While I am on the central coast of California, connected at my mom's house, I recently came across a news article discussing the difference between boys and girls. The article continues to discuss that there are different learning styles between the genders and that the boys are being "left behind" by the girls. The article talks about the fact that schools are trying to find a way to meet the different needs of the students. They even point out that the percentage of boys entering college is 40% and that colleges are letting boys, who are not as qualified as girls, into school so the percentages do not fall too low.
It seems that the administration and the teachers at AHS are ahead of other places when it comes to gender studies. I hope that there is a way we can share the information that we are learing with other professionals in education.
While talking to my sister, who teaches in Bakersfield, about technology, we seem to be well ahead of some other schools. The school where my sister teaches is not seeking technology as a means for student learning. (Or, so it seems.) If schools want to prepare students for the "flat world," shouldn't they be proactive and not reactive? When are we as a profession going to team together to prepare students for the world and not wait for someone else to figure "it" out first? Is there a way to take our PLC's outside of the walls of AHS and connect with teachers elsewhere? How can we find the resources and time to do this? I am going to try somethings along with the trip to Japan this summer but are there other ways to get connected with people who are already very "busy"? Any ideas out there on how to get connected with other classroom teachers? (I mean in actual practice of a global classroom and not just reading about it.)
1 comment:
Well I, of course, think that we can take our PLC's outside of AHS and connect with other schools and teachers. I think blogging and podcasting (and soon vodcasting or video conferencing) are both ways we can do that (with RSS as the connecting technology).
But I'm not sure how to address the time issue. Obviously I wrote the two grants to help address the time issue for AHS, but apparently that's not enough time for our teachers. And then when you talk about working collaboratively across time and distance with other schools, that throws in a whole nother issue.
Ultimately - and I hate to say this to you because you're already stretched so thin - I think it's just going to come down to teachers who are willing to go that extra mile. It will come down to those teachers who see that this is absolutely critical for their students and the only way that it's going to happen is if they (the teacher) finds a way to make it happen. No matter what the other teachers in their school (or on their "team") say. No matter how much of the curriculum they have to juggle and shift and sometimes skip. No matter how many times they will end up wondering if it is all worth it.
To use a quote from that calendar I saw on your desk:
"The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers."
M. Scott Peck (March 14th on that calendar).
Post a Comment