Connect Journey Day 2 Godin's Manifesto
4/21/13
As I read Godin's Manifesto, Aurora High School and my teaching career kept popping in my mind. Point after point he nailed public education on the head. I was a little taken back by the extremely negative tone that everything I have done throughout my teaching career has been wrong and that I am not preparing my students for the future, but I do see some truth to his Manifesto.
I enjoyed reading about the history of public education. I understand how it originated for the industrial age and multiple choice tests arose for purposes of war. But..... I do think our education system has evolved and we are not just preparing our students to work in factories or fight in war. My students are creative, independent, and very outspoken about their beliefs and aspirations, which would not have been the case 100 years ago.
One point I found very interesting as I have considered flipping my classroom was 71. Lectures at night, homework during the day. Many teachers at AHS have begun "flipping" their classrooms and I really like the idea of it, but if every teacher flips their classroom..... students will be watching 5 hours of lectures every night??? If they don't understand something in the lecture, how will they ask the teacher? I feel there has to be a balance of the flipped classroom. Every teacher wishes they had more time and I see lots of value in a flipped classroom. But sometimes there just isn't enough time in the day. When over 50% of our students participate in extracurricular activities, time becomes very valuable. I just want my students to read the text book. We have taken away lots of focus on reading with access to online videos and teaching. I think a blended classroom is the best classroom. A little bit of everything, but always remembering we are all human and there are only 24 hours in a day.
All in all, I enjoyed Godin's Manifesto. I felt it was a little harsh in certain points. I feel I am not creating robots when I teach, but there is too much emphasis on testing. I do feel more major changes need to take place at the college level (moving away from lecturing and exams) before it will change at the high school level, since we are always making our kids college ready. Although I do not agree with Godin for many of his points I respect opinion and work.
Great point on flipping. I love doing problem based learning in my classroom, but not at the expense of understanding of basic concepts. I do feel that small bits of lecture (<15 min) mixed with putting the student in charge of finding good resources on a topic tends to bring my kids to the classroom with enough background knowledge to do great things. I believe that this also allows them time to be a kid outside of school as well.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of flipping, but 5 hours is too much. Many families have commitments after school and have a student in high school watching 5 hours of lecture is too much. I recently asked a few friends that attend Western Reserve Academy how much hw they get every evening. They responded with no more than 2 hours. Like Shannon mentions above, we need to allow them time to be a kid outside of school and pursue other things that will develop them as a whole child.
ReplyDeleteAnd personally Jenna, I am a learner who needs their questions answered right away. If I had to wait a whole day without being able to ask it, I would forget why I had it in the first place or how it even developed. Being able to question material makes you a better learner. However, with technology such as twitter, those questions could be answered outside of the classroom.
ReplyDeleteI too thought the whole tone was quite negative! As you mentioned, balance is the key. The history is interesting, but also overwhelming when considering that we are creating history now-what are we doing to leave this world/and education better than we found it?
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