“Miss Nancy. Miss Nancy. I got in trouble today!”
Immediately the dialog format catches the reader’s attention. Nancy writes about her conversation with the playground bully at the school where she worked as a teacher assistant. The boy complains that the teacher punished him when, “I said a bad word and pushed Tommy because he was making fun of me.”
Nancy commiserates saying, “Getting in trouble isn’t much fun.” Later on she shares her own experience, “One day I figured out that if I didn’t let my sister see me get mad, she wouldn’t make fun of me because I wasn’t getting angry.” At another point she suggests, “We are going to have a secret code. Every time you get angry, flip your retainer in your mouth and that will let me know… I will come over and give you three minutes of alone time to calm down…”
Without a boastful word, Nancy’s essay shows her insight, compassion, tact and creativity.
Showing posts with label teachers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teachers. Show all posts
Monday, May 9, 2011
Thursday, July 15, 2010
A Better Way: Part 2
Develop and hire instructors that specialize in undergraduate education
When live faculty are used, they should be specifically trained as undergraduate instructors. Today, the typical professor is trained and interested in research and arcana, not the education and nurturing of undergraduates. Within each undergraduate major, colleges should offer a specialization in undergraduate pedagogy. Faculty hired to teach undergraduates would be these bachelors-degree holders rather than the research-types currently used.
When live faculty are used, they should be specifically trained as undergraduate instructors. Today, the typical professor is trained and interested in research and arcana, not the education and nurturing of undergraduates. Within each undergraduate major, colleges should offer a specialization in undergraduate pedagogy. Faculty hired to teach undergraduates would be these bachelors-degree holders rather than the research-types currently used.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Secrets to Finding Great Instructors
You know it, I know it: some college instructors are great, others just stink. A PhD does not magically turn someone from a boring, monotone know-it-all into a motivational, attention-captivating knowledge dispenser. Truth is, most professors are renowned for their research and writing, not for their ability to keep entertained freshmen in their seats.
To find the best college teachers try some of the following suggestions:
* Pick the campus’s teaching award winners. The list is at the academic affairs office. Teaching award winners are few and far between. But the winners are those that stand out, even among the good teachers.
* Check student ratings of professors. Some colleges make them available in the bookstore or student affairs office. But there are rating sites used by students at colleges all across the country, Ratemyprofessor.com, for example. But be cautious – some students who are upset over a bad grade or the difficulty level of an instructor will give a bad review that is unfounded. What’s worse is when they don’t explain their rating… Make sure to read all the comments to get a good look at why the instructor has his or her particular rating.
* Ask department secretaries. They see all the faculty evaluations and may even give you the straight scoop.
* Check out syllabi. Often they're on the Web, or the department secretary has them. It is a good way to see what is involved in the class. If you’re not lecture, lecture, lecture… find an instructor with group activities or special presentations planned into the syllabus.
* Over-enroll or oversit. If you plan to take three courses, sign up for four, attend the first session of each, and drop the worst one.
Remember, you should be in that class to learn, not just pass… So if you want a good teacher you need to be good student. That means paying attention, being on time, doing your work, being prepared, doing the reading BEFORE class (so you can ask questions), and not distracting other students.
To find the best college teachers try some of the following suggestions:
* Pick the campus’s teaching award winners. The list is at the academic affairs office. Teaching award winners are few and far between. But the winners are those that stand out, even among the good teachers.
* Check student ratings of professors. Some colleges make them available in the bookstore or student affairs office. But there are rating sites used by students at colleges all across the country, Ratemyprofessor.com, for example. But be cautious – some students who are upset over a bad grade or the difficulty level of an instructor will give a bad review that is unfounded. What’s worse is when they don’t explain their rating… Make sure to read all the comments to get a good look at why the instructor has his or her particular rating.
* Ask department secretaries. They see all the faculty evaluations and may even give you the straight scoop.
* Check out syllabi. Often they're on the Web, or the department secretary has them. It is a good way to see what is involved in the class. If you’re not lecture, lecture, lecture… find an instructor with group activities or special presentations planned into the syllabus.
* Over-enroll or oversit. If you plan to take three courses, sign up for four, attend the first session of each, and drop the worst one.
Remember, you should be in that class to learn, not just pass… So if you want a good teacher you need to be good student. That means paying attention, being on time, doing your work, being prepared, doing the reading BEFORE class (so you can ask questions), and not distracting other students.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
What is the Best School Strategy for Bright Kids?
For more than 30 years more and more school resources have been reallocated from high-ability/achieving kids to the lowest achievers. Especially in states like California, most school districts have eviscerated gifted programs and pushed teachers to prioritize "the most vulnerable among us." This, of course, is exacerbated by the Democrat-initiated, Republican-embraced No Child Left Behind, which has fundamentally shifted how schools treat and help low-achieving kids but has actually taken resources away from above-average to do it.
A final nail in gifted kids' education coffin is that the average IQ of teachers, especially in the elementary school, has declined. I won’t delve into the fact that many of the best teachers in previous generations were the best and brightest women in the job field (who were unlikely to attain great positions in other fields at the time) and that today women have moved into high positions in nearly all industries (example, they represent half of medical school and law school students). I’ll just say that it is possible that the newer teachers are, perhaps, less capable of teaching gifted kids. And they're less motivated too. Many new teachers are likely to think that the gifted kids will do fine on their own. And they focus on the low achievers.
So, a lucid approach to helping bright kids to live up to their potential accepts that many teachers will do little to help them. That explains why the research finds that the most powerful strategy for helping gifted kids to live up to their potential is grade skipping: for gifted kids to skip between one and six grades, depending on the student. That requires far less teacher ability or effort than, for example, providing more cognitively complex instruction for the gifted student(s) in their increasingly heterogeneous classes.
Now, parents' main concern about grade skipping is social maturity. Even if your high-ability child isn't socially adept, in many cases, it's wiser to have him or her skip a grade(s) than to endure the ongoing boredom and lack of learning that comes from being in a too low-achieving class. Also, grade skipping reduces the chances of a gifted child being ridiculed by classmates as a snob or showoff.
You can mitigate the social risk of grade-skipping by:
• Trying to get another gifted child accelerated into your child's new class.
• Having your child sit next to a kind, socially adept student(s) who can teach your child the higher grade's social and academic norms.
• Ensuring that the receiving teacher will welcome your child and be willing to keep an eye on your child to ensure s/he's being welcomed into the class and to give your child needed feedback, social and academic.
To maximize your chances of getting permission to have your child skip a grade, present to the principal a portfolio including:
• Samples of your child's in- and out-of-school work that suggest the ability to handle the work in a higher grade.
• Samples of work assigned in his current class that demonstrate how beneath his ability or achievement level that work is.
• Standardized test score results.
• Research supporting grade skipping, including those studies that address the social maturity and knowledge-gap issues. An easy way to assemble the research is to print pages from the book Genius Denied. Because principals tend to be very busy, highlight the key sentences.
• If your child writes well, include a letter from your child explaining why it's important s/he be allowed to skip a grade(s).
• Have your child verbally join you in making the case for skipping a grade(s).
Remember that this strategy is best for students in elementary and middle school. Most high schools still have the Advanced, Honors, and Advanced Placement courses to help gifted students thrive and learn. For more on accelerating gifted kids, see the Hoagie's Gifted website on acceleration: http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/acceleration.htm and/or the book, Acceleration Strategies.
A final nail in gifted kids' education coffin is that the average IQ of teachers, especially in the elementary school, has declined. I won’t delve into the fact that many of the best teachers in previous generations were the best and brightest women in the job field (who were unlikely to attain great positions in other fields at the time) and that today women have moved into high positions in nearly all industries (example, they represent half of medical school and law school students). I’ll just say that it is possible that the newer teachers are, perhaps, less capable of teaching gifted kids. And they're less motivated too. Many new teachers are likely to think that the gifted kids will do fine on their own. And they focus on the low achievers.
So, a lucid approach to helping bright kids to live up to their potential accepts that many teachers will do little to help them. That explains why the research finds that the most powerful strategy for helping gifted kids to live up to their potential is grade skipping: for gifted kids to skip between one and six grades, depending on the student. That requires far less teacher ability or effort than, for example, providing more cognitively complex instruction for the gifted student(s) in their increasingly heterogeneous classes.
Now, parents' main concern about grade skipping is social maturity. Even if your high-ability child isn't socially adept, in many cases, it's wiser to have him or her skip a grade(s) than to endure the ongoing boredom and lack of learning that comes from being in a too low-achieving class. Also, grade skipping reduces the chances of a gifted child being ridiculed by classmates as a snob or showoff.
You can mitigate the social risk of grade-skipping by:• Trying to get another gifted child accelerated into your child's new class.
• Having your child sit next to a kind, socially adept student(s) who can teach your child the higher grade's social and academic norms.
• Ensuring that the receiving teacher will welcome your child and be willing to keep an eye on your child to ensure s/he's being welcomed into the class and to give your child needed feedback, social and academic.
To maximize your chances of getting permission to have your child skip a grade, present to the principal a portfolio including:
• Samples of your child's in- and out-of-school work that suggest the ability to handle the work in a higher grade.
• Samples of work assigned in his current class that demonstrate how beneath his ability or achievement level that work is.
• Standardized test score results.
• Research supporting grade skipping, including those studies that address the social maturity and knowledge-gap issues. An easy way to assemble the research is to print pages from the book Genius Denied. Because principals tend to be very busy, highlight the key sentences.
• If your child writes well, include a letter from your child explaining why it's important s/he be allowed to skip a grade(s).
• Have your child verbally join you in making the case for skipping a grade(s).
Remember that this strategy is best for students in elementary and middle school. Most high schools still have the Advanced, Honors, and Advanced Placement courses to help gifted students thrive and learn. For more on accelerating gifted kids, see the Hoagie's Gifted website on acceleration: http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/acceleration.htm and/or the book, Acceleration Strategies.
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