this entry walks the fine line between "technology" and not "technology" related. my reasoning is that this is about a process, which can be defined as technology and can also be patented. it is something i have never seen before in schools, and i think it would serve my fellow MACers well to know.
we have all heard of the term "alignment." a nineth grade english teacher works with tenth grade, eleventh grade, and twelfth grade english teachers to make sure their english curriculums don't overlap and have a steady flow. this makes a lot of sense. a student would probably not want to read romeo and juliet three times in three different years in high school. but this system produces separate modules of knowledge that are discrete and often lower in relevance because they stand alone and aren't inter-connected.
at the international academy, teachers between subjects work together and collaborate. in this way, a student who learns how to analyze literature in an english class revisits that skill set in a math class and then in a physics class and then a biology class. problem solving skills learned in math are used in history, chemistry, and french. in the end, it is less about teaching students specific content as it is about teaching them skills and knowledge about how to think and use their thinking. they learn that truth as defined by math through proofs and logic cannot be the same kind of truth for physics which is done through observation and experimentation. it produces students who are intellectually well rounded and adept at learning.
after the leaving the school, i only had one thought on my mind. "sure this works with a school of 600 kids where the teacher to student ratio is AMAZING and where all the kids are extremely intelligent (some more so than even the teachers) and where parents and students alike are all highly motivated about the child's education. now how might this work in belleville or a place where these factors don't exist?"
if i could tell you all the answer to that question, then i'd quit the program and start my own school of education because i would have solved one of the greatest mysteries of our field. how do we re-tailor this hyper-effective system that is only fit for a small niche of the population? things that work there cannot work elsewhere because of the unique atmosphere and culture they have established. someone in our class once said "schools don't make communities, communities make schools." i use to fully agree, but i do think the IA has produced its own sort of community outside of the communities boundaries as kids come from all over lower michigan. how do we create a community and environment where students want to learn, feel comfortable with challenge because everyone else is in the same boat with them, and where they hold high expectations for themselves and their learning.
i cannot believe that such a way does not exist for even low motivated students.
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3 comments:
Hi Larry -
Good post! You bring up the dilemma of our field & I myself have the same questions. While I think that teachers surely could collaborate across fields to ensure that the kids are using skills from math class in Physics, there is a question of logistics here. Can teachers who are already dealing with a lack of resources and many other frustrations on a daily basis take more time out of their schedules to ensure alignment? In a perfect world, I would say yes. But, we all know that the demands of life so often make it difficult to achieve these ideals. You bring up a good point and I hope you let us know if you are able to draw any unexpected conclusions.
Larry,
this is super interesting, especially because I was recently listening to some teacher talk about the virtue of teaching skills over content. Not instead of content, of course, but as the primary focus. Content is important, but I have to say that I don't remember a lot of the content i learned in high school, but I know how to write well, read and research so now I am equipped to find the content I've forgotten.
Larry,
It certainly is a process you are talking about. I would be interested to know how long the IA had to work putting together a curriculum like that.
The more I do for our program, the more I realize that the teaching process is one huge collaborative effort (at least, it should be). There isn't anything that is achieved students by one teacher (person) alone. There are student-teacher "contracts", in which both should come prepared to work together, teacher-parent, teacher-teacher, teacher-admin "contracts", etc. So much of teaching is based on the interactions between people that I often wonder how the notion gets out to the public that teachers are alone in their classrooms and teach their students what they please....
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