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#Post#: 10--------------------------------------------------
Welcome to our Forum
DIR By: mdavidson
Date: June 1, 2011, 8:30 am
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The first chapter of this week's reading establishes a need for
simplicity, clarity, and priority. How does this fit in life
outside of education?
#Post#: 11--------------------------------------------------
Re: Welcome to our Forum
DIR By: Susie
Date: June 1, 2011, 3:31 pm
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The need to establish and maintain priorities in this chaotic
world is not a luxury, but a survival necessity. I found myself
wanting to stand up and cheer as I read what seemed like an
indictment of fads in education. I know that in the twenty plus
years I've been teaching, I've become jaded with the repeated
pendulum swings. I really like the reminder I received of the
need for essential questions, rigorous content, and challenging
writing assignments. The comments about the extensive
(excessive) wording in the national standards also struck me as
I have had the same reaction when working with the standards at
the state meetings. But that is more in chapter two.
Some of the comments in chapter 1 that stand out for me:
"'success depends largely on implementing what is alreads
known'" "'best practice in effective organizations is rarely
new practice'" the analogy of the hedgehog
I really admire my daughter-in-law for her ability to keep
the clutter at a minimum and her house scrupulously clean.
Simplify may have to become my mantra.
#Post#: 12--------------------------------------------------
Re: Welcome to our Forum
DIR By: Julie
Date: June 2, 2011, 9:19 am
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Sometimes I feel that my life gets filled with a lot of tasks
that don't help me focus on my goals. During the summer I take
the time to clean out the closets of my home that get filled up
with stuff all winter long. It takes time to go through them
but in the end I feel so fulfilled. I will walk by a newly
cleaned closet several times and just open it and smile.
Meditation does that for me in my life as well. I can tell when
I have not taken the time to meditate and refocus my life and
reiterate my values. It becomes cluttered just as the closets.
In my classroom I need to take the time to remember that
simplicity is key. I took note of the statement that the author
made, "We lack the will and persistence to implement what we
already know." Why do I let my closets pile up with stuff in
the first place? Why do I forget the simple techniques of
teaching when new things come up? Matt, I remember when you
had us go through our workbooks and look at some of the pages
and question why we were using them. Most of the time I used
them because they were there to be used-not of any real value.
When you do your walk throughs you need to ask us that of our
learning activities as well. I am sure that there are many that
I persisit on doing just because I have used them in the past,
but they probably aren't the best for teaching those sound
lessons. "Failure to protect the best practicies from the
encroachment of new, but less effective practices or programs."
#Post#: 13--------------------------------------------------
lost
DIR By: Hans
Date: June 2, 2011, 7:36 pm
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Can anyone direct me as to where to find the actual reading
material on here?
Hans
#Post#: 14--------------------------------------------------
Re: Welcome to our Forum
DIR By: Jeana
Date: June 2, 2011, 8:42 pm
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I found it on the email that Matt sent by clicking on the
attachment. It took me awhile to find it. :)
#Post#: 15--------------------------------------------------
Re: Welcome to our Forum
DIR By: Karen
Date: June 3, 2011, 9:20 pm
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Priorities - help us focus on the few things that help us
accomplish our goal. Distractions - anything that keeps us from
focusing on the few things that help us accomplish our goal. In
my life I am always trying to weed out the distractions. Like
the weeds in my garden that steal water, food, and space from
the plants that provide fruit for my family, distractions steal
time, energy, and resources. Unlike the weeds in my garden,
distractions are not as easy to identify and eliminate.
#Post#: 16--------------------------------------------------
Re: Welcome to our Forum
DIR By: Karen
Date: June 6, 2011, 5:05 pm
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I just finished reading Chapter 2. As a parent I have often
thought that there were far too many standards. They only
served to cause stress to teachers and students alike. I don't
know how many times I have heard comments from teachers that
they would love to do "this" with a certain subject, but they
can't take the time or they won't get all the standards met. I
would have liked my children to have had those opportunities as
well. We have good teachers, but the standards have been like a
straight jacket, limiting their ability to really use their
strengths and talents when they teach. This gives me some hope
that maybe things will be simplified and better some day.
#Post#: 17--------------------------------------------------
Re: Welcome to our Forum
DIR By: Julie
Date: June 7, 2011, 9:04 am
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I agree with Karen about the number of standards. The problem
however, is not the standards it is the assessing of those
standards. Most of the standards match seamlessly with our
curriculum so the teaching of the standards is not an additional
burden. The assessments are a different story. Some assessments
require several class periods to complete and some require prior
teaching of the format in order to ensure success, while others
require individual testing which is very time consuming. Often
the assessments could be replaced with a unit test that covers
the same concepts. During my reading of chapter two I was struck
again with the need to teach thoughtful reading and responding.
I find that teaching non-fiction text is the most challenging
task as a second grade teacher. Struggling readers find it hard
to understand because of the vocabulary and the format. Stories
are easy to read because the format is so predictable at our
level, but not so with non-fiction text. I am so glad that we
have a large amount of non-fiction text available for us in our
classroom to enable all students to have the opportunity to
learn the skills of reading non-fiction.
#Post#: 18--------------------------------------------------
Re: Welcome to our Forum
DIR By: Matt
Date: June 7, 2011, 11:51 am
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"Priority is a function of simplicity, and it dictates that we
focus on." I agree with this statement. We sometimes try to do
too much and in turn accomplish too little. I liked the analogy
with the football coach who tried new plays every day but never
had a team that mastered any of them. I would like to see depth
in study as well as breadth.
#Post#: 19--------------------------------------------------
Re: Welcome to our Forum
DIR By: Margaret
Date: June 7, 2011, 9:26 pm
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I like Conley's ideas about reading to: 1- infer/interpret/draw
conclusions; 2 - support argument with evidence; 3 - resolve
conflicting views; and 4 - solve problems with no obvious
answer. The higher level, critical thinking is certainly what
is required in college courses and in life in general. This is
what school is about -- preparation for what comes next, whether
that is furthering formal education, technical training, or
immediate long term employment right out of high school.
The author focused on reading and writing which could apply to
core subjects like English, Science, History, etc. but what
about the 3rd R -- arithmetic? The idea of writing across the
curriculum sounds very good, but is it feasible and an efficient
use of time to 'read and write' in math?
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