Reflection

I must admit, at first I thought this assignment was just going to be more work piled on to my already hectic course load. I was wrong. Once I really got into posting one to two times a week, it became a fun assignment to do. I really learned a great deal from the posts written by my peers and professor, but especially from my own posts. I learned that the blog could be a very fun and effective way for students and teachers to communicate with one another outside of the classroom. I will definitely try to incorporate this into my classroom. Overall, this was an effective assignment. I am glad I had a chance to experience it and I will certainly continue to post blogs in the future.

Does Grades Do Students Any Good???

I recently read an article that judged whether or not grades do more harm than good. Many researchers, educators, and parents are now beginning to questioning the purpose and effectiveness of grades. They believe parents definitely deserve to know how their children are doing in school and they know students benefit from understanding how they are performing. But they strongly feel how the child’s progress is communicated can have a great impact on how he or she learns. Alfie Kohn, author of The Schools Our Children Deserve: Moving Beyond Traditional Classrooms and “Tougher Standards” and Punished by Rewards, writes extensively about the influence of grades on learning. He was asked him to articulate how grades impact a student’s education for this article.

Kohn states, “Research suggests three consistent effects of giving students grades – First, their interest in the learning itself is diminished. Second, they come to prefer easier tasks – not because they’re lazy, but because they’re rational. After all, if the point is to get an “A”, your odds are better if you avoid taking intellectual risks. Third, students tend to think in a more superficial fashion – and to forget what they learned more quickly – when grades are involved. As far as I can tell, there are absolutely no benefits of giving grades to balance against these three powerful negative consequences – except that doing so is familiar to us and doesn’t take much effort.”

Kohn goes on and gives suggestions on alternatives for documenting a student’s progress. His suggestions include a written narrative report or parent/student/teacher conferences.

Do you agree that grades do students more harm than good?


To read the rest of the article I posted a link below:
http://www.education.com/magazine/article/Grades_Any_Good/

Flocabulary: Hip Hop in the Classroom

On Friday, the class watched two clips that turned the Declaration of Independence and Macbeth into rap lyrics. There were mixed feelings about using rap to educate students. I personally would not use Flocabulary as the sole lesson for teaching my students Shakespeare, however, I would possibly show it after reading a Shakespeare play. You never know, a student might understand the play better by watching the clip. Even though it may not be likely they would understand it better but it is possible…

Catholic School Teachers Strike Over Health Care

The Archdiocese of New York is engaged in a bitter battle with teachers at its 277 schools, which educate about 107,000 students. On Friday, nearly 200 teachers of the Federation of Catholic Teachers union went on strike saying the archdiocese has hindered their efforts to obtain a new health insurance plan. Another Catholic teachers’ union, the Lay Faculty Association, has planned a strike to coincide with Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to New York April 18 to 20. This latest disagreement underscores the larger financial crisis Catholic schools have faced nationwide, with widespread school closings in urban areas and a decline in enrollment since 2000.

Through the 1960s, Catholic schools had essentially free faculty in the form of nuns and priests, however lay people have replaced them as the ranks of clergy have shrunk. In New York, the Catholic schoolteachers’ average salary is $45,000, nearly $25,000 less than their public school counterparts.

The major striking points in both unions’ contract disputes include an increased premium for health benefits and the unions’ desire for bigger pay raises and a better pension plan. The archdiocese has vowed not to budge since they feel that the offer presented to the unions was a good one and the teachers should have been accepted it. The Federation of Catholic Teachers union called the archdiocese to pressure them into handing over records of health insurance claims that the union needs to obtain a new plan.

A strike during the pope’s visit has stirred up mixed feelings. The unions believe that striking purpose is not to disrupt the visit, but to get the attention of the many high-ranking church officials who will be in town. Others consider the strike to be distasteful because they feel the teachers are using the papal visit, which is supposed to be a spiritual event, to gain traction.

How do you feel about this strike? Do you think the unions are justified in striking, including their future strike during the papal visit?

Here is a link to the article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/05/nyregion/05strike.html?ref=education

5th grader points out mistake @ Smithsonian

I came across an interesting article today. The title immediately caught my action.

Well it appears that an eleven year old from Allegan, Michigan caught an error in one of the Smithsonian’s displays called the Tower of Time during his visit. The Smithsonian is an educational and research institute that is composed of 19 museums, 9 research centers, and the National Zoo. Millions of people have seen the Tower of Time exhibit and not one of them reported any error; that is until Kenton Stufflebeam noticed a mistake.

The mistake was made in a notation that identified the Precambrian as an era. Kenton knew that was wrong. He recently learned about the Precambrian from his fifth grade teacher. The Precambrian is an informal term to include all geologic time from the beginning of the Earth to the beginning of the Cambrian period (570 million years ago). Kenton reported the mistake and weeks later received a letter from museum officials acknowledging the mistake and telling him that the solution would be to simply paint over the word “era.” His parents and teacher should be very proud of him; I know I would be. Sometimes, a child can see what no one else can.

Kings Knight Chess Club Inc.

This past Saturday I volunteered at the Hudson County Elementary Chess Championship 2008 here in Jersey City. The founder and Executive Director of Kings Knight Chess Club Inc., Robert Stewart developed the chess championship. Kings Knight Chess Club is a non-profit organization that teaches inner city youths how to play chess. Their goal is to educate and motivate youths through the game of chess. The club is dedicated to help youths to become independent thinkers.

A few teachers from local schools registered some of their students for the championship game. Some students practice after school everyday to prepare for this annual event. It was good to see over eighty students gave up their Saturday morning to compete in a non-athletic sport. I was fascinated how the teachers managed to get so many of their students to come out and play. These students were very good chess players. Students walked away with trophies and medals for all their hard work and dedication. The teachers were proud of their students and students were proud of themselves. It was a win/win situation for everyone.

Messaging Shakespeare

Ms. Brown has been a ninth grade English teacher for nine years. Recently, she had to teach eleventh grade English. Her eleventh grade students appeared to be unmotivated. That was until she incorporated cell phones in the learning activities. Ms. Brown was beginning her lesson on Shakespeare’s play Richard III. She noticed that many students used text messaging to communicate, and considered how she might use cell phones in summarizing and analyzing text to help her students better understand Richard III.

She created a weblog with the help of a colleague. The weblog consisted of entries that were selected passages from the text of Richard III and her six narrative-framing questions. Ms. Brown’s questions deliberately focused students' attention on key passages. If the students could understand these passages well enough to summarize them, she knew that their comprehension of the play would increase. And it worked. Ms. Brown saw that she could use a technique students had already mastered (text messaging) to teach literature.

I was really impressed by this article. Ms. Brown finding a common ground between her and her students. She made learning Shakespeare fun and exciting, which is not an easy thing to do. Ms. Brown showed that cell phones can be effective educational tools.

To find out more about her Richard III learning project go to this link below: http://www.netc.org/focus/examples/messag.php