occasional bad day, but neither should we expose them to harsh judgement and doom them to a constant stream of bad days.

Montessori allowed the students, outright encouraged them, to willingly help each other out. Here you saw the kiddy version of forming work associations, here you saw little colleagues willingly grouping up to complete these little projects, and whole little groups doing these little projects to form little corporations, with little staffs.

While maybe a little idealized, the essential for future work in the business office was all provided there. And for that kid who was struggling with a particular skill, most of the day was already devoted to work time. It was during those times that the teacher could take aside 'special interest' students and help them with whatever they were struggling on. 

The people who will benefit most from education are the students. It is one of the responsibilities of the teacher to make school interesting and fun. Those are the types of teachers we need.

However One Might Try, One Can't Be a Genius in Everything

In psychological and educational circles alike, there has been a grand debate about the idea of "native intelligences", the basic idea being that some people are better visual learners than are auditory learners, or that they are better mathematical learners than linguistic learners. 

An article I recently read talked all about this theory. A few believe that these native intellects should define how we teach our students. The linguistic learners ought to be taught linguistic skills, while the mathematical learners ought to be taught mathematical skills. Unfortunately for these few believers, no evidence exists that shows such a method to be beneficial in any way.

There is no doubt in my mind that different people learn in different ways. I personally am a much better visual and mathematical learner. I can comprehend complex equations and I can find the equations I need to solve numerical sequences. But where I begin to struggle quite a lot is on word problems in my math class. Even when I read a whole paragraph describing a mathematical operation, I can't easily grab the numerical concepts it's asking me to interpret.

In conclusion, I think that the way kids learn best ought to have some way in how they are handled in school. I wouldn't go so far as to teach linguistic learners ONLY linguistics and mathematical learners ONLY mathematics. But I do believe that visual and auditory learners ought to be taught in those ways specifically.

Now, if only we could find some sort of proof that such a method would work. Without the evidence, the idea is worthless.

Biases and Those They Hurt the Most

Very few people care to think that they could possibly have any form of bias, especially among educators. But the fact remains that in our culture there is a very common bias that almost all of us have fallen for at some point in our lives, often among educators especially.

The article I read spoke of the "natural bias", the idea that we often put more trust and support into "naturals" rather than in those who we know physically work to get where they are. Educators fall to this trap often when a student does "naturally" well on a test. If the teacher praises that student before the class, such an act can understandably bring a lot of harm to the work ethic of the other students.

A recent survey done among musical high school students who were asked whether they valued natural or built talent. The majority claimed to support talent built up over time, as they claimed that someone who practices to become great may overcome the natural with time.

We all have our occasional biases. I've fallen to the natural bias as well. The important thing to remember is to not publicly praise someone for their work by degrading the other students. Rather, encourage those "naturals" to join the rest of the class by challenging them. Ask them, "How could you do that better?" With any luck, they'll become another tinkerer, like the rest.

If Higher Purposes Aren't Enough, What About Encouraging Mental Weightlifting?

Of the many things one learns from three semesters of Psychology, it is that the brain is malleable, it can grow, change, and adapt. Just like working out your muscles to get stronger, you can workout your brain to get smarter.

As mentioned in the previous post, some struggling students only needed a sense of higher purpose to succeed a little bit more in their studies. The same seems to apply to ideas like the one stated above.

Today's kids are so often taught that intelligence is something you're born with, that some kids are just inherently unsmart and that there aint no way they're gonna ever make it in this darn world.

Statements like that are simply untrue. As a recent study showed, kids who are informed about the abilities of their brains to change and grow with effort, after a semester, were able to raise their GPAs an average of 14%. While that might not seem like much, it constitutes a full letter grade in difference.

Maybe adding more positive meanings behind education is all that's needed to encourage students to reveal their full potential. If that were true, and taken advantage of, how glorious schools around the country would become!

Could Higher Purpose Produce Higher GPAs? Recent Research says, "Yes"!

Ask yourself why you go through all the work and stress in your career. Why do you subject yourself to all that boring torture? Why the long hours? Why the sleepless nights? Why?

According to recent research, the philosophy behind that answer could make or break your chances for success.

In over a thousand interviews with lower-income high school seniors, the ones who answered that their goals in life were based on getting through high school in order to help others tended to do better academically. They also happened to pass the Marshmallow 2.0 Test mentioned in the last post.

Even just having high school freshman read inspiring quotes from their upperclassmen allowed them to attain the motivation and higher purpose need to raise there GPA by 0.2 points. That's the difference between a B+ and an A- (If, like me, you like Standard Reference Grading, that could change a 2.9 to a 3.1)!

So, when I'm bogged down in homework from about 80 different places, and it's an early Saturday night, why am I going on? Because I want to get through school so I can help troubled kids have the types of opportunities that I had.

That's inspiring enough for me.

Marshmallow 2.0! Can Students Resist the Internet?

The famed Stanford Marshmallow Test was one of the many things which inspired me to enter into the realm of Childhood Psychology. 

Stanford Psychologist Walter Mischel brought hundreds of preschoolers into a blank room with nothing but a table, chair, plate, and on the plate was a marshmallow. Mischel informed the children that they had two choices, either they eat the marshmallow now, or they could wait and eat two at the end of the wait period. The kids were left alone for fifteen minutes; just them and the marshmallow.

Over 15 years later, when Mischel looked back at these students after the end of their high school careers, he found a STRONG correlation between those who succeeded in waiting and those who scored well on the SATs. The same was true in reverse for those who failed the Marshmallow test.

This test opened a whole new field in the study of 'self-control' and its benefits.

In today's society, our own students are facing a sort of "Marshmallow Test" on a daily basis. "Do I do my homework now, and then enjoy Youtube/Instagram/Facebook/Nintendo all afternoon free of worry; or do I just do those now and have a heart attack over homework later?"

So, in some sense, a new marshmallow test has been published by psychologists out of Penn and Notre Dame, according to an article I recently looked at. The test offers students to do as many math problems as possible, while also offering a chance to scroll the internet. 

The results are much wider than the straight up [pass/fail] of the test's predecessor. Some students may work diligently at the math, others will do none of it. Most will do all the math they can personally handle, then take a break before returning to the math. The latter is by far the healthiest option, but also the one that entails the most struggle. How does one manage either not doing too much math, or breaking for too long.

Personally, I fall prey to that question far to often. 

Grit, Tenacity, Perseverance: The Three Things Which Allow Everyone to Succeed, and How to Teach Them

I think most people in the latter years of high school or in college can agree that these three little words were the breakfast, lunch, and dinner of their school days. These are also overly evident in the workplace of the 21st Century, especially in Capitalist America and Eurasia.

The article I read spoke on the many strategies needed to teach these traits of success, and most of the strategies understandably applied mostly to grades 4-up.

I do say I haven't seen much of this in the Hubble Classroom, and maybe for good reason. These kids are learning how to form friendships, respect their teachers, and survive in the new school environment. They certainly need to deal with a little bit of stress here and there, but not quite the constant, palpable stress of middle/high school.

However, even as I specify not seeing much teaching of these tools in the kindergarten class, I must take the time to honestly say I haven't seen much of this ANYWHERE, especially in places where it is most needed, like high school.

I have seen so many kids almost break under the pressure of school, and yet nowhere does there seem to be any source of help for how to deal with this stress in any real manner. It's almost as if these kids are expected to just adapt to their surroundings, as if they were Le Marcian Crabs or something.

I unfortunately have to say that this is even an area where Cowles cannot provide any comfort.

In an era where competition borders on brutality, where time has become to constraining of a concept, and where a much needed 28,800 seconds seems to fall far to short of what more is required, grit, tenacity, and perseverance are the skills we ought to be teaching, and yet, almost no one appears to be! 

Project Based Learning, and the Environment Needed for it to Work

I recently read an article commenting on the use (or, as could also be said, misuse) of Project Based Learning.

As always with matters like this, I revert back to my own experiences at Cowles Montessori, where Project Based Learning was the 'law of the land' as it were. One thing that stood out to me from this article, and something that I totally agree with, would be the fact that Project Based Learning is not only meant to affect the students, but the teachers as well. The person at the center of this article, Laura Thomas, director of the Antioch Center for School Renewal, says that teachers must also put aside their own biases. Just because is doing something differently from what the teacher expects, the teacher often discourages them from doing it 'wrong'. This is of course, a generalization, as not every teacher does this.

I can distinctly remember classes back at Cowles where the teachers allowed themselves to be pseudo-instructed by the students. After a class project, the teacher would go around and ask different students, "And how did you solve this problem/complete this assignment?" What would ensue would be a full out display of all the different strategies one could use to solve these problems.

But, of course, the most important element of Project Based Learning is the environment and community it needs to function. This is something I see in the classroom everyday at Counting Circle. The ENTIRE class comes together than to count up to the number of the day (we're in the 170s already!!!). The 'assessments' at Hubble also provide an excellent example of the 'free education' spoken of in the last paragraph. At least three different methods are noted for how to solve the problem when it is provided. If the student uses a different strategy, you can express that and count it equally.

I always honored the Montessori system for its philosophy of letting the students study 'on their own' for most of the school day, as what that facilitated was the opportunity for the students to form 'work groups', allowing them all to work together to solve a problem or complete an assignment, something which I have never been able to find even at Roosevelt, and only occasionally at Hubble.

Long story short, Project Based 'Free' education ought to provide an environment where students help not only each other, but the teacher (even if only as motivation) as well.

For the purposes of advancing the course a bit, I will return to analyzing some sources outside of the classroom for a bit.

Tragedies and Victories

Wednesday was a...um...interesting...day.

It was an "assessment" day.

The problem with "assessment" days is that the teacher has to go through tests with students individually, and the students see it as a free time.

this can be detrimental for both the teacher...and the helper.

so I was set to do reading group. now, under better circumstances, I would ADORE doing this, but unfortunately, I actually didn't quite get how the system worked. Aerisolphal usually did reading groups and I helped kids with their assignments, tending not to pay much attention.

Needless to say, reading groups that day were somewhat disastrous.

But the day did get better. I gave some kids their math test, and most of them were the more gifted ones, and those all helped to bring a smile to my face!

We all have good and bad days. Some days we get just what we want among our friends, our peers, and our work. Other days leave us a lot of trouble, stress, and hail.

But the future is looking a little better, and time moves on.

Since it appears I have forgotten to post AGAIN...

Unfortunately, my recollections of last week are quite fuzzy, but yesterday, I can speak to.

The children were challenged to to write their own stories from scratch. It was quite exciting to see the gears finally turning in there heads, and using what they learned to do something we should all learn how to do, creatively write.

Most wrote about what they did over the Easter/Passover weekend. They were all excellent reads!

OOH! I remembered something of last week! I gave the children another math assessment. This one didn't just have to do with writing numerals and knowing their meanings. This test actually had to do with reading arithmetic equations, interpreting their meanings, and even a little introductory geometry (identifying squares, rectangles, triangles, circles, hexagons, and using two right angle triangles to form a square.)

All and all, it has begun to occur to me that I will be leaving these much loved children far to soon. Perhaps this is how all teachers feel toward the end of the year? I wonder how I will be able to handle my first few classes go. I really can't say.

The future holds too many mysteries, and the river of time flows on.

Kids who CAN read does not equal kids who DO read.

I've known for a long time that simply teaching kids to read isn't enough.

Most videogames require reading out of textboxes and such, but that's not book reading, now is it?

In order for kids to actually take the time to read books, they have to LIKE doing it. Just knowing HOW isn't nearly enough.

This has become painfully obvious in Aerisolphal's own class.\

The "not-so-great" readers are more than happy to sit down with Aerisolphal and I and have US read a book WITH them. But once we're not with them, they're just as amused playing with blocks or drawing with markers.

In the meantime, the "great" readers, don't really even need us with them. They'll go out and find their own books to read by themselves.

That there shows the profound difference between those who CAN do it, and those who LOVE TO do it. We ought to be teaching more than just the HOW. We ought to teach the WHY and the FUN of it. That's how we'll get these kids to read!

Videogames Good? This I gotta see!

As a proponent of non-violent-specific videogameing, I've started getting tired of hearing people demonize ALL videogames EVERYWHERE.

As a result of this repeated offence, the article I just read came as a breath of fresh air.

I don't know many people who would argue against games like checkers, chess, backgammon, and mancala. All these games teach strategy and problem solving. But I've always been supportive of taking this argument yet another step further and defending games like TowerDefence, Creeper World Training, and, especially, MineCraft. These games don't just teach strategy (indeed, the "strategy" portion of MineCraft is minuscule) but they mainly teach spatial orienting.

When MineCraft exploded on to the world just a few years ago, people didn't start playing it just because it was "fun". More often, they played it because it allowed them to use virtual LEGOs (another activity which has been praised for teaching spatial orienting).

Videogames like this can allow children to truly experience "fun" and "school" in the same setting, something I've always said is essential to learning.

Are we throwing GT students under the bus with our faulty education system?

Yes and no.

Many schools thankfully offer advanced and AP* courses to meet the expectations/needs of their more gifted students.

However, at the same time, more and more students are being lost, as Albert Einstein was, by the simplicity of more and more required, plain courses.

Now, I absolutely do NOT mean to insult the school system. Most of this argument is coming directly from the article. I think schools like Cowles and Roosevelt are very supportive of their GT students. It is their GT program  put me in this position.

And for that, I am more than grateful.

One Size Does Not Fit All...And Never Has

I have never believed in the idea of teaching someone only the least they need to know. I don't think anyone thinks this.

The reason "elective" courses are made available in middle and high schools is so that students can have multiple experiences, and explore new horizons for the future. Had I not taken the optional three semesters of psychology I had been allowed to, I might not be as interested in it today.

One of the basic concepts of our modern society is opportunity and opening new paths to the success of every member of the next generation. Allow students to do whatever they wish, and the future will be FAR more better in every regard.

More School, More Success?

I am an advocate of school. I'm among those who believe that education can lead one to success, no matter the background of the student.

But I do understand how money can be an issue for a student's success. Money keeps children out of colleges, and away from taking SAT/ACT and AP* Tests.

But public education on its own can work miracles if it's a good school.

One thing in the article I read that I couldn't understand was the argument that poverty stricken parents couldn't "afford" to send their kids to the extra-curricular activities that the more wealthy kids could. This kind of struck me by surprise, as I myself do not know of many extra-curricular activities that cost things aside from sports and the fine arts. Clubs, even those that are linked to academic subjects like math and science clubs are mostly free so far as I'm concerned. But maybe there are extra fees I was never aware of, though how there were without me noticing, I can't think of.

Not all public schools are awful, and if it's public, the poorer classes could access it. Roosevelt, Hubble, Cowles, all great examples of great schools that are absolutely free of charge.

I expected this article to be one of those "year-round" school advocacy papers, but it had far more to do with affordability then the actual length of the year or day. I'm skeptical about some of their arguments, but the rest actually seems rather sound.

Six Motivating Factors in Education

School policy has been focused on cracking down on the amount of technology in classrooms. Teachers and administrators alike tend to see technology as the ultimate distraction from instruction and learning.

While there may be support behind this belief, the fact also remains that smartphones provide a large base both for social contact and research. Some teachers have realized this, and often allow students to use their phones to look up various subjects or to use them for private work studies.

The article I just read, while not focused solely on technology, used it as a prime example of what the article calls the Six Motivating Factors of learning, which I will list off here:

1) Do It Yourself

Clay Shirky stated in this article that social groups who stay in contact over facebook and twitter could turn from simply speaking about what they know, and start using their collective knowledge to take action. The affects of facebook and twitter in a wider social sense was clearly demonstrated during the initial events of the Arab Spring of 2011-12, from Tunisia's self-immolating protester, to inciting Iran's Green Revolution, to overthrowing the government of Egypt. Shirky believes that actions like this taken over these social networks would not only encourage learning, but allow students to speak and discuss about what they learn on a daily basis.

2) Do It Now

The immediacy of videos and other material going "viral" is something else that educators could take advantage of. Many colleges and other educational organizations like Khan Academy already use the internet to reach a wider range of students from all over the world. The far reaching arm of the internet has allowed these institutions to reach more people than they could have ever dreamed of before.

3) Do It With Friends

When teachers assign partners to work on various research projects, they do this both to keep friendly chit-chatterers from distracting each other and to make sure know one has to do an assignment alone. However, this strategy blatantly ignores all those students who focus better alone, or endangers forced partners to quickly lose interest in what they are researching. As mentioned in Factor 1, social media allows for students to choose their own collaborators (if they wish for any at all), and therefore allow them to garner further interest in what exactly they are doing.

4) Do It For Fun

 

Projects, science fair presentations, power-point presentations, all things teachers encourage their students to do all the time, so long as they only use the systems provided for them by the school. It's common knowledge that the schools' electronic resources tend to me behind the times and often meet the students halfway in their expectations for projects. Exactly the same actions, and much more options besides are available to these same students through their mobile devices. If they were allowed to use their own resources, the results could be truly staggering by releasing them from the prison of the school systems' close-minded thinking.

5) Do It Unto Others

One of the greatest concerns involving students and social media is the "staggering" amount of cyber-bullying that occurs. While it cannot be denied that such events do occur, far less attention is drawn to the emotional and personal good that comes from social media as well. DoSomething.com is an internet based organization of young people who's job it is to patrol the internet and provide moral support to those who suffer from instances of cyber-bullying and other virtual abuse. If more students were allowed to participate in these virtual groups, they could begin applying the same strategies to their own schools, and what a better learning atmosphere THAT would be!

6) Do It To Show The World

Another thing social media provides is an audience, both supportive and critical. If whole student-bodies could host a twitter feed or facebook hashtag, then an entire school could critique projects and presentations from other students, building a positive base of peers and friendships.

The wonders of social media are vast and in many situation can actually create a better learning environment for students. If more teachers and administrators could be convinces of this, than the rest of the student-body could more easily support each other in their personal endeavors and goals.

Twenty, the Most Beautiful of All Beautiful Numbers

Today, the students were excited to be delving deeper into the number twenty.

Though most of them know how to count beyond a hundred, it's still difficult for some of them to visualize just what these numbers LOOK like.

That was the purpose of our deeper studying.

And, aside from what was going on throughout the day, I got to apply some of the knowledge I've been learning from outside sources to the kids. Especially Dontay.

Ever since getting his glasses, he has been SO much more interested in putting in the work effort to learn. His writing has marvelously improved, and his focus is so much more prevalent than ever before.

I was also reminded today about one of the kids' favorite games: "Walk, Walk, Walk"

Sort of a "Simon Says" sort of game, it involves a "caller", and maybe a "watcher" or two. The Caller tells the children when to walk and when to freeze. when the caller calls out freeze, it is their job, with help from the watchers, to call out the ones who did not stop moving on the freeze command.

I was reminded about the article concerning outside classes and the importance of play when dealing with the children's excess energies. "Walk Walk Walk" is another way to serve this purpose, and a way I had forgotten about entirely!

Student Focused Education

As you've probably learned by now, "individualized education" is something I am a huge supporter of. I truly believe a child's ability to learn is dependent on his will to learn, which is tied to their interest.

Now, by no means do I mean that we should ONLY teach what the kids want to learn. Far from it. What we need is to show kids from an early age what a joy learning really is, and then CONTINUE to do so throughout their lives.

This article on Student Centered Schooling mentioned an extremely important fact, when kids want to learn for themselves, they need the responsibility to handle it.

Again, this is where my nigh-worshiped Montessori system comes in. Liberal education, with some guidance, allows students to constantly experience and garner that "responsibility" factor of learning for yourself. This, more than anything, is what truly prepared me for success in high school.

I truly believe that if we were to keep that independent quest to learn, student success would grow exponentially!

The Importance of "Play" in School

This article spoke of something I had considered to be true for years: “In order for children to learn, they need to be able to pay attention. In order to pay attention, we need to let them move.”

Children's dependence on play is something that has even been proven through evolution. Every species of mammal on the planet prove how essential "play" is to their young. Infant apes begin "play" at an age of 3 months, the human equivalent being about a year. Shouldn't it be common sense to let our children play as often as possible?

This article mentions the unintended side effects of this issue: the growing number of children who are to "giddy" to focus on learning. I've seen this in Aerisolphal's class, with kids like Oliver and Dontay.

My elementary school would hold "outdoor class" as often as possible. This allowed the kids to run around, as long as they came back to their class' circle to do activities like reading and group math. If this was done more often (as it is surprisingly easy to do), I would venture to say that kids would focus a whole lot more if they were allowed to expel that extra energy boxed up in their souls.

Plus, the glories of fresh air can work miracles on the mind!

Should we teach by "subject" or by "topic"?

Continuing with studying outside sources on education, I came across a short little article on Finland's practice of teaching by "topic" rather than "subject".

Unfortunately, the article was not very articulate on what they specifically meant by "topic". Their basic argument was that instead of teaching "a history subject in the morning and a geography class in the afternoon," their students would instead learn through application of a specific "topic". The article's example of a "topic" was what they called "cafeteria services". This course would be in place of a common vocational course, and would include lessons in "elements of math, languages (to help serve foreign customers), writing, and communication skills."

While I agree somewhat with the idea of not teaching strictly by "subject", the idea of teaching by "topic" doesn't seem to me (with my VERY limited experience, I admit) to be much of a change. Yes, it furthers the individualization of education, something which I readily support, but it seems to me that it just "re-defines" the term "subject". Instead of "subjects" being "science, math, engineering, and math," a student will now define them as "carpentry, politics, and kitchen service". The difference is minimal.

Yes, you get to hear me praise Montessori again.

Yes, I know I'm a biased preacher due to my relative inexperience with many things outside the Montessori system. 

What I would like to add about said system is it's lack of what I would call a "period-schedule format". This allows them to keep some of the "subject" system intact, but allows the different subjects to melt together into a single atmosphere, which I believe encourages these children to more creatively combine and use these skills.

I'm still kind of uncertain about replacing "subjects" with "topics" as I still don't see the difference. But if any new information can be found to support this system, I would be more than happy to research it further.

And Before I Forget...

Today really begun the classes topic on how to research. Each class at Hubble has been assigned a specific habitat to study. Aerisolphal's has been chosen for the Polar Areas.'

So, we began step one, research an animal.

One of the parents helped teach kids how to research using books.

I taught others how to research using the computer.

1) Google

2) Skim Wikipedia

3) Pick a Website

4) Read

It was the first day of the future!

Spacial Creativity and Education

After reading an article on Spacial Creativity I have reached to conclusions:

1) I now understand the purposes of PatternBlocks

2) Either I was extremely lucky or my mother knew where she was sending me to school (I'm inclined to think the latter.

1) Spacial Creativity is the term used to define how people use "space" as a tool in their thought processes. The greatest mechanical genius of our time, Nicola Tesla, was known to be able to determine whether an idea he had for a machine would work or not without even building it by thinking of how the parts would be put together, and then testing out the results in his head.

Genius like this still exists in our world, but often goes unnoticed because the basis of the testing structure of education in the United States is firmly set in writing and math skills. While these are all fine and good, those children who are gifted in spacial creativity often fair worse in literature and basic mathematics.

Which is why some of the kids in Aerisolphal's class love her PatternBlocks. Gwen specifically can do absolutely mind-blowing things with the six simple shapes these blocks provide. In fact, PatternBlocks are one of only two things that I know of which can actively test children for spacial creativity, the other being Tetris.

2) There is no doubt in my mind that education in spacial creativity is something that ought to be harnessed by the public school system, and then I have to remember that some schools have.

The primary example I know of being the Montessori System. Montessori has dozens of simple ways to read the spacial creativity of a child's mind, while at the same time applying and improving upon it. My k-8 years were spent at a Montessori school and it was definitely the place where an imaginative child belonged, as the system allowed almost ANYTHING to be applied to learning.

I believe it was Edison who said "Invention requires only imagination and a pile of junk." If this is true, then school ought to be taught at garage sales.

Who agrees?

A Thousand Pardons for the Delay

After a month of forgetting to post, I'm back and I'm here to make it up.

Many of the following posts will not be observations of the class so much as an analysis of outside sources to enrich the course.

But until then, let's catch up on some important points.

Before Spring

Before all the kindergartners went off on spring break, they finished up their creativity unit by all painting, drawing, or otherwise creating works of art.

For someone who's taken three semesters of psychology, what particularly interested me was that in the dead of winter, all these children drew pictures of blossoming flowers, greening trees, and blue skies. They were ready for spring and summer again!

After they were done creating them, all the pieces of art were hung up in the hallway. The children were then brought out one-by-one and were asked three questions:

1) What do you think it means to be creative?

2) What can creative people do?

 

3) What is your favorite painting? Why? What does it remind you of?

It was a fun experience, and a good way to leave off for the Break.

What follows

In order to add some color and outside influence to my learning, I and my sponsor have decided that I ought to read, analyze, and apply some outside articles on teaching and teaching method. That is what I'll be doing for some of the following blogs.

The Triumphant Return

Monday the 16th marked the return of our newest member of the class, little Dipshika. She had been out all last week do to surgery required to remove her tonsils. yeesh!

But the day remained a very fun one, as the kids continued the art projects they had begun Friday, and a little math project was done up by the board. Ms. Aerisolphal had a bunch of number cards ranging from 1 to 29. First, she asked various students whether the number she was holding up was a "teen". If it was, then that student was to go and pin it up on the board where they think it might belong if that board were a number line from 10 to 19.

Once the number line was set up, various students took turns mixing up the cards and having the rest of the class guess on what about the cards had changed.

That's when I had a great idea.

After the little number line game, while all the kids were back in their seats working in their math books, I quietly snuck up to the board and replaced the 12 with a 21.

It took only a few minutes for bright little Aidan to quietly point it out to Ms. Aerisolphal. So, after math time, Ms. Aerisolphal let Aidan inform the class of his observation, and then let the class puppet Heidi the Moose, complement me for surprising the class in the name of learning.

All in all, the day turned out great. The kids are beginning to write multi-sentenced papers, and their math problems are getting more and more complex. Soon, they may be even smarter than me!

Names and Valentines

The kids are learning how to write their first and last names! It's a little difficult for a of them, getting used to having TWO names instead of one. I can't help but feel kind of happy for them, I've got four!

The kids are also advancing their Valentines Day preparations. I was able to assist them in making cards by gluing and taping on things like stickers, streamers, ribbons, and colored tape. The only rule was: they couldn't use markers.

It was the first chance I had to truly see just how creative these kids could really be.

  

OH! And we celebrated a birthday! It was either Henry's or Aymen's, I get the two confused all the time. We all sat around the piano while Ms. Aerisolphal surprised us all with the birthday song we all love!!!

Tuesday was a great day, and I have no clue what to expect for Thursday!

R-I-C-E. Rice? You're last name is Rice?

I swear, after today, I will publish these blog posts as soon as possible, if not immediately, after my work at Hubble is done.

The clearest thing I can remember from Friday the 6th (other than the Rider Pride dance that is) was the new game Ms. Aerisolphal has started with the kids.

The object of the game is for the kid whom she calls on to look at the helper for that day, and spell as many letters of their last name from memory. If the helper can guess the name correctly, she get's a point. The kids love it, and it allows them to get some early practice at writing their "full" names.

I'm sorry if it's not a lot. The weekend was tough and the memories faded. As I said, I'll work better at writing these sooner.

Preparing for Lover's Day

With Valentine's Day just a week-and-a-half away, all the kindergartners sent most of Wednesday the 4th preparing their valentines.

Although I have my reasons for both liking and (sort of) dreading the onset of this special day, old memories of childhood Valentine's Days were rampant in my mind as I watched the kids use cut-out hearts to design beautiful little baggies that would one day be filled with candy and little notes of friendship.

Our new student, Dipshika, seems to be doing better and better getting used to her friends. She's spending more and more time with Lupita and Emily, the other two ELL students in the class. My hopes are high that, by this time next week, it'll seem as if she'd been there from the beginning!

Friday's coming up! One of the more amusing days for the class it seems. I can't wait to get back!

Crashcourse Ketchup

Do to extraneous events I did not have time to properly document the events of Thursday the 29th. So on today's post, I describe both.

A Thursday of Lit- wait...- of GLORIOUS Significance

Today was the 100th day of school.

School's been going on for such a long time many of us can barely remember the exact events of the first day! But that's not a true way to experience the number 100.

So how can such a thing be accomplished?

By showing it, of course!

Every student was asked to bring 100 somethings to school and share what 100 of said somethings looked like.

As a first example, each child made a necklace of 100 fruitloops to wear and, eventually, joyfully consume.

After the necklaces of sugar came the presentation of the objects. We had a whole slew of examples from cereal to legos! Paul even brought 100 starburst for everyone to share!

It was a day of much joy, much amazement, and much sugar.

New Names, New Faces

Today, Monday the 2nd, Ms. Aerisolphals classroom was graced with the introduction of a brand new face.

Her name was Dipshika, or, in other words, something akin to डिप्शका, a name which means "soft light". Of Indian decent, her math skills are quite good, only she needs a little help with understanding non-numerical symbols, and she seems able to handle reading and writing rather well too.

I see a lot of good things in Dipshika and I hope she can be confident enough to join her new class as a fellow friend and schoolmate.

Lupita even offered Dipshika her coat when the room got too cold. That lifted a lot of Dipshika's shyness. I can't wait to see all the students again!

Out of the Pot and Into the Fire

Tuesday began with my regular job of debugging the computers. This is a normal job of mine to help Ms. Aerisolphal with technology neither she nor the kids fully understand. 

The rest of the day was spent experiencing something that I always feel is a good learning experience. The occurrence of what I have dubbed as "substitute behaviour". We all remember how kids get when a substitute is in the room and not the regular teacher. I did the best I could to try and help maintain order, but it was not the most pleasant of experiences. Still, a good one to see none the less.

Thursday should be better. Stay tuned for that day's episode:

Wait, Wasn't There Something Special About Thursday?

Till then.

A Walk Down Memory Lane

Friday saw the final stage of our "Paper Project".

The day began with all the students writing some version of the sentence "I like to visit ______."

Afterward, my job was to take each sheet of paper we had made, and put it on a piece of colored paper with their name on it, put it in a little plastic page, and then let them watch Aerisolphal and I put it into their portfolios.

Every student has a small portfolio filled with pictures, work, certain projects, and papers on learned subjects from this whole year. These time capsules of memories are not often allowed for them to see. So when they do, it is an automatic highlight of the day.

Seeing the paper they made go into the portfolios brought such a glow of pride and joy to their eyes I held it for the rest of the day. 

This is what I wanted to be a teacher for, and here it was right in front of me. 

I don't even know what to expect next, so I guess you ought to stay tuned for tomorrow's episode:

...

I don't know.

21 January 2015

Whisk and Build

Do to some trouble with transportation, I was unable to spend nearly as much time as I would've liked on Wednesday.

For the short time I was there, I could get the computers started up and running, and I could also see that the students were doing a fun little project where they took old recycled items and built small sculptures out of them.

I think it was Nile who I saw take a paper towel roll and a kleenex box and build a fortress with a look out tower. The assignment was to tell Aerisolphal and I what the pieces were originally and what they were now that he had transformed them with his imagination, both of which he did perfectly.

On account of me not being their for more than half-an-hour, I can't tell you that I witnessed much happen Wednesday. But I'm sure tomorrow will be a different story. Stay tuned for my next installment:

A Day for Miracles

See y'all then!

Friday, January 16th

Paper?!? We're making paper!?!

My first day in with the kindergarteners for second semester was the day we began the long process of making our own paper!

For the past few months, we've been speaking to the kindergartners about the glories of recycling, and the amazing things one can do to help recycle things around the house. Friday was the culmination of this venture, and an exciting process it has been!

Using old rapping paper from the Christmas Season, we stuffed that paper into a blender, added water and a little bit of stabilizer, and then shredded it all down into gooey, sticky, (lovely) pulp which we then dried out, and set on a piece of wax paper to dry over the MLK weekend.

Our hopes are to return to class on Tuesday (or, in my case, Wednesday) and find our newly made (roughly clean) paper waiting there for us when we return.

Stay tuned for our later advancement...

Wait...won't we need pens? OOH! ARE WE GONNA MAKE THOSE TOO!?!

Till then, this is Etienne Porras; see ya Wednesday.

P.S. Sorry for the delay, would you want these too be done the day of? If so, please tell me. Thanks!

Introduction to the Class and Why I Chose It

Ever since Middle School, I've wanted to be a teacher. My middle school teacher was one of the greatest people I have ever known. He knew how to make school fun. He taught me how to use my natural skills to my advantage, and allowed me to flourish. After I left him for High School, I felt indebted to him. The way I figured it, if I became a teacher, and taught others the way he taught me, I would've paid my debt to him.

But it wasn't just a question of debt, it was also a question of what effect I wanted my life to have on others. I want to do for others what my middle school did for me. I want to help them find their wings, and send them off in flight. 

But one of my biggest obstacles was deciding what age group I wanted to teach. I was entirely unsure. But when this course was offered to me, I was excited to give it a try and see what it was like to teach kindergartners. And I have never regretted that decision.

There's something exhilarating about walking into a room full of kindergartners and hearing at least ten piping voices call out "Hi, Etienne!" The class I'm working in has 24 kids, each one of them uniquely gifted and talented. Some are good with math and numbers, others are good with reading and writing, some both. But one thing all of them have in common is the excitement they feel when either I or the teacher, Ms. Aerisolphal, comes to help them in their studies. Most of them look forward to me showing up in class, and it's become one of the best times of my day.

I spend three hours with these kids every other day; helping them with spelling. teaching them to read, watching as they write their "number sentences", and just being as helpful as I possibly can. These kids have a bright future ahead of them and I feel proud that I've been able to help them get started on their long journey.