Blog Post #14

How To Escape Education's Death Valley

I chose this video because I was interested to see what Ken Robinson thought about our education. I've heard many people talk about how education is going in the toilet bowl (especially in Mobile). I wanted to know how to get out of this, how to be a teacher that didn't fail her students.

Diversity
I would love to make sure that my kids don't all have to conform to the same idea as every student before them. Ken made an amazing point by saying that the world says kids are diverse, they recognize it, yet in school they are expected to all learn the same exact way. And then we're are surprised when everyone but little Johnny did great on a test. It's because Johnny doesn't learn well by doing what the other students do to learn. I was talking to a teacher during my observation that said that one thing that may work with all of her students one year may not work with her students next year. For example, her kids this year loved working in groups and excelled with it. But the year before, those students did not benefit from group work. I have to point out that I loved his point about ADHD. My sister is a psychologist, she just graduated with her masters in May. She always talked about how so many kids were diagnosed with ADHD and how she thought it was incredibly over-diagnosed. Ken is saying the same thing: if you sit kids down for hours on end staring at a board, "don't be surprised when they start to fidget." He also says that arts and humanities are important. Some kids aren't great at math or science or English, but can probably play the piano like it's no one's business. I want to make sure I incorporate fun things like songs and lots of visuals into my learning, to keep kids interested and appeal to those with musical and art talents.

Curiosity
People naturally want to learn, but I think education has kind of killed that want by making it boring. I want to be a great teacher by keeping kids wanting to learn on their own. I don't want to have to fight my kids to keep their attention, I want them coming and asking what we'll be learning that day. The best way I'll be able to do that is by using technology, sounds, visuals, things that make get them interested. Ken says standardized testing is important, yes, but does not need to be dominant. When I was in school and even in some college classes I took, you knew you had a test or quiz every week. And it was not fun. I can say that in my geography class I am in now, I have fun. I was leery at first because I had never had a class that was group based or PBL based. But in this class we have sporadic quizzes and three tests (very little testing). We mostly have group projects and it's been a lot of fun and I've learned a lot without cramming my brain and stressing about tests.

Creativity
This one kind of ties with the first two. This focuses on kid's diversity and their curiosity. Creativity helps bring out those two things. I want to be a creative teacher. Like I've said, many visuals and sounds, but also I want to give interesting assignments. I want to give fun and creative projects so the kids want to do it.

To sum up, this video made me want to be a teacher that helps her kids want to learn. I want to plant the seed in their head that they can really love learning and they can have fun figuring things out on their own.