Just as a thought.... I have to wonder what those people who just browse blogs are thinking. "Oh, look at that Blog of Doom. Sounds menacing!" (click, click) "Oh sheesh... it's another school project." (Closes window and computer, goes and makes a sandwich.)
Or this....
Anyway, down to brass tacks. I have always enjoyed reading. I was the kid with the flashlight under the sheets with a library book. But I didn't necessarily like reading everything. When I was a wee little Viking at Pleasant Grove Junior High, I was blessed to be enrolled in Seminary. Not that I had ever been necessarily a sinful little guy, but let's just say I didn't try as hard as I could. That was when I met Brother Dell Young. He really helped me to want to open the scriptures. I recall him using multiple different methods to help me understand why things were important. I had a very active imagination, and not only was he willing to teach the revelation in each section, but he gave the background as to how they were received. He had 3 boys chewing Tootsie Rolls and spitting the juice into cups on the floor. It was disgusting! But it certainly drove the point home as to why Joseph Smith would pray about. Not only that, it made me want to read about it. To tell you the truth, it was Brother Young's influence that made me want to teach at all. Guess what you have to know how to do if you want to teach....
Well, casually at the very least.
For History, it should be easy to come up with ideas to show context. Luckily, the whole darn subject has a timeline. For instance, you could make all the students sit on the floor, and not allow them to talk at all unless called on (this would go against the paradigm for my classroom.) Hopefully, one of them would stand up to you. This could be effective in showing how our culture and government allow much more freedom and opportunities to students. You could compare and contrast other nations and their history of education. This could lead into all types of spots in history, such as Johnson's Great Society or Reaganomics.
On the other acne covered, pudgy, Junior High hand... I also had an art teacher that made me absolutely despise the subject for many many years. She allowed my classmates to throw me in the trash, never was willing to help me out with my individual issues with techniques, and wrote fairly critical comments on my papers. To tell you the truth, the guidelines for this blog said to not name names, but I can't even remember her name. (Ok... I Googled it because it was bugging me. Turns out she's still teaching art at Pleasant Grove Junior High.) I think the one reason why I don't want to teach Junior High is because I think after you've been there a while, you start to act like them. You know... starved for a little bit of attention for dealing with Junior High.
I think the one thing to remember is that these students aren't yet finished products, so don't throw the book at them. Life is good, and they have plenty of time to learn the lessons you're trying to teach them. If they don't get it from me, at least I can try and therefore leave a good seed to grow in the future.
Oh my gosh...this blog is so funny! I don't think anybody would look at it and throw their computer away, even though it is "another education blog."
ReplyDeleteI really liked how your seminary teacher did the tootsie roll demonstration...clever! I agree with you that history is one of those disciplines where you can do a lot of little demonstrations like that. I like your example of mistreating students for a day, and seeing if they would stand up to you. When I taught about the caste system in India, I came up with some pretext to ask one group of students to pick up paper off of the floor without making eye contact with anybody; while another group of students did the regular writing assignment, while a third group of students got candy and did not have to do the writing assignment. You have to be kind of careful with these scenarios because you don't want complaining parents (I usually waited until at least a month into the school year before I did them), but I think they are incredibly powerful. Buehl's "problematic scenarios" activity does this same thing, and I think that strategy is especially golden for social studies.
Lastly, in regards to your art teacher...let's just say I'm glad you got out of that trash can and lived to blog another day. But seriously, relationships are important to everything in education, including learning literacy. And if you treat your students poorly and don't care when they are being hurt, then that will impact whether or not they are willing to read and write for you.
Kindness is always in style.