Why is the world becoming flat?
What are the problems? What would you change? The world is becoming flat and less connected as we observe gaps in education across countries. Even though the US is spending more money than other developed countries on public education its students are still falling short of other nations who have adopted reason or creative based education practices. While the US has taken steps away from rote memorization to assess students' learning more still needs to be reformed. In an example from Chapter 1 a Chinese class will take an entire period coming up with different ways to solve one real world problem and not move forward until all students understand and are able to demonstrate understanding in several ways. I would like to change to be more like this model. While we use Problem Based Interactive Learning (PBIL) as a part of our math curriculum it is not the only form of practice that the students get to use. The example from China is a lot more interactive and student based. It requires students to reason and be creative. Our classrooms are moving towards that level of mastery, however we have not reached it yet.
4 Comments
Caitlin Mitchell
8/27/2018 03:40:13 pm
Hi Tess! I completely agree with what you said! I think that there has been an improvement in moving away from rote memorization but I think that there are so many standards to accomplish at each grade level and there are so many assessments that we are required to give that to some extent we are just teaching to the test. Not my idea of quality learning. We need to teach to kids the way that they learn best and go back to our roots a little bit. We have thrown out a lot of strategies that worked really well. That is why when we are always getting new LA programs and Math programs and whatnot it is so beneficial to incorporate bits and pieces from other programs into it...because no one program is going to functions perfectly on its own.
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8/28/2018 04:33:35 pm
Hi, Caitlin! You actually got me mixed up with Catie. The New Box of Pencils is my blog. But I agree with your comment.
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Rafael Garcia Avila
8/29/2018 12:30:59 pm
Catie, you make very good points and I cannot agree more. We are in great need of improving and this program will help us do that from the teaching perspective. Our students do deserve the best and our growth will help them directly. Thus, Professional Development is important but scarce. There is plenty of funding in this country to make education more of a priority and return to the top. Unfortunately, our government since 9/11 has focused and funded more programs in security than our future leaders and thinkers. We will make a change and innovate our students' educational experiences.
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9/1/2018 11:45:51 pm
Hi Catie!
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Catie GoldsteinInnovative Learning Master's Student. Teacher. Napper. Dog Petter. Archives
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