In her article “No Wonder Students Have Grown Lazy”, Katherine Kay, a high school senior states that the attitude of modern Americans is one of laziness. Kay states that rather than working through a problem, the typical modern American will attempt to avoid it by any means necessary, whether that be working around the problem, passing it off to someone else, or avoiding it entirely. The author suggests that teachers are partially responsible for this phenomenon because modern teachers tend to teach at the level their least intelligent student can understand rather than individually encouraging each student to reach his/her full potential. Kay suggests that the use of Cliff Notes is a perfect example of Americans trying to take the easy way out and compares it to a “cheeseburger and fries” in that in many cases, it is the sole result of laziness and indifference to the possible advantages of the more demanding alternative.
I agree with Katherine Kay on many points. Firstly, I share her belief that teaching at the level the least intelligent student can understand is inefficient. Al...
What is head knowledge when you cannot apply it? What use is academics when you cannot make rational decisions? Why would you go to school if you do not yearn for knowledge? As a teacher, I want to instill in my children these desires and the abilities to not only succeed academically but as a whole person as well. I believe that the role of an elementary teacher is not only to teach the “Three R’s” and the “Four W’s”, but also to foster within children a desire to learn and the ability to make wise choices. In our classrooms, we are raising the leaders of tomorrow, if all they know is what 2+2 equals or how to spell “beautiful” are they really going to be the future that we need and look forward to? Through the hard work of teachers promoting their students’ success and ability to do good work and make good choices, we can see the world change in radical ways! When we as teachers understand that not only do our students need to know the what but also the how, we can help them succeed in building critical thinkin...
Everytime a kid does his homework, correctly, they are possibly advancing their knowledge and understanding of the subject at hand. Although, Alfie Kohn, author of the book “The Homework Myth” states, “Such policies sacrifice thoughtful instruction in order to achieve predictability, and they manage to do a disservice not only to students but, when imposed from above, to teachers as well” (Suhay). Not all homework will be beneficial. It can harm
Teacher knowledge has always been the basis to an effective learning experience. Without a knowledgeable teacher, students are not able to receive a quality educational experience. This pillar encompasses the influence teachers have on student learning and achievement, possession of research based knowledge, and effective teaching practices. I thrive to be educated and knowledgeable on the information presented to my students. By having a variety of teaching techniques that work and I use often in my classroom, I am able to mold my instruction around student needs and provide efficient and
Lastly, as a student myself most of Ellen Glanz’s points in “What’s Wrong with Schools?” are accurate. Classroom teaching methods need to be changed. Students shouldn 't be "doing as little as necessary to pass tests, using tricks to avoid assignments or manipulating teachers to do the work for them." Although teachers should demand more of their students it is essential for both the educator and his/her students to be on the same page. Through Ellen Glanz 's experience, she was able to point out the flaws in classroom settings and become a better teacher than she was before as
The students’ eyes: this lens establishes just how congruous the teacher’s assumptions about effective learning correspond with those of the students in his or her class.
Steven Pinker states that “search engines lower our intelligence, encouraging us to skim on the surface of knowledge …” (1). Many students are not reading their assigned books anymore. Sparknotes and other web sites such as Shmoop have provided students with resources which are not useful. Students’ skim through these sites to read books. Most of the websites gives students’ plot summaries which are from another person’s take on that book .This damages the student 's’ chances of actually reading and understanding a book and having their own opinion .The more we run to search engines for answers the less we shall learn . Technology has taken the place of many students’ brains which causes them to think they are dumb. This leads to the need of searching for answers online at all
After viewing the topic on learning to learn by Barbara Oakley. As well as considering the hand out on Ten Rules of Bad Studying and doing the quiz on “how good are you at teaching the art of learning?” These are then my impressions.
Russell(1932/2013:107-108) knew however that one of the difficulties in large educational facilities is that the administrators, the people in charge, are not generally teachers; so they do not have the knowledge of what is possible to be learnt and what is not during a time frame the teachers have to impart the knowledge they are expected to, thus they put too much into the curriculum, and the result is that nothing is learnt thoroughly. Russell stated that “the problem of over-education is both important and difficult” (Russell, 1932/2013:109). Important because over-education can lead to loss of self-confidence, spontaneity, and health which leads to them being a less useful member of society than he may have been; and difficult because as the amount of knowledge there is in the world grows, it becomes more difficult to know what is relevant. However; Russell(1932/2013:109) acknowledges that merely letting children not learn will not work as society depends on trained and well-informed intelligent
Education is a very important aspect of our lives. It is our education that makes us who we are and determines what we become. Therefore, education is not something to be taken lightly. As a teacher, my goal will be to provide the best possible education for my students. Every student is unique. I must see students for who they are individually and respect their ideas and opinions. Each student has a different learning style. I must take this into consideration because I want to provide a constructive learning opportunity for every student. I believe that every student has the potential to learn.
Based on my past learning experiences and my own points of view about teaching and learning, I agree with Mayher’s beliefs and convictions about uncommon sense teaching. In the past, I have had teachers who have just stood in the front and lectured the class for the entire time and then I have had some teachers who have involved the students in every way possible. I found that the more interactive teachers were, the more I enjoyed the class and the better my grades were, as well as most of the students in the class. My chemistry teacher in high school is the perfect example of an uncommon sense teacher. Not only was she extremely interactive with the students while teaching, but she would put the information into every day use to help us truly understand the material. When we would perform lab activities in class, she would explain the procedure to us and then send us off to do it in groups. She would even give us some experiments that we had to figure out ourselves using the knowledge we learned in class. Another part of the class that was uncommon sense was when she would have us create posters based on the mnemonic devices that she would make up and then hang them around the room until the test to help us understand the material better.
As a teacher, I have numerous personal goals. Mainly, my goal is to provide students with the opportunity and encouragement to succeed in life and to develop as free-thinking individuals in society. I consider myself a progressive and an essentialist, according to theory. I feel that students need to be given multiple opportunities to explore many different life skills that sometimes are overlooked in the education system. Testing, rote memorization, and lecture, in my opinion, do not promote students' own inquiry and does not give students opportunities to tap into their own source of knowledge that they each bring with them to the classroom. As a teacher, I hope to leave my students able to set and accomplish goals through the use of these life skills. Some teachers I have had while in hi...
“Teach the children, so it will not be necessary to teach the adults” is a famous quote by our former president Abraham Lincoln. In modern days, we are schooling instead of educating. This produces an uninformed society who is trained to spit out information instead retaining it. My hometown, Scranton, also known as “the Electric City”, has an abundance of ignorant citizens. It was a very toxic community to grow up in. This affected the youth in the community by not projecting their potential into their minds. To have a well-educated populace, we need to make sure we graduate well-rounded youth after grade school. I believe this can be achieved by following common-core guidelines, while also striking their creativity within the subjects so that they are retaining information, not only memorizing it. I will discuss my beliefs on the roles of the teacher, the children as learners, the curriculum, and the purpose of schools in society.
...at previously, sometimes in the midst of a discussion, people forget that there are two sides of a story and not everyone has to agree to yours. What we learn from our books or our studies is not what is necessarily important. What we learn from our peers and our professors is what’s important. Learning is more than absorbing fact, it is acquiring understanding, and it is being passionate about the material you are given. Each piece that we have read in class, and each comment that we make impacts a person no matter how little it seems. The education systems focuses too much about effective methods of teaching and not enough about effective methods of learning. However, this course felt like we were learning something instead trying to finish the curriculum. As Albert Einstein once said, “education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think”.
Now that I have seen three different classrooms as part of my practicum observations, I still believe that there are several acceptable approaches and no universally correct teaching methods. However, my thinking has changed because I have seen that everything done ...
students to learn and teachers to teach. At first glance, it may seem problematic, but research has