I had very mixed feelings about the book Drive. I loved the concepts and ideas, but I had trouble envisioning how some of them would work in the classroom.
In particular, I really liked 20% time. It would be AMAZING to have 20% of my time in school go towards something of my choosing (also unbelievable!!). It's incredible to think about how much more relaxed, de-stressed, and creative I would be with that kind of free time. I'm sure many other teachers have the same problem I do with time: there's not enough of it and the my to-do list is never ending. There's always more grading, more meetings, more interventions, more study sessions, more conferences, more curriculum issues, more filing, etc. Having 20% of my time dedicated to creativity and innovation would completely change the make-up of my job (in an amazing way!).
My general worry about the idea of 20% time would be that the school district would find more items to fill it, thus ruining the whole idea! : )
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Friday, March 4, 2011
Week 7
The question I chose to answer from the running list was:
"When the curriculum isn't working what do you do to help your students. Being the credit recovery teacher as well as a social studies teacher I am working with students who not been able to pass a class with the traditionally curriculum. What can I offer them to be successful, especially when the teacher whose curriculum didn't work just wants me to go over the same curriculum."
Credit recovery can certainly be tricky! Dropout prevention has placed a huge emphasis on this at my school as well.
I think the first aspect to look at is: what specific parts of the curriculum aren't working? For example, is it the book the student is asked to read too difficult, or are the assignments the problem? Which particular assignments seem troubling? Does the student have difficulty understanding big concepts, or is finishing projects the problem? (etc.) Chances are, parts of the regular curriculum can still work if you can work around the main problems.
If the teacher of the student wants you to stick to his/her curriculum, then I guess you would have to do some wiggling! See what the teacher would be willing to adapt. For example: could you use an easier version of the book or a parallel text instead of the regular book? Could you use graphic organizers to map ideas instead of answering reading questions? (etc.)
If the teacher is willing, perhaps you can slightly alter individual assignments (if those tend to be the problem). For example, instead of regular reading questions, you could have the student answer one key question in a paragraph. Or, you could have the student take book notes, draw comic strips depicting events, etc. There are many books with ideas for this type of adaption.
Also, figuring out what kind of learner your student(s) is may help as well. If he/she is an auditory learner, perhaps you could sometimes read the text aloud while he/she writes down key concepts (etc.). This would not alter the curriculum, but would help the student remember more of the information.
Finally, in terms of accountability, I think it's important to look at what factors besides the curriculum may be impacting the student(s) ability to pass the class. Is attendance a problem? Attention span? Attitude? If any of these are impacting learning, I think it's important to tackle those issues in addition to the curriculum. For example: how can you motivated a disinterested student? Answering this question could be more beneficial than only adapting assignments in the long run.
"When the curriculum isn't working what do you do to help your students. Being the credit recovery teacher as well as a social studies teacher I am working with students who not been able to pass a class with the traditionally curriculum. What can I offer them to be successful, especially when the teacher whose curriculum didn't work just wants me to go over the same curriculum."
Credit recovery can certainly be tricky! Dropout prevention has placed a huge emphasis on this at my school as well.
I think the first aspect to look at is: what specific parts of the curriculum aren't working? For example, is it the book the student is asked to read too difficult, or are the assignments the problem? Which particular assignments seem troubling? Does the student have difficulty understanding big concepts, or is finishing projects the problem? (etc.) Chances are, parts of the regular curriculum can still work if you can work around the main problems.
If the teacher of the student wants you to stick to his/her curriculum, then I guess you would have to do some wiggling! See what the teacher would be willing to adapt. For example: could you use an easier version of the book or a parallel text instead of the regular book? Could you use graphic organizers to map ideas instead of answering reading questions? (etc.)
If the teacher is willing, perhaps you can slightly alter individual assignments (if those tend to be the problem). For example, instead of regular reading questions, you could have the student answer one key question in a paragraph. Or, you could have the student take book notes, draw comic strips depicting events, etc. There are many books with ideas for this type of adaption.
Also, figuring out what kind of learner your student(s) is may help as well. If he/she is an auditory learner, perhaps you could sometimes read the text aloud while he/she writes down key concepts (etc.). This would not alter the curriculum, but would help the student remember more of the information.
Finally, in terms of accountability, I think it's important to look at what factors besides the curriculum may be impacting the student(s) ability to pass the class. Is attendance a problem? Attention span? Attitude? If any of these are impacting learning, I think it's important to tackle those issues in addition to the curriculum. For example: how can you motivated a disinterested student? Answering this question could be more beneficial than only adapting assignments in the long run.
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