Fractals, Fibonacci sequences, geometric shapes....
Teachers are called upon to be the guide by the side, not the sage upon the stage. Good teachers, even when they are a fount of knowledge for their students, avoid providing answers to every question they're asked in the classroom. They often answer a question with another question: "Miss Brown, what's the time?" "Well, why don't you look at the clock?" Or they seize the opportunity of the question to help the student learn: "I can't tell the time." "Then let me show you how...." Good teachers "prepare the environment" so that, as Montessori advocated, "learning happens spontaneously." Reference materials abound in their classroom. The computer is fast becoming the preeminent reference desk, especially when it provides a gateway to the World Wide Web. Good teachers, with access to the web in their classrooms, will familiarize themselves with the growing abundance of rich learning resources available on-line and will often send their students on a virtual journey in pursuit of the knowledge they need at any particular time. Preparation is key. As Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) put it so well: "Fortune favors the prepared mind." The student will more likely "find [what he needs to know] within himself" if the environment is conducive to such discovery.
In this world of fast pace, "gimme now" agendas, we need to teach our students and our children the pleasures of going slow, of learning something well, and the joys of carefully crafted accomplishment acquired over time. Just as the aim of medicine should be not so much to prolong life, but rather to enhance the quality of it, so we must teach our students in such a way that they gain from their education not only the wealth of knowledge they need, but also an appreciation for the quality of life to be found in stillness and quiet contemplation.
Let's frequently remind ourselves that every single one of the kids entrusted to our care is worthy of our utmost love and attention, come what may.
These words were lovely to hear today as my kids worked on their Social Studies projects. I have been struggling all year to mold them into independent learners. I want them to be able to depend for their learning on themselves and on their own resources, instead of depending on me. George, in particular, has been a real challenge. Everytime he has a question, he comes running to me. He rarely looks anything up for himself and is very teacher dependent. Today, while the class was working in their groups, another student questioned George about his work, wondering if his information was accurate. George looked at the student and assured him that it was correct. The student pushed a little harder and asked George to prove it. I fully expected George to then come running to me to settle this dispute, as was his wont. But I was thrilled to see him look the other student right in the eye, hold up his library book, and respond, "Ask the book!" I knew at that moment that George had arrived. This is where I want all my students to be - at a point where they trust their own ability and knowledge enough to meet the challenge.
It may take a hundred years, but the way we do education is changing, and changing for the better.
Beginning is often the toughest part of any project. Sometimes it takes a lot of courage and will power to begin something new. All of us make plans; all of us have ideas. Yet how many plans, how many ideas have we failed to realize because we just couldn't get started? All of us are dreamers, but our dreams become reality only when we have the courage to take that first step. Once we have taken the bold step to begin, we often find ourselves saying, "Well, that wasn't so bad, once I got going." We all should boldly accept the challenge of innovation, the challenge of change, for therein lies "genius, power, and magic."
To succeed, a person must be willing to also accept failure. Life is a learning process, and we must teach our students that it is good not only to succeed, but also, in many instances, to fail. Think about the times when you have failed. Even in as small a way as how to spell something. I personally will never forget my first spelling bee, and misspelling the word "sword"...and I have never done it since. We must show our students that everything in life is a process, and because it is such, there is no end to the progress we can make. Failure at anything is just a step along the way, from which we can learn. Thus, those that have fortune of any kind are those who have never given up in the face of adversity, who through their work and ambition have shown what industry is truly about--overcoming obstacles in the continuous pursuit of worthwhile goals.
This idea is similar to the one that goes: "If you want a job properly taken care of, make someone responsible for it." Half the problems with systems are not the people in the systems, but the systems themselves. If you set up a good system, the folks operating within the system will function more successfully. This naturally applies to school systems as much as any other. Administrators, please attend to this... If you want technology such as computer-based technology to be incorporated successfully into your K-12 schools, make appropriate folks responsible for making it happen. It really ain't going to happen by itself.
Fear; pride; self respect. Call it what you will. These emotions motivate us, inspire us, and drive us to achieve excellence.
Excellence, however, is relative. Anyone and everyone—yes, anyone and everyone—can achieve excellence in some way, shape, or form. I know, for example, that I have done many excellent things in my life, and so have you.
So have we all. Never doubt that.
Perfection, on the other hand, is absolute. No one, other than the God of many religions, can achieve that. Indeed, one can say with some essentially pure logic that Perfection = God.
Only God can do it.
Excellence, on the other hand, is a striving after perfection, in the sure knowledge that perfection, by mere humans, cannot be achieved. This is why we will never be satisfied. Never. Not even if the planet somehow survives a billion more years.
A million, even a billion years hence, if we humans are still around, we will still be striving after perfection, and still achieving excellence in perfection’s pursuit.
"Ah, but a man's reach must exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?"Robert Browning (1812-1889)
Donna Hendry's quote reminds us that everything and everyone is beautiful in something or someone's eyes. The best teachers remember this and accord all their students the love and dignity that is their right, no matter how they may present themselves or be perceived.
This quote also calls to mind that of John Vincent Atanasoff, who noted that "You don't need absolute accuracy to achieve perfect results." Atanasoff, a professor of physics at the University of Iowa (now Iowa State) was credited, after a six year legal battle in the U.S. courts, with the invention of the electronic digital computer. Being digital, his computer stored only discrete pieces of data (represented as on and off switches which we think of as 1s and 0s). This meant that the information processed by his computer was necessarily lacking in absolute accuracy (since it didn't capture the "spaces" between the 1s and 0s), even though its results were close enough to perfection to be eminently usable. Atanasoff's computer, on which all modern computers are based, is thus a finite state machine ("finite" as in "lacking the capability of infinite measurement"), as Alan Turing had already observed when he theorized about such a machine before it was even built. But a digital computer can collect enough data to represent reality with a degree of accuracy to more than satisfy all but the most stringently demanding applications. So, while the computer is not "absolutely accurate" as such, it is a "perfect" tool for processing the data that represent our reality in its myriad incarnations.
Are we content with who we are? I mean, do we sometimes wish we were someone else? Well, guess what! The "someone else" we longingly wish we were, is likely wishing he or she were someone else, too! Who we are is as good as it gets, so why not make ourselves better in the context of who we are. Over that we have at least a measure of control. So, day by day, let's seek to advance ourselves--intellectually, physically, emotionally. There's no limit to such a quest--and that's the beauty of it. We can live and love a little better every day, until we make a lifetime.
We need to remind ourselves of Hillary's words at those times in our lives when we shy away from a challenge that seems daunting to us. This is true when the challenge is inescapable, such as a problem in a significant relationship, or a work-related obligation. But it's also true when the challenge gnaws at us because we know it's within our capabilities, but we just can't seem to get around to doing it. Think about your life--your abilities and talents, and the opportunities that have presented themselves along the way. Are there mountains that you could have climbed, but didn't? How do you feel about that? We may never come across those particular mountains again, and that may well be cause for regret. But new mountains will loom on our future horizons and the only obstacle to our conquering them will be ourselves.
Teachers
should not assume that students are incapable of completing academic work just because of a disability! On the contrary, teachers should rather assume that a student with a disability can nonetheless complete work just as well as any other student, given any needed assistance and time. This assistance may take the form of assistive devices and methodologies of one kind or another. For this reason, teachers should be aware of any and all devices, technologies, and approaches to learning that will assist their students, whether or not those students have a special need. "No problems, only solutions" should be the rallying cry of teachers and students when faced with any learning challenge.
Of course! Why stick your neck out if it's not going to make a difference? Why revolutionize your teaching by incorporating technology into the curriculum if it doesn't help you teach and children learn? But if computers and related technology do make a difference, then why not give them a try?
Change is usually accompanied by discomfort, if not distress. What seems superficial turns out, all too often, to involve fundamental adjustments in our ways of doing things. This is very true when we change the types of technology we use in the context of teaching and learning. Modern computer-based technologies are undeniably exciting tools, but their incorporation into the K-12 curriculum requires a daunting series of changes which, if successfully implemented, will result in both teachers and students being stretched to new dimensions of body, mind and soul.
Good managers are good problem solvers. No system survives without change, and change is often hard. Managers who initiate change without careful planning easily come unstuck and waste time fixing problems that should have been anticipated in the first place. This is what happens when school districts introduce technology into the classroom without providing training and technical support for the teachers. Teaching with computer-based technologies involves skills and ways of doing things that are quite different from traditional chalk and talk methodologies. Actually, it opens up many opportunities for applying now classic constructivist/discovery learning/Montessorian methodologies at all levels K-12. But this can only happen if the teachers, and their students, are given ample opportunity and support in the process of adaptation.
Children are most likely to love learning when they are allowed to learn at their own pace and in ways that suit their individual learning styles. Often, this desirable mode of education conflicts with school district goals of processing through classrooms the greatest number of students at the lowest possible cost. One of the unfortunate outcomes of such mass-production is an unacceptably high number of students who fall by the wayside and fail to gain basic skills even in reading, writing and arithmetic, let alone higher order thinking skills so necessary today. In this Information Age, all students must develop learning skills that will carry them successfully through the inevitable transitional phases of their careers. Fortunately, thanks, among other things, to enlightened local, State and Federal intervention, falling teacher-pupil ratios, in classrooms that are technology-rich, are enabling individualized learning which was once the preserve of the privileged few. Teachers in these albeit still-privileged, but soon-to-be-normal, classrooms prepare the environment in which their students can learn, alone or in groups, with no compulsion other than their own innate curiosity and their avid desire to grow, in all its dimensions, with the teacher as guide. It will not be long before this paradigm replaces the regimented learning of a bygone age and at last "prepares [all] the young to educate themselves throughout their lives."
Lifelong learning reigns! Yes, schools must continue to maintain high standards and help their students to acquire knowledge, along with learning skills, when they are young. But, towards that end, schools must design curricula and maintain a campus environment which will stimulate enthusiasm for learning. Every child has the ability to learn. The teachers' responsibility is to discover each individual student's intellectual talent and provide a learning environment in which that talent can flourish. This is a tough assignment. Individualized, differentiated instruction, currently enjoyed by the privileged (not necessarily wealthy) few, must become, not the exception, but the norm.