Reading through A Passionate teacher, I was rather overwhelmed and scared by many of his statements, such as his assertion that students that are not naturally obedient or self-motivated often fall by the wayside, and on the whole teachers are okay with this and even expect it. He continued with equally depressing sounding gems such as "It's as though by the middle of first grade they've already figured out that school- or homework at least- is a trick, something to learn how to get around." (pg.95) and "Wherever the game prospers, passionate teaching subsides and purposeful learning diminishes. It can happen to he best of people, in the best of schools, it happens to almost everybody almost all the time." (pg. 100), of course he does finish out the chapter by saying " It [the game of school] is not immutable. It can and must be changed" (pg. 105), Perhaps with all the negativity and woe in the rest of the chapter, it was a little bit too little too late to make me think that little me can have a positive affect in the educational system as he describes it, but maybe I can as, it just seems like a very tall order right now.
As Far as Lindquist goes, I really appreciate the way its set up as a how to manual almost, and relate to a lot of the things she mentions, I feel as though she spends a large chunk of time talking about classroom management, and dealing with disagreements, and even delving into why they may arise, nipping them in the bud so to speak. This is something I feel I still need help with, and although it does partially come intuitively, knowing other people deal with the same problems with 5th graders as I have, but that I still love this this age group is encouraging, Also, because I feel like classroom management isn't really talked about enough in many of our courses I appreciate Lindquist take on the issue.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
It is a scary realization that kids just want to be kids, especially when your going to be in a classroom with around 20 kids. But i have found that as intimidating as it is, if you cna find a way to connect with those kids and making the school day fun, they will naturally become more engaged and love being at school to learn. What was talked about in terms of classroom management in the lindquist text is definately a good manual to refer to and i have seen that classrooms that are run like she suggests can be sucessful and enjoyable, but consistence is key.
Masha,
I agree with Cara's thoughts. I believe that Fried points out the difficulties within the classroom, because as a new teacher you can see the problems of education and work to eradicate those in your own classroom. If you go into the game prepared, then you will be able to take on those difficult moments and to enjoy the beautiful ones.
Fried says it best, "...breaking out of this bind happens only when teachers can simultaneously break in to their students' world and find some place where they can talk reasonably and respectfully together."
Oh Masha, if kids didn't want to act up and disengage, they'd be pretty boring kids! I think Fried is right- I have seen in the system I was in during this past spring, that the kids were bored to tears with a work sheet filled curriculum that was not exciting for them. The teachers spent half their time trying to get them to pay attention, because it was so boring (even I had a difficult time paying attention). On the other hand, when projects were introduced that allowed the kids to be activly engaged in problem solving, there were no behavioral issues- they had a great time, for example, designing an imaginary insect that met all the requirements of being an insect, that could solve a particular problem (such as sharpening pencils). The worksheets were so boring, I saw student after student using the strategies talked about in the book to get through them. But when they were solving the insect problem, they were so excited about their work, they refused to talk to each other so that their end result would be a surprise!
Post a Comment