The New York Times
September 21, 2008
The Way We Live Now
"Geek Lessons"
By MARK EDMUNDSON
Tremendous article, I encourage all to give it a read. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/magazine/21wwln-lede-t.html?ex=1379736000&en=ce7a81394b8fd5bb&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
The article plays with a quote taken from the movie Almost Famous.
“The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you are uncool.”
The author's premise is that ultimately a good teacher is "uncool." A good teacher is the honest assessor of reality who challenges her students to be honest as well. Only then, when we get past the pretenses that our media culture hoists upon us, can true learning take place.
The article is fun, it serves as a slight corrective to the over reliance upon technology or other fads. However it works only if taken with a grain of salt. Technology can certainly be misused or used to distract the student from other inadequacies of the teacher. But it should not become the bogey man. It is a tool that can be used and should used to facilitate education.
Besides the bromides against the prevalence of gadgets and gizmo's in the classroom, the article shines brightest when it calls for honesty and authenticity over faddishness and hipness in the classrooms. Students respond well to an educator who posits his uncool but real life experience as a means to evaluate the material.
Monday, November 17, 2008
"Long summer holidays 'harm pupils' reading skills"
"Long summer holidays 'harm pupils' reading skills"
By Tim Ross; The Sunday Independent 25 May 2008
This brief report from a major British Sunday Paper notes the release of a private study undertaken by a center-left think tank. The study suggests that the long summer recess is detrimental to a student's ability in retaining reading skills. Scheduled extended breaks occasion dramatic relapses in reading skills. The study calls for a revolutionary change in the academic year. Schools should remain is session for five- eight week long terms with 2week breaks between each term.
I find that this report is a little too dramatic and overemphasizes the structured reading facilitated at school. Some students do their best reading during their holidays. This reading is independent and healthy. It is important that often it is not directly linked to curricular assessment. It is here that a child can come to love reading. This applies to other extra-curricular activities that are healthy and beneficial in the growth of a child. Unfortunately for those students who do not live in a reading friendly environment summer vacations become reading wastelands. Free time is wasted due in large part to a deficient cultural milieu. Where children lack opportunities for growth (parks, safe playgrounds, camps, libraries) the state will use the school as the catchall.
It would be a shame, however, if the exception became the rule.
By Tim Ross; The Sunday Independent 25 May 2008
This brief report from a major British Sunday Paper notes the release of a private study undertaken by a center-left think tank. The study suggests that the long summer recess is detrimental to a student's ability in retaining reading skills. Scheduled extended breaks occasion dramatic relapses in reading skills. The study calls for a revolutionary change in the academic year. Schools should remain is session for five- eight week long terms with 2week breaks between each term.
I find that this report is a little too dramatic and overemphasizes the structured reading facilitated at school. Some students do their best reading during their holidays. This reading is independent and healthy. It is important that often it is not directly linked to curricular assessment. It is here that a child can come to love reading. This applies to other extra-curricular activities that are healthy and beneficial in the growth of a child. Unfortunately for those students who do not live in a reading friendly environment summer vacations become reading wastelands. Free time is wasted due in large part to a deficient cultural milieu. Where children lack opportunities for growth (parks, safe playgrounds, camps, libraries) the state will use the school as the catchall.
It would be a shame, however, if the exception became the rule.
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