January 30

Today we began by responding to a quote by Cizek for our writing into the day.  Then, Megan walked through "No Child Left Behind Act of 2001" and highlighted the important parts of the article.  These parts discussed the intended benefits of this Act.  After that, we got into our inquiry groups and made a list of the positives of standardized testing according to Kaplan (using "My 54 Year Love Affair with the SAT).  We listed the following:

• Critical thinking
• It's for everyone
• Free of bias
• The questions are the "how" and "why" instead of the "what"of a subject
• Knowledge application rather than memorization
• You can't cram for the test
• It will predict where students will be in the first 6 months of college
• More opportunities are provided when a student gets a high score
• The test requires a student to focus, reason and practice
• Reliable and predictable
• Beyond normal testing

Then, we watched a Why Standardized Testing Fails (a TEDTalks video).  After watching the video, we talked in small groups about how to "fix"standardized testing, especially the SAT.  Then, we spent the last 15 minutes of class having the following discussion:

• The problem is the cost of the SAT.  It should be cheaper.
• High schools should require an SAT prep course.
• This would allow students to work with teachers and fellow students rather than studying from a book.
• Core subject classes should dedicate time for SAT prep.
• The SAT is exhausting.  By the time you get to the fifth section, your brain is done.
• What about history, science and the other subjects?  Why aren't they on the SAT?
• There is too much pressure put on just one day.
• Time pressure is the issue.  Scores would be higher if students were given more time.
• Split the sections up over a series of days.
• Individuals move at different speeds when they take tests.
• What happens to slow readers when they take the SAT?  They are at a disadvantage.
• The SAT is meant to break you.
• The SAT is nothing like college exams.
• High school tests need to be structured more like the SAT with less memorizing and more "how" and "why" questions.  Students would be less stressed on the actual SAT because they'd be used to that kind of testing.
• How much time was wasted in high school just memorizing facts?
• You learn in college because you spend so much time outside of class studying.
• The SAT is so tedious, like the questions about parts of speech.
• There is a lot that students don't remember when they get to the SAT.  For example, most students haven't taken Algebra for years, so they don't remember the content for the test.
• The vocabulary is full of words we've never heard before.
• Who talks like that in real life?
• You'll never have to compose a piece of writing in a 25 minute time period in real life.
• It's hard to test people in creativity.
• Because of the scoring of the SAT, it's hard to tell if you should guess or leave an answer blank.
• The comparison of scores is good.  The comparison with other test takers shows more than the actual score itself.

Homework:

• By Sunday at midnight:
1. Post to your blog about what you are thinking involving what we've talked about in class or something else involving school/education.
2. Comment on two blog posts from your inquiry group.
• By Wednesday before class:
1. Read your assigned section of "Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work" and post a reading response.

If you missed class, you need to email me so I can assign you a section of the reading.

January 28

We began class with a writing into the day answering one of the following questions: (1) What is the value of education for you? (2) Why do we go to school? 

Then, we got back into the groups from last class and watched clips from movies and TV shows that depict school.  We watched clips from Dead Poet's Society, Boy Meets World, Stand and Deliver, Freedom Writers, Dangerous Minds and The Ron Clark Story and answered a series of questions that can be found on the "Pop Culture Representations of School" handout.  In the last 15 minutes, we had the following discussion:

What were the similarities you saw across the six representations of school?

• Slacking, ungrateful students
• Motivational teachers
• Life lessons (rather than book work) were important to the teacher
• Bad kids from bad surroundings
• The teachers were not liked by the other teachers in the school
• The students didn't see the value in education
• The teachers seem to stumble on inspirational speeches
• Administration thinks that the students are the problem
• Both students and teachers have a choice
• Students are responsible for their learning
• Personal classes were more diverse
• Teachers must prepare students for the next level or else the teacher failed at his/her job
• Experience means everything in teaching
• Administration is by the book

How do you see these stereotypes of school shaping what we expect from school in real life?

• Students don't realize they have a choice
• Success really is only about taking a test. People assume that the test shows what you learned, but it's not always true.  You can learn something, but not be able to show it on the test.
• School is a binary.  Pass/fail.  Graduate/don't graduate.  In movies, there is always a teacher who flips the binary.
• The stereotypes in movies are more exaggerated, but what they show is real.
• Teachers really do motivate
• Teachers do meet students where they are.
• Teachers are passionate (if they are not in it for the money).

What do you expect from your teachers?

• Passion for the subject
• Motivation
• Encouragement, while also being realistic
• In English, teachers will care and inspire.  In Math and Science, the classes seem to be more about structure.
• Help.  However, the student has to ask for help.

Homework:

• Read "My 54 Year Love Affair with the SAT."  Read only the first five pages (page = a page of the book, not an 8X11.5 page.)  Stop reading at the three stars.
• Post a reading response on your blog.

January 23

Today, we did a writing into the day about a comic showing that in 1969, parents blamed their children for bad grades, while today parents blame the teacher.  After writing into the day, we talked about what makes a "good" post and comment on the blog.

A "good" post:

• Thoughtful
• Flows
• Asks questions
• Detailed and shows his/her thought process
• Explains what he/she thought about

A "good" comment:

• In depth reflection of the post
• Relating to the post by making personal connections
• Talking about his/her own research questions
• Elaborating on the post's topic
• Answering the post's questions
• Asking questions
• Constructive criticism (exploring the author's strengths and/or weaknesses in writing)
• Giving fresh ideas

From there, we talked about the writing into the day and branched into other thoughts about school.  Below are some of ideas people had:

• Teachers used to be right and now teachers are blamed
• Are teachers as good as they were in the past?
• Students used to be more responsible for themselves.
• Parents pushed their children more in the past
• Students are not as motivated to learning independently and rely more on the teacher for learning now
• Parents are looking for someone to blame. They are too busy at work to see whether their children are actually doing their schoolwork, so they blame the teacher.
• The standards are higher today.  Students learn things much younger now.
• Learning at school is the teacher's responsibility, but at home, it is the parents' responsibility
• Teachers used to be like parents away from home.  They could physically punish students.
• Parents think their kids are perfect.  There is little to no discipline.  The kids are not taught responsibility.
• Religion played a bigger role back then.
• There is more social communication (like Twitter) now so parents and students are more distracted.
• The parents might not have had a good education so they blame all teachers now.
• Parents want to be their child's friend so there is no more discipline.
• People in the US are less grateful for education now.
• Teachers are passing students now because they don't want to get fired.
• Schools want to look better so they pass students.  They want to look better than schools in other countries.
• It's so hard to fail now.
• Maybe the student in the first picture grew up to the parent in the second.  Because he hated being in that situation, he doesn't want to put his kid through that too.
• Is educational training as good now?
• Teachers are younger than they used to be.
• There are classroom management classes that education majors have to pass.
• We have a culture of laziness and entitlement now.
• The basics of education is the same.  Only culture has changed.
• People expect more out of their students.  They need to go to school, have a job, be involved in sports or clubs and keep up with the growing technology.
• There is so much change happening so quickly now.

Do High Schools Prepare a Student for College?

• In some schools, students have to do college assignments like annotated bibliographies, inquiry projects and research papers.
• Tracking is an issue.  If students in regular tracks cannot take AP classes, they won't be prepared for college.
• Tech education classes in high schools can prepare students for a career instead of college.
• High school is about busy work.  College is about actually learning.
• Because high school and college are completely different settings, there is no way to prepare for college.
• There is a culture shock when entering college.
• Some high schools don't use the Internet as much (or at all) so students are not prepared to use the Internet for classes at college.
• In high school, teachers used to say that college was scary.
• In some schools, teachers and classes are hard.  The expectations and assignments are more challenging (requiring deeper thinking and higher learning), like they are in college.
• Private schools prepare students for college because they have classes set up like those in college.
• Schools (K-12) can be completely different and have completely different cultures even if they are in the same city.  Preparation entirely depends on the school the student attends.
• College isn't for everyone.
• The higher paying jobs need college degrees.
• Even jobs like receptionist positions need college degrees now.
• In some private schools, students live at the school in dorms, so life is very much like life at college.
• The social change seems to be the biggest change.  People don't talk to each other as much.

Homework:

Write a post about the conversation we had in class.  What were/are you thinking about?

(Note: You do not need to do the reading listed on the daily calendar yet.  We will move that reading to Monday's homework.)

January 16

Today, we did a Writing into the Day about the characteristics of school and discussed the characteristics in groups of three.  Then, we talked about the due dates and expectations for the Exploratory Essay (the first draft is due February 25 for workshop; the second draft is due on March 4).  During this talk, we discussed the idea of taking risks in our writing and how I want my students to constantly push themselves as writers.

After that, we came up with lists of teacher and student identities.  Each group of three created a skit with one teacher identity and two different student identities and performed these skits for the class.  For the last 10 minutes of class, we talked about what we noticed during the skits.  The following points were discussed:

• There were a lot of examples of the one slacker or rebel who doesn't do any work.  Every group had one suck-up student and one slacker rebel.  The teacher identities differed in each skit.
• We tend to view classrooms (at least in high school) as entertaining places rather than serious places.  None of the skits showed examples of typical or perfect classrooms.
• In high school, we always remember the types of students that were there.  We always wanted there to be a class clown in the class.  Every student wants to think that he/she is the best student.
• The teacher was always talking and interacting with students.  Teachers should have a good connection with their students.
• None of the classrooms in the skits had real learning occur.
• The different types of teachers match with the different students (either the rebel teacher or the caring, "good" teacher).  Teachers tend to like those who are like themselves so the slacker teacher prefers and favors the slacker student.
• Teachers always have to be teachers first.  They are role models and have to be careful about what they do even outside of the classroom.  Teachers need to have a professional demeanor all the time.
• Is it fair that teachers have to watch what they do all the time?  Why can't they go out and have fun if students can go out and have fun?
• There is a limit to a teacher's interaction with students.  Teachers should not be partying (or going to the beach) with their students.

Homework:

See the homework listed on the January 14 post.

January 14

Today, we did a Writing into the Day with a quote about positive thinking.  In response to this quote, we had a debate about whether positive thinking leads to success.  Some people said that positive thinking is the key because positive thinking will lead to a positive environments which will lead to positive decisions, which will result in success.  Some argued that a negative outlook will lead to less motivation and drive to complete tasks that will lead to success.  Others said that positive alone is not enough. These people said that a person has to want to succeed and be willing to do the hard work that will help a person meet his/her goals.  In this way of thinking, a negative thinking person may end up more successful than a positive thinker because he/she puts in more work.  We talked about how thinking and doing go hand in hand.  We also talked about how people can learn from their mistakes, meaning that they find a positive from a negative.

After our discussion, we did an alliteration exercise to help us remember each other's names.  Then, we discussed how to post and comment on the blog as well as the expectations for reading responses and inquiry process posts.

For the last 20 minutes of class, we brainstormed about our trajectories as students using the  "School Trajectory" handout and shared our trajectories with our inquiry groups.

Homework:
1.  Post the following on your blog (in one post) before next class:

• A picture and/or description of your student trajectory.
• Respond to all the bullet points on the "Schooling Trajectory" handout.  

2.  Make sure to complete at least one more post on your blog this week.  Respond to something from class this week or about something outside of class that helps you think about schooling/education.

3.  Respond to at least two of your inquiry groups' posts by Sunday (January 20) at midnight.

January 9

Today, we covered the course objectives and policies as well as the sequence of assignments.  We also talked about how to read the daily calendar as follows:

• The "In Class" column explains what will be covered in class that day.
• The "Homework for Tonight" column explains the homework that will be due the next class.  For example, the homework in the row of January 9 (today) will be due on Monday.
• Anything in italics signifies things what needs to be brought to class.  The in-class readings are not italized, though they will still need to be brought to class too.
• Anything in small caps signifies something that is due on Moodle.

We also responded to quotes about trajectory.  We talked about how a person often does not know where he/she is on a particular trajectory and may not find out the purpose until he/she has reached a certain point on the trajectory.  We related the idea of trajectory to the concept of a calling; this can become really frustrating for students who have undeclared majors and are unsure of where they want to go in life.  We also talked about how the choices made along the way can affect one's identity and the direction one's life takes.  We listed about possible definitions of "trajectory," including a pace, a time, a turning point and a path.

Finally, we read "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost.  We responded to words or phrases that interested us and read those responses aloud.

Homework: Create a blogger account and post the hyperlink to Moodle.  The subject should be your name.  Make sure to bring your laptop or tablet with you on Monday.