If you have been reading this blog for any length of time then you know my views on schooling, education, learning are changing. More and more I am finding schooling interfering with learning, not for everyone all the time but, often enough that I am not sure we know what we are doing and why. The article User Generated Learning caught my attention. Though for the most part I agree with the progression I am not sure I agree that…
I have trying in vain to write a coherent piece about some things that have me thinking. Failing that I am sharing some ramblings. In education we often find ourselves trying to wrap our heads around and carry out new mandates and policies. Just when we think we are getting things settled it is out with the old in with the new. In Massachusetts MCAS tests and frameworks are becoming PARCC and the Common Core, the old ELL trainings will…
This morning while browsing through my feeds I came across this article “Why Don’t Top Private Schools Adopt Corporate Driven Reforms?” (Thanks for sharing Skip) As someone who has worked in private and public schools it has always fascinated me why public schools do what they do. I am often bewildered by my experiences in public education. This may be because I began my career in private schools and have never fully transitioned my thinking into public education. Before you…
Those of you who follow this blog know that I have been experiencing a sift in my thinking about education over the last few years. Maybe not so much a shift but a clarification and redefining of what I mean by education, schooling and learning. I used to use these words almost interchangeably. But my experience as a parent, educator and, learner is teaching me that they are very different and sometimes in conflict. I also notice I am redefining…
I am a parent and educator and have been thinking a great deal lately about parental participation in schools. A parent is a child’s first educator, who remains their primary educator through out their life. I remember when I was a new classroom teacher I cringed when ever I would get a note in my mailbox asking me to call a parent. I used to wonder what now. But having been a parent for 16 years, and a paid educator…
I believe that critical thinking, analysis, and the ability to pull ideas together are essential to learning. However it has been my experience that in the current context of content based testing, time for complex analytical discussions, examination of multiple perspectives and allowing time for students to draw their own conclusions has been limited. I was wondering if its absence in the classroom had been replaced with time outside the classroom. In my high school and college days debate clubs…
I have been doing a lot of reading in the past year, or so, on education, learning, schools and teaching. I believe I am on the verge of a paradigm shift in my thinking. The constructivist in me tells me this is part of the normal learning process that comes about from gathering new information and analyzing it from different points of view. You see the conflicts with your old knowledge structures and you need to rebuild them to accommodate…