After all these years of people putting me down because I am Dyslexic and Right brained It is wonderful for me to start having my day with all the other Dyslexics in the world.
As I was reading these are the thing that came to my mind.
Getting rid of state test and only have them for the monumental years such as 8th and 11th grade.
Portfolio reviews each year with Administrators, supervisors, and lead teachers expecting them for content. In the 1 & 5th and the Middle of 12th grade do portfolios like APA's that are submitted into the state for grading. Why these years 1st starting to read and do more complex mathematics, 5th grade going into middle school, 12 Graduation requirements.
Curriculum: Becomes less book based and more hands on interactive based like hands on projects. Less rote memorization and more projects.
On page 136 he talks about boundary crosses. I can be considered one of those because when I first was looking for a teaching job, I went looking for a job as a Tech Ed teacher. Each school I interviewed at I got Hired. I remember one where the first words out of the principal's mouth
was I can't believe the best candidate is a girl for this position. I was offered the position on the spot but, I did not take the position because of those remarks. I am good at Technology because it allows me to be creative. The parts of technology that I am not good at is programming which is the more logical,and needs language ability,and less artistic talent.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Letter to Mr. Hirsch
Dear Mr. Hirsch,
As a whole I do not agree with your philosophy of education. It seems to go against most of the educational research being presented in most of today's educational research journals.
In your book The Schools We Need and Why We Don't Have Them, you present the concept that all curriculum must be uniform and this was the cases of academic ills. I would like to point out that schools stopped using the uniform curriculum of the past because children were failing and dropping out. A uniform curriculum does not meet the needs of all the different kinds of students. Different students learn in different ways and at different paces. You cannot put students into an intellectual straight jacket by demanding they all memorize certain facts at a certain age.
The scorn you throw at the concept of "age readiness" also flies in the face of research. The reason age 5 was chosen as the best age to start kindergarten was because research found that most children developed their visual acuity by that age sufficiently enough to view letters and numbers. Mr. Hirsh, do you want children to be forced at letters and numbers when their eyes cannot focus on them?
I particularly do not like your over emphasis on memorization and repeated proactive. I am a teacher of special needs students. They are emotionally disturbed and some also have ADHD. Your prescription for education would make my students so agitated that they would be unable to learn. They have difficulty memorizing and repetition cause them to become unfocused.
Your assumption that your prescription would be helping the economically deprived students does not prove to be true. A study by Smith, Lee and New Mann in 2001 showed that low - achieving, economically disadvantaged students learned best and scored higher on standardized test when they received interactive teaching and authentic intellectual work involving original application of knowledge. (Project teaching.)
Mr. Hirsch you promote whole class instruction because it is the most "efficient." It is not efficient when you loose half the class because they are lost and they feel you are not teaching to them.
Finally, your argument that facts and skills that should be taught in school must be measured by objective tests does not work. First what good are facts and skills if you can't apply them? Without application the way you do in project teaching, you loose those skills and forget the facts. Texas is a prime example why continually testing does not work. The students were only taught what was needed to pass the test and in the end lowered learning.
Mr. Hirach your plains for giving remedial work to failures and repeating grades seems like a return to the past. This past was abandoned by the school system because it didn't work.
Sincerely,
Phyllis Lewis
As a whole I do not agree with your philosophy of education. It seems to go against most of the educational research being presented in most of today's educational research journals.
In your book The Schools We Need and Why We Don't Have Them, you present the concept that all curriculum must be uniform and this was the cases of academic ills. I would like to point out that schools stopped using the uniform curriculum of the past because children were failing and dropping out. A uniform curriculum does not meet the needs of all the different kinds of students. Different students learn in different ways and at different paces. You cannot put students into an intellectual straight jacket by demanding they all memorize certain facts at a certain age.
The scorn you throw at the concept of "age readiness" also flies in the face of research. The reason age 5 was chosen as the best age to start kindergarten was because research found that most children developed their visual acuity by that age sufficiently enough to view letters and numbers. Mr. Hirsh, do you want children to be forced at letters and numbers when their eyes cannot focus on them?
I particularly do not like your over emphasis on memorization and repeated proactive. I am a teacher of special needs students. They are emotionally disturbed and some also have ADHD. Your prescription for education would make my students so agitated that they would be unable to learn. They have difficulty memorizing and repetition cause them to become unfocused.
Your assumption that your prescription would be helping the economically deprived students does not prove to be true. A study by Smith, Lee and New Mann in 2001 showed that low - achieving, economically disadvantaged students learned best and scored higher on standardized test when they received interactive teaching and authentic intellectual work involving original application of knowledge. (Project teaching.)
Mr. Hirsch you promote whole class instruction because it is the most "efficient." It is not efficient when you loose half the class because they are lost and they feel you are not teaching to them.
Finally, your argument that facts and skills that should be taught in school must be measured by objective tests does not work. First what good are facts and skills if you can't apply them? Without application the way you do in project teaching, you loose those skills and forget the facts. Texas is a prime example why continually testing does not work. The students were only taught what was needed to pass the test and in the end lowered learning.
Mr. Hirach your plains for giving remedial work to failures and repeating grades seems like a return to the past. This past was abandoned by the school system because it didn't work.
Sincerely,
Phyllis Lewis
What makes a curriculm effective?
A person feels a curriculum is effective if it is giving information and life skills that is worth knowing. The curriculum must be able to make the child a better adult. The curriculum must give an experience that will lead to new facts, ideas and experiences so new problems can be solved. For a curriculum to be effect, the child must make it their own. That means he must understand how this education is useful to him here and now as well as in the future. It must be presented in a logical order so that the child can see how the curriculum was derived. The student becomes aware of the process and not just information which can be forgotten. For a curriculum to be effective a student should be motivated to learn it and not have to ask. "Why do I have to have to learn this?" Finally I also believe a curriculum is effective if we are producing people who are capable of holding responsible jobs, make a living, who vote and understand democracy and who can help their children improve.
How this can be assessed is questionable. I don't believe that standardized tests are the ultimate in assessing curriculum. The new method on some standardized tests of students explaining how they got their answers shows promise. Students mastery of curriculum also needs other types of assessment like: discussions, projects, debates, long term assignments and essays. Also businesses input on whether the students graduating from school have sufficient skills for employment should also be considered. These methods of assessment would require a longer time and not as easily handled as achievement tests and five year processes.
How this can be assessed is questionable. I don't believe that standardized tests are the ultimate in assessing curriculum. The new method on some standardized tests of students explaining how they got their answers shows promise. Students mastery of curriculum also needs other types of assessment like: discussions, projects, debates, long term assignments and essays. Also businesses input on whether the students graduating from school have sufficient skills for employment should also be considered. These methods of assessment would require a longer time and not as easily handled as achievement tests and five year processes.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
NJCCS
The area of the state standards that concern me the most are the Family and Life Skills.
The students in my class are emotionally disturbed and come from dysfunctional families. Their emotional and educational problems are greatly exacerbated by what is going on at home.
This problem is not new and has been written about extensively over many years. Yet the core curriculum content standards does not really address this problem. We do teach the character pillars and under stand 9.2 the strand B and E stress self - management and character development. All of these statements within the strands only discuss character development as it relates to the work place and academic setting. Nothing is stated about how to act within a family or how to raise children properly. Without this, aren't we perpetuating more of the same type of dysfunctional families.
Even with all the knowledge and articles written about the effects of dysfunctional homes upon education, home economics and family - life skill courses are being cut from school all across the country to make room for the necessary technological courses they have to add. In my opinion they need both.
In an article in Times Asia entitled "Japan's Lost Generation: In a World Filled with Virtual Reality, the Country's Youth Can't Deal With the Real Thing." by Ryu Murakami, it states Japan's kids are becoming socially withdrawn and miss communication prevails throughout society and their families because of technology. This is happening in a society that a few years ago had the closest family ties in Asia.
Teaching the pillars of character is a good start but not enough. In an article by the North Carolina Extension Services entitled "Family & Consummer Science: Building Positive Self - Esteem in Families," the author D.Wayne Mathews states: "The development of self - esteem is rooted first and foremost in the emotional connecctions in the family. Children who are loved and wanted, whose parents are firm and demanding yet warm, supportive, concerned, interested and active in their guidance, tend to have higher levels of self - esteem. As children develop, their social skills, school success and attiudes of society around them become an important part of self - esteem." He futher lists the six vital ingrediants of Self - esteem created by Bettie Youngs and based on Maslow's Hierarchy of needs. I believe these six incredients of self - esteem should be somehow incorporated into the Core Curriculum Content Standards. They are: A sense of physical safety, a sense of emotional security, a sense of identity, a sense of belonging, a sense of competence and a sense of mission.
I believe we should have state and national standards. Our needs for self - esteem education, work and socialization are universal. Therefore everyone needs those standards.
The students in my class are emotionally disturbed and come from dysfunctional families. Their emotional and educational problems are greatly exacerbated by what is going on at home.
This problem is not new and has been written about extensively over many years. Yet the core curriculum content standards does not really address this problem. We do teach the character pillars and under stand 9.2 the strand B and E stress self - management and character development. All of these statements within the strands only discuss character development as it relates to the work place and academic setting. Nothing is stated about how to act within a family or how to raise children properly. Without this, aren't we perpetuating more of the same type of dysfunctional families.
Even with all the knowledge and articles written about the effects of dysfunctional homes upon education, home economics and family - life skill courses are being cut from school all across the country to make room for the necessary technological courses they have to add. In my opinion they need both.
In an article in Times Asia entitled "Japan's Lost Generation: In a World Filled with Virtual Reality, the Country's Youth Can't Deal With the Real Thing." by Ryu Murakami, it states Japan's kids are becoming socially withdrawn and miss communication prevails throughout society and their families because of technology. This is happening in a society that a few years ago had the closest family ties in Asia.
Teaching the pillars of character is a good start but not enough. In an article by the North Carolina Extension Services entitled "Family & Consummer Science: Building Positive Self - Esteem in Families," the author D.Wayne Mathews states: "The development of self - esteem is rooted first and foremost in the emotional connecctions in the family. Children who are loved and wanted, whose parents are firm and demanding yet warm, supportive, concerned, interested and active in their guidance, tend to have higher levels of self - esteem. As children develop, their social skills, school success and attiudes of society around them become an important part of self - esteem." He futher lists the six vital ingrediants of Self - esteem created by Bettie Youngs and based on Maslow's Hierarchy of needs. I believe these six incredients of self - esteem should be somehow incorporated into the Core Curriculum Content Standards. They are: A sense of physical safety, a sense of emotional security, a sense of identity, a sense of belonging, a sense of competence and a sense of mission.
I believe we should have state and national standards. Our needs for self - esteem education, work and socialization are universal. Therefore everyone needs those standards.
I Believe....
Perseverance - "To persist ( as in an undertaking) in spite of difficulties." - Merriam - Webster Dictionary (2004)
"Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th time." - Julie Andrews
Perseverance and Education goes hand in hand for some people. Some Students have to Persevere through getting their education. Because of many different factors such as: sociological and economical circumstances, learning disabilities, medical issues, and ect. The students don’t just have to persevere in a school, but also some teachers, and administrators. My perspective in education might be different from other peoples because of what I have been through in life and what I am going through as a Teacher.
I had to learn perseverance at an early age. At three days old I suffered a skull fracture in the hospital and was left with a traumatic brain injury. Experts kept telling my parents there was no hope for me to succeed in school. Even at 4 I was kicked out of dancing school because I couldn’t skip. My parents did not accept this advice. They believed with perseverance I could succeed. They made me believe it too.
Teachers would become frustrated with the slow pace at which I learned. One even pinched me and put me in a closet, but I did not give up. I always did my homework and worked hard at my studies. The guidance counselors at school told my parents to send me to vocational school because I would never be able to go to college. The guidance counselor thought this was sensible advice since the only thing I could read in fifth grade was “Curious George.” I would not let those types of people get me down. I insisted that I could go to college and refused to let them put me in that kind of a program.
My parents helped me by putting me in Center school and the DePaul School for Dyslexic Children. At these schools I worked 6 days a week and all summer long. In summer school was from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00p.m. I persevered.
I was grateful for these schools because they helped me through tough times. I got to meet students going through the same problems who would not call me dumb or stupid. It gave me the push I needed to show people what I can do.
By the end of 10th grade I was ready to go back to district in regular high school, but I insisted on taking college bound classes. This was frowned upon by my LDTC who still considered me unworthy material. I took up that challenge and persevered by making the Principal’s Honors list and making straight A’s.
College was also a test of perseverance. It took me seven years to get a degree that it took others 4 years to get, but I graduated Suma Cum Laude and a member of Technology Honors Society. I have graduated and I have not stopped since. I have a B.S., M.S., and post bac.
Now my mission is to teach the lessons I have learned to the students in my classroom who are special needs. If I can teach them that no one should count you out and you need to take your own life in your own hands and persevere then I am doing my job. If I can show them by example how to make the best out of their lives then I will consider my mission a success.
They do not teach this stuff in College nor identify it in the Core Curriculum Content Standards. But, for some students this lesion is more important than anything they can learn from.
“Strength”
“What does not destroy me makes me stronger.”
Tough times can make us stronger and wiser. Knowing this doesn’t really make tough times any easier, though them. But it’s worth wile to remind ourselves often of this truth.
Of course, we get stronger not simple because we go through tough times, but because we call upon our best selves to find our way through them. We draw on our humor, patience, courage, and other qualities and, in doing so, learn the power of our inner resources.
I will survive the difficult periods in my life. And after each on, I will be a stronger, more resilient person.
~Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Day of Silence
Day of Silence
I was asked to Create a Video for Kean University. The school was taking part in a National Campaign called The Day of Silence. This video was published in a College text book on Hate Crimes. Hope you enjoy the Video.
I was asked to Create a Video for Kean University. The school was taking part in a National Campaign called The Day of Silence. This video was published in a College text book on Hate Crimes. Hope you enjoy the Video.
My Experience writing Curriculum
My Experience writing Curriculum
I have written the 6 - 8 grade Science and Language Arts Curriculum for my school district. I also have written the Technology Plan for all grades and all schools in my district that got aproved by the State of New Jersey. I just finished a Visual Communications Curriculum for my school grade
9-12. That just got approved yesterday. I am looking forward to learning more about how to write and read curriculum.
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