Tuesday Update 1-31-12

Good morning - I hope everyone is well.

If you get a chance, please read through the NY Times editorial on ADHD and medication.  It is very interesting.

I so enjoyed reading your blogs on the "Changing Education Paradigms" video.  We will be looking at more Ken Robinson material in the future, specifically a couple that focus on nurturing creativity in education. If you get a chance and want to view an excellent discussion of the video by one of your fellow groups please see Nicole, Katherine and Alexandria's blog at

A good discussion of Changing Education Paradigms

I would wager that most people think that education practices need change.  Not only to address test scores but to attend to changes in what students need in the 21st century - commonly called 21st century skills.  I don't think many of these are different from the past - including being creative, asking good questions and having the means to investigate these questions.  But the amount of time that we give students to work on these has decreased.  So, one of our jobs in our class is to think about how we mesh learning important content and skills with opportunities to solidify this learning through processes that resonate with individuals and the group as a whole.  That is - let's learn about physics in some traditional ways (maybe even some lectures) but build our knowledge in ways that are meaningful and robust for individual students.

Couple of more things: The ADHD issues was somewhat of a focus on many of the blogs (and I haven not finished reading these) but I actually think it was only a minor part.  Not to say it was not important; just that there was a lot of other interesting ideas presented.  Secondly, we are kind of stuck with the system we have.  I would love to think we could make whole scale changes in the education landscape; take back our classrooms, rebel and stand up to outside forces that really don't have a clue about educational practice.  But I suspect that will not happen any time soon.  The challenge is to find a way to work within the system so you can decide what to do in your teaching that you know is best for your students but still work within the confines of the present school structure.  It can be done.  I know teachers that are quietly working within the system to re-claim their classrooms and practice.  It takes will, knowledge and skill but is doable.  My vision and hope is that your generation of teachers will constitute the game changers and bring sanity back to the classroom practice.  A big job!

Thanks - see you later this AM.

Matt