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Re: Cool Cat Teacher Blog: My Sister is Homeless: The Trouble with Statistics

VYonkers — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 13:55:35 -0000

The fact is, your sister does indicate a "problem" with the housing in that, even as you admit, there might not be sufficient rentals in your town. By including her in the numbers, officials can look at "homelessness" not necessarily as only a result of poverty, but also a lack of adequate housing. It makes the issue more complex. However, only looking at the "number" is not sufficient. Why people are sharing houses, not owning their own housing, and whether or not they have access to adequate shelter (which your sister appears to have) should come out of these new numbers. Throwing the numbers out without the context and deeper level of analysis is just as bad as having an oversimplified definition.

Likewise, just using the numbers without some deeper understanding and information about student learning does not give the full picture. We have schools that continually fall under "failing schools" because they don't reach the state standards. However, when you understand that the "drop-out" rate includes students that transfer to other schools or do not complete school in the regulation 5 years, yet have graduated the largest number of students to date, the school does not appear so failing.

Part of the problem is not the statistics, but the labeling that comes out of the statistics and the lack of understanding of the context in which the statistics are collected. Urban schools have similar complaints about tests that include questions about farm animals or even cars (when a child may never have been in a car if they live in a major city).

Statistics should be used as a tool, not a measure of learning. To truly understand how a student is learning is a much more complex process.

Re: Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Tony Wagner's Redefining Rigor: Redefining our Future (If we'll only listen)

VYonkers — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 13:29:06 -0000

I have been looking for something like this for a while. As an undergraduate business and communication teacher and a graduate education teacher, I have seen my role becoming even more critical over the last decade. I have had to teach all of these skills in my class as students do not come into school prepared with these skills.

I don't blame the teachers or students, but rather the policy makers who want to simplify and quantify learning. Like you, I have found international projects as ideal since the assumptions we are taught through our educational system (there is one way to do things--compare how math is done in China and the US; facts do not change--ask a European or Latin American how many continents there are) are blown out of the water when working/learning collaboratively across the borders.

To change, we will need to 1)change the educational policies, 2) change parent attitudes as to what should and should not be learned, 3) change teacher, administrator, and student attitudes towards "mistakes", "errors", and "not knowing" to make it a jumping off for learning rather than being part of the definition for "failure."

Last year, my son shocked me when he came up with his "theory of war." I didn't agree with him, and we had long discussions about it, but I knew he was in the right school when he would even think of coming up with his own theory. Of course, it also helps to have parents that will allow you to come up with those theories and discuss it and/or challenge it, rather than commenting, "that's crazy" or "that's nice, dear."

Re: Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Another Call for Search Literacy: I couldn't agree more!

VYonkers — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 13:57:43 -0000

How do you access google via the cell phone? I have to admit that I am much more literate via computer than cell phone. In fact, when it comes time to text message, I just hand over the phone to my son!

Re: Cool Cat Teacher Blog: You want me to do WHAT?

VYonkers — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 11:44:40 -0000

I tell my students often that they do have choices (as this woman does).

One, you can complain and suffer through it.

Two, you can do the best you can, learn from it, and come up with a plan of how to do things differently (I bet the next year you had sufficient cell phone budget AND a contingency plan).

Or you can give up. There is nothing wrong with giving up when you just can't work through it. I have left jobs where the boss was abusive (like Karyn's husband's boss) and/or I was asked to do things that were against my ethics. Yes, it was scary financially, but I knew if worse came to worse I'd work in temp jobs or collect bottles if I had to (it didn't come to that) than to be placed in a situation where I had to compromise what I thought was morally wrong.

I think the woman in this clip was very clever in trying to break through the wall, and maybe would have found a way through if she were allowed a do over. Often in those "oh, crap" moments (her words), I surprise myself with the amount of innovation I have in myself.

For example, I had a class last year in which I was supposed to teach new communication technologies, with one computer in the room in which much of the sites I needed to access were blocked (I was lucky, I almost had a room with no computer). I found many inventive ways to teach new communication technologies including sending my students out with a cell phone to access computers and other students still in the classroom giving instructions over the telephone (it was a university so we could do that).