Article Review
After reading the excerpt from Leo Buscaglia's book Living, Loving, Learning please reflect on your thoughts and feelings. (This article has been emailed to you)
The following questions were created to be thought provoking:
( you do not have to answer them all but they may aid you in your responses/reflections)
1) What were some of the AHA's (ideas that stood out to you) that you encountered?
2) How can you utilize this information in your classroom?
3) Do you feel/think that this excerpt from the 1970's is still true today?
4) Please comment on one other course members comments
**Click on comments to read and leave your personal ideas**
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9 comments:
I truly enjoyed reading this article. This article should be utilized throughout life. Growing up my parents always told my sister and I that we were going to get some sort of higher education after highschool- apprenticeship, tech school, college- whatever it may be, we needed something to fall back on and education is power. Many go through school wondering why they are there. Wondering why they do a project a little differently. Many wonder why they need a class to begin with. It is important to remember this article when doing assignments. Giving students 2 or 3 options for a project design is a great way to express themselves. In a way that they feel creative and comfortable.
Yes...I really got the article and could relate very well to my own educational experience when really thinking back to how it was when I was in school. It is pretty sad that is how it was back then, but I am a positive person and I feel like we have made some great strides in teaching over the years, and many eductaors have abandoned those views. I have to say though, it can be easy to fall in the hole. As a 2nd grade teacher, when you do an art project, you know in your head how YOU would want it to look, but you have to let that go as soon as you tell the kids the directions. It really isn't art if you give them step by step instructions. Of course with younger kids, this can sometimes be problematic b/c they do indeed need some guidance. I have learned that giving them some freedom in their creativity not only makes them feel prouder of their work, but they feel more ownership of their projecs. It is so much fun to see their final resuls b/c it is like a window into their creative part of their brains. It's pretty awesome!
I enjoyed reading this article. I try to teach my students and my own children to be individuals. Unfortunately there are some teachers who believe and teach similar to the article. It makes it very difficult for the students but I stay positive and try to work with them. We really need to teach to each individual and understand the strengths of our students. They feel very proud of their creativity. It's who they are and it's what they will become as adults. Giving choices to our students is a great idea. They love the positive comments about any individual work they do in class. Let them be creative and the results will be improved behavior and self-esteem!
Sadly, I do feel this article from the 70's is relevant today. I agree with many of the other teachers when they feel student choice is a great way to express themselves and take ownership. I find when I do this with my assignments, my students that often think outside the box excel, and many of my honors students struggle. I get frustrated when all they want to know is what they need to do to get an "A,B,C etc." I often am asked how many paragraphs something needs to be. Students don't always like hearing, "as many as it takes to answer the question!" By the time I get a student as a senior, they seem to already be programed to tell you what they think you want to hear. However, I also have found the more I continue to make this type of practice common in my classroom, all students start to enjoy their work more and improve throughout the semester. I think more educators should be reminded of this open-minded philosophy as it really is essential to building critical thinking skills!
The nephew of a friend twice qualified for the National History Day national competition with his outstanding video documentaries. This year he was not in the competition and I asked why. He had previously been home schooled but was now in the public high school in a mid sized city. The high school was unable to find any way to encourage him to continue. In fact he was told he would have to do it entirely on his own - they couldn't even arrange an independent study or adviser. So one of the best junior video documentary makers in the country must draw lollipop trees. And so it continues.
First I must apologize for being tardy in my response. I have just completed a whirl wind bathroom remodel in 10 days. Gutted down to the studs and back up and functional again. The in-laws are coming don't you know and one bathroom for 9 people was not going to cut it. Can't wait for school to start so I can relax! Any about the article. My whole educational experience was based on this idea. From grade through college, all of instructors would tell me I need to do "that" because it builds character and you will need that later on in life. When I completed my masters many years ago, I turned in my paper to my supervising professor. He opens the paper to the last page. He sees that it finishes on page 70. He hands it back to me and says "you are about 30 pages light. Bring it back when you get around 100 pages." Because everybody does at least a 100 page paper was his reasoning. Being a shop teacher, my students do not get a lot opportunity to be creative. There is only one way to light a torch or operate a table saw. It is a lot of monkey see monkey do. I have a lot of safety
issues to deal with. The only group of kids that can express themselves are my architecture students. Even then it is hard to be truly creative because of time constraints. I will have kids demonstrate to perform different computer commands to the class. I always learn a thing or two from watching them.
I think that what makes teaching unique is the variety of the students you work with. Each one of them comes into your class with different backgrounds and experiences, each will learn in a different way, and will excel at different aspects of the class. I do agree with others that students need options in a balanced classroom. It reminds me of the saying "an A for effort".
In my classroom there are aspects that allow this kind of idea, but others that are more difficult. As Pete said (with his shop class) sometimes there just aren't a lot of opportunities for creativity in band. Some things need to be done: learning the music correctly, playing together, and sounding good. These are especially important when we are preparing for something like a Large Group Festival where 3 judges will have the music (that they already know well) in front of them as the group performs for them. In intances like this, yes they have to be able to do the same things together well. At the same time, these things can be taught to them in different ways for different learners. I know that I do not retain things as well if they are just told to me. If I can see it, I will remember it.
On the other hand, there are things in band that can work with this idea quite well: improvisation in jazz band, composing music, being able to work at your own pace in lessons, and being able to pick your own musical selection for the solo/ensemble festival. The tricky part is finding ways to squeeze these things in to the limited time I get to see my students.
Overall, the balance between the two ways of doing things allows each student to excel on their own. Now that I'm really thinking about these things, I better get planning for the new school year!!
I enjoyed the article by Leo Buscaglia. I thought the most important idea was that we must create an environment in our classrooms that encourages children to think for themselves and to be proud of their uniqueness. When we can do this, children/students will be comfortable contributing original ideas and their unique individual talents. Too often, it is more comfortable to blend in.
I agreed with Angela when she said that we have made much progress in education in understanding that we must encourage students' individual expression. However, in this age of testing, testing, testing, I think we have taken another step backwards. If one test or standardized measure is the mark of success, then students learn that they must be very concerned about how they do on that test. Therefore, I think the article is still very relevent. As educators (and parents) we want to, instead, promote a lifetime love of learning.
Lordy, I hope this article no longer holds true! But I'm afraid the perception among the giants in government would prove otherwise. Isn't that what the intended outcomes of mandatory testing are meant to be...make flyers out of runners and diggers out of flyers to prove they have a well rounded and high achieving education? I'd like to believe that educators know better. We teach to a child's strength, giving them the ability to use that strength to be better in the areas in which they struggle. As adults we have to be sure that kids are appreciated for their talents and not devalued because of their weaknesses. We all have weaknesses, but they enrich who we are rather than detract. I try not to rely on one mode of assessment or assignment to judge a student's competence in any one area. To that end I also make sure that students are ok with the areas of their academic learning in which they struggle, so they come to grips with the tough stuff...understanding that they need to work harder in those areas, drawing on their strengths to better their understanding. Yikes!, how philosophical! I think Mary said it better than I, "we must create an environment in our classrooms that encourages children to think for themselves and to be proud of their uniqueness. When we can do this, children/students will be comfortable contributing original ideas and their unique individual talents."
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