This has been an eye-opener of a workshop! I am seeing incredible challenges and technologies placed in front of middle school students that truly impress me. I have been awakened to how low our expectations are in our district....and I don't mean the teacher's expectations. Many of these districts are devoting entire months every school year in middle school to scientific process and lab work, while we have dropped the specialization completely off the middle school grid and only incorporate it within other content, which diminishes its importance.
We need to look at ourselves and see if we really are challenging the students by meeting them where they are and taking along on the ride with us as teachers. This is the difference between riding on the train and adding more logs to the fire and chasing after the accelerating train hoping to catch up while we, inevitably, leave those less able to handle those tougher courses behind. (Note: gratuitous force and motion reference courtesy of 6th grade curriculum and the NGSS, coming to a school near you, soon!)
While I have been considered an "innovator" and a teacher who "challenges" his students, I realize how really far I have to go to truly earn those monikers. (I just needed a way to use that word...its really cool and I haven't used it in a while).
Love the software we have received. It takes any photo and measures angles, distance, size, perimeter, area, albedo, virtually anything you can see and record on a digital photo. Wicked cool!!!! Nice group of teachers to work with, and I love what I am seeing, I only hope that I can make some of this really work in my environment.
No comments:
Post a Comment