Comments on A Simple Workshop: Joy in School

This announcement came into my email today, sort o...

2009-11-05T12:18:43.670-05:00

This announcement came into my email today, sort of serendipitous to hear about "joy in school" twice in one week. The books sounds intriguing. Mary

http://www.kirstenolson.org/wounded.php

Teacher Book Discussion: Wounded by School
Join your peers for an online book discussion! During the week of Nov. 16-20, in our forums section, we will be discussing Kirsten Olson's Wounded by School: Recapturing the Joy in Learning and Standing Up to Old School Culture (Teachers College Press). In this highly praised book, Olson looks at the ways conventional school practices can weaken students' sense of self-worth and what educators can do to improve instructional responsiveness.

I don't think this has anything to do with technol...

2009-11-04T16:30:53.124-05:00

I don't think this has anything to do with technology. Hard work can be joyful. Joyful and easy aren't synonymous. I once heard someone say, "teaching is helping kids have fun doing real hard stuff". The word fun needs some definition and that's why joy is the more appropriate term for me.

There is nothing that sucks the joy out of learning more than spending countless hours on things that's only relevance to someone is that it's going to be on the test, or that they'll need to learn this for the next grade. That's weak and meaningless.

I like what Mary DY said at the end of her comment.

Thanks for linking and sharing.

Kip, thanks for bringing this article to my attent...

2009-11-04T13:41:31.325-05:00

Kip, thanks for bringing this article to my attention. I would add passion as another emotive ally in the classroom. When students talk about the teachers they learned the most from, a teacher's enthusiaism is an important part of the mix. Teaching mathematics to future teachers who are sometimes not positive on the subject matter, I challenge them with the notion that every child deserves to learn mathematics from a teacher who both understands math and sees it as a valuable tool for life.

And the ad nauseum testing has carried us way past the boundaries of making sense. In mathematics, the powers that be continue to assess tiny skills in isolation, because the more comprehensive skills of problem solving and "thinking mathematically" are difficult to measure. Sadly, mathematical power requires much more than a checklist of skills. The meaning behind the mechanics develops slowly over time, and I continue to be amazed by the lack of "sense-making" in my students' experience when they come to me after their high school experience.

So that is why my little classroom is a mission field, devoted to challenging my students with interesting hands-on task that allow them to "figure things out" for themselves. I maintain that true self-confidence comes from solving challenging problems, not from doing well on routine tasks.