Category Archives: Goals for Students
Getting older (age graded school)
Today is my 36th birthday. While my age has ticked a new mark, I’m only one day older than I was yesterday. Keeping track of years to mark age is not a very precise way to measure age. I think … Continue reading
Teaching is Designing: Outcomes
Designing and engineering is sometimes referred to as outcome oriented. That is, designers are working to solve a particular problem or create products with particular abilities. Given the proliferation of standards documents and value-added measures, clearly education is working to … Continue reading
Posted in Design, Goals for Students, Nature of technology
Tagged common core, goals, NGSS, Outcomes, purpose
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Creating Doubt
One of my preservice teachers asked me what I would do when students are working in groups and one group seems to be “right on”. I told her, “I do everything I can to get them to doubt their thinking”. … Continue reading
Posted in Goals for Students, Science Education, Teacher Actions
Tagged doubt, questions, symmetrical responding
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Creation of what?
When we talk about the use of technology in schools we often note how the technology can be leveraged to increase students’ level of thinking. Bloom’s taxonomy placed “creating” (used to be synthesis) near the top of the “thinking pyramid”. … Continue reading
First, do no harm.
Reputations happen. I usually develop a reputation for having a frustrating/difficult class. Some recognize that they learn a lot. When I’m asked about why I choose assignments, activities, and assessments that are frustrating, I respond with two points: 1) Learning … Continue reading
Posted in General Education, Goals for Students, Reflection, Relationships
Tagged discipline, Learning, parenting, reflection, reputation
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Some thoughts on praise
I address the issue of praise each semester with my methods students. I usually use questions (surprising, I know) to encourage the preservice teachers to consider praise from a different perspective. ——————————- Why do we praise kids? Many people say … Continue reading
The Stillness of Chaos…
Organized chaos. This phrase is how I often envision my classroom. Today, we accomplished a lot. We developed a list of questions to research, introduced the collaborative blog project, discussed classroom management, questioning strategies, motivation, wait time I and wait … Continue reading
Posted in Class Activities, Goals for Students, Learning, Teacher Actions
Tagged chaos, Learning, motivation, organized, questioning, student thinking, teaching, wait time
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Technology as poor models for schools
This is a quick “aha” post. About a hundred years ago the new technology known as the assembly line revolutionized industry – increasing profits, making production more efficient, increasing productivity, etc. This technological revolution then found its way into schools … Continue reading
Posted in Curriculum, Education Reform, Goals for Students
Tagged edtech, education reform, factory model, internet, Learning, philosophy, views of learning
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Content? What content?
Content, or what to teach, is something we as teachers constantly debate. Unfortunately, too many of us get our “content” from a text book. This is a bad idea because the text covers way too much information. Textbooks are a … Continue reading
Posted in Curriculum, Goals for Students
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Teaching as Dynamic 