Standards vs. Creativity

I'm continually amazed at how educational standards are so different and out of touch.  Math and Language Arts have common core standards that are supposed to be nationwide, yet all other subjects are state specific.  I understand that someone needs to give teachers a blueprint to prepare our students for the future, but the latest NJCCCS struck me as very odd.

For my technology standards, there are such examples of creating online communities and participating in chats with students from other countries.  Really?  I literally laughed at these standards and my first thought was, "how in the world can I pull that off?"  These are just a few examples of standards I think are not only unrealistic, but also unnecessary.

I firmly believe that there should be national standards.  Think about it, why on Earth would we want each state to determine what students learn.  How is that creating a cohesive student ready to take on the world outside of school?  The best educational minds should take on this project so that each and every student comes out with the same knowledge base.  Notice I said educational minds.  Sometimes I think that these standards are made by people who have no clue what it is like to teach.  It's almost like the issues many inner city schools are facing, when business people are brought in to fix the system.  I don't know about you, but I would not want the future of a multi-billion dollar company in the hands of a teacher.  So why is the opposite fine?

However, the one thing that must be prevented with national standards is the minimizing of creativity.  These standards need to be specific, but also open ended so teachers can do what they do best, which is to use their creative minds to help students learn.  Making standards too specific will hinder teachers and drain them and our students of creativity. 

I truly hope this happens one day.  It seems too simple to me, but I'm sure there are more complications than I can imagine.  However, sometimes the simplest, most straight-forward idea is often the solution.

The Home Stretch

Yes, it's only April 20th, but in school news, the year is starting to wind down.  You see between final exams, Memorial Day, state testing and Easter break, teachers need to start planing the endgame for their classes. 

I always find this time of year a bit difficult.  With all the interruptions, it is hard to gauge exactly how much time you have left.  Despite how some teachers feel, I don't worry at all if I don't get to everything in my plans.  I get excited at the prospect of getting done earlier than usual, in which case, I have so many things I would love to try as end of the year projects.

Some of these ideas came from my two graduate courses.  Despite being a technology teacher, I had never created a website before.  My first foray into it went very well and the ease of use was liberating.  I would love to have my students make their own websites in my Multimedia class to show off their body of work in the class, a sort of electronic portfolio.

I have also created my first digital story, and while I loved it, I feel this might be very time consuming for my classes.  In addition, the technology is quite detailed to incorporate what I feel are needed elements such as music video.

Other ideas I have are to have students use the online site toondoo.com to create online comic books.  I have also looked into a 3D animation program called Alice, which enables students to dabble in computer programming, without having to know how to code.

The main issue is time, but isn't it always that?  If I don't get to these things, I hope I take the time over the summer to work on these unique projects.  I always have good intentions, but when summer rolls around, sometimes all we need as teachers is to recharge and relax.

Anybody Out There?

I often find myself saying that exact phrase just about every day in class.  Maybe it's me being an adult, but I really don't remember my teachers constantly telling us to listen up.  I seem to remember that when an adult, particularly a teacher spoke, we listened.  Maybe not intently, but we listened more than students do today.

I often am dumbfounded by this simple human task that today's students sorely lack.  So what is causing this phenomenon to happen?  Is it that teachers are simply not engaging students on their level?  I tend to believe this is not the issue, since it seems that the students who lack listening skills are the same ones day in and day out.

Perhaps it is parenting that is the cause of the issue.  Again, I have a hard time with this as I am a parent of two young girls and I can see my oldest one already having trouble listening.  Then again, that could just be a toddler thing.

Since this seems to be a more recent issue, I try to examine what has changed over the last 20 years.  I would put my money on the over stimulation of kids these days.  If we list all of the things that are available to engage kids, we find that many were not around back then (video games, iPods, Facebook, YouTube, instant messaging, cell phones and on and on).

Maybe kids just don't know how to process and take all of this information in.  Nobody is really teaching them how to deal with the constant barrage of media.  Maybe the reason they have problems listening is that there is just too much going on and something has to give.  In a student's eyes, what would they tune out first?  My bet is the least interesting which very well could be school.

Do We Expect Too Much?

the other day, I was having a conversation with a fellow teacher about student expectations.  We were discussing how there seem to be so many more students failing than when we were in school.  We laughed and said we sound old, that our teachers probably said the same thing when we were in school.  However, it really got us thinking... are we expecting too much from our students?

As we kept chatting, we remembered that when we were in middle school, neither of us studied much but still were able to get good grades (A's and B's).  I honestly don't remember working that hard or stressing about school in general.  This led to us discussing what we actually learned versus what we are teaching nowadays. 

We slowly realized that the content students learn has trickled down grade levels over time.  What we learned in high school, is now being taught in middle school and what we learned in middle school, is now being taught in elementary school.  We could not seem to pinpoint when this happened, but figured it was in response to the United States losing ground against other countries. 

So are we expecting too much from students?  Are they not capable of what we think they should know?  I guess only time will tell, but by student failure rates, something is not right.

Manipulating Grading Scales

When I went to school, we used a traditional grading 10 point grading scale (A = 90-100, B=80-89, etc).  Somewhere along the way, this changed in some schools.  For instance, in my school an A =92-100, B=86-92 and so on.  I'm not quite sure what the basis is for a grade scale such as this.  I am thinking that the original thought was that it would push students to reach for those A's and B's, thus raising overall grade point averages. 

However, I'm not quite sure that is what has happened.  I am guilty of it myself, but many times I grade by student.  Meaning a lot of teachers know the A students after a few weeks.  If they struggle a bit, but are hard workers, we are more likely to give them those extra points for the A.  This essentially negates the scale, since we are grading by letter, not really number.  If an A started at 88, then we would grade to that number. 

In addition, our school has a policy that no student can receive lower than a 50.  I believe this is done so that failures don't look as bad.  So theoretically a student can do virtually nothing in class and get a 50.  It reminds me of when there was rumor that you get X number of points for just filling in your name on the SAT test. 

To me, using points to grade is irrelevant.  What should be used is similar to state testing.  A scale such as Advanced Proficient, Proficient, Below Proficient and Failing is much better.  That would emphasize skill based learning and reduce the pressure of grade point averages.  I doubt we will see such a grading scale in my teaching career, but one never knows.

What Are Blogs?

Really, what are blogs?  I never really understood the name blog when I first heard it.  Frankly, I still don't get it.  After all, aren't blogs the same things as people writing articles online?  That is what it used to be called.  It has just been repackaged and called a blog.

Then again, online articles and columns, from say sports or news websites, are a bit different than a traditional blog.  I consider a blog something that the average everyday Joe writes and posts online.  The blog gives us the forum to post our thoughts and opinions for people to read.

However, in reality, my blog is no different than a news reporter's thoughts.  We just give it a fancy name to fit into the web dictionary.  Maybe it's just me, but I don't quite understand blogging.  We are spending our limited time to post thoughts that we don't even know if anyone will read.  That is sort of strange in concept.  However, they are more popular than ever, especially among the younger generations.  Perhaps it is their way of communicating, their norm and I am the one who is out of touch.

Art - The Great Equalizer

This is my second year teaching Multimedia Technology, a course that I label as "digital art", as it uses Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign to create projects.  I have noticed an interesting trend during this time, which is that I don't have to differentiate in this class as much as others.

What I find is that the students who might not be the best academically, but are creative, excel in this type of a course.  On the other end of the spectrum, the gifted students struggle.  I find that those higher achieving students constantly state that they are not creative.  At first I found it hard to believe as my opinion was that most gifted students are talented in all areas.

However, it got me thinking as to why this is happening.  My theory is that these types of students have grown up becoming very book smart.  They know their facts, they understand concrete concepts and have great memories.  However, they have been so rigid in their learning, that they struggle to some up with something when given a blank canvas.  It is so foreign to them, that the easy get frustrated.

While they don't enjoy this feeling, personally, I find it refreshing.  These students are so used to routine and how they learn, that a real challenge is good for them.  It will help them grow and expand their problems solving abilities.  After all, what good is it to be able to spout out facts and figures, but can't come up with new and interesting ideas.  They need to understand that there is a balance that needs to be obtained and that being stuck is a positive thing.