It has been postulated -- by me -- that an entire K-12 curriculum could be based around the lyrics of Phish songs. Here goes:
Science: "Dirt," "Sample in a Jar," "Tube," and "Reba."
World Religions/Mythology: "The Squirming Coil," "Icculus"
Phys Ed: "Run Like an Antelope" and "Punch You in the Eye"
Health and Wellness: "Catapult"
Literature: "Prince Caspian"
Hebrew Studies: "Avinu Malkenu"
Psychology: "Crimes of the Mind" and "My Mind's Got a Mind of its Own"
Marine Biology / Aquatics:"Theme from the Bottom," "Moma Dance," "Water in the Sky," "Wading in the Velvet Sea," and "Waves."
International Relations: "Mexican Cousin," "Language Instructions," and "Manteca"
History: "46 Days," "No Dogs Allowed," "Guelah Papyrus," "Buffalo Bill"
Geography: "Albequrque," "Walls of the Cave," and "Train Song"
Career Planning: "Waste"
Geometry: "Round Room"
"Right angle rooms drive me crazier each day
Put me in a box I know I'm never going to play
Put me in a square room and I won't know what to say
I want a round room at the end of the day"
Also, "Demand" can go along way to teach emergency preparedness:
"You may as well keep your belly full
For the time may come when youl rely on the layer of fat
That separates you from the rabid dog and the common fly"
OK, that was fun, but it doesn't have to be Phish songs. A curriculum could be organized around almost anything that engages the students. The skills that students need to learn are already identified, but what makes them master those skills might be different for every student. Why do we continue to give them the same textbooks with the same essays, stories, and cookie-cutter excercises?
We don't need to spend such an inordinate percentage of our budget on textbooks. Instead, let's get ALL students access to the Internet and teach them to use it responsibly and effectively.
Free educational websites and apps let us read or download classic works of literature, and just about any idea or fact we need to find can be tracked down online.
You'll miss the excercise you copied from page 655 of the textbook and handed out to students. I know. I'll miss it, too.
But our students will gain the opportunity to be the creators of the projects and excercises, in a manner of speaking, when you present them with a problem and they develop the necessary skills by working together to find a solution. And won't they remember much longer, and with deeper understanding and connections, that which they learned by doing , rather than what they read and filled out on a copy from page 655?
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Scott Swindells
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Let Me Let You Answer That Question
Welcome to a special Wednesday edition of Tuesdays. Our district closed yesterday due to snow & ice, making two snow days since my last post (which was about technology enabling learning to continue despite the weather...).
I also spent three days running a ski trip to Vermont with more than 50 high school students. They were an excellent group, and the conditions were perfect, but I did get my topic for this week's entry from the students on the trip.
I noticed close to 100 times in three days that while chaperones would describe their recent runs down the mountain and other skiing-related tales by specifically naming the trail they were on, the students did not, and when asked what trail they were on, they did not know. They didn't look. When I asked why they didn't know the name of the trails they took to get down the mountain, nine times out of ten, their response was, "We just go down the mountain; we don't plan it out."
Similarly, when on the bus with the students, the chaperones are asked countless questions that students could answer themselves. An all-too-common example: "How much farther?"
My reply: "You can figure that out. Look at the mile markers on the highway. Figure our average speed. Use your phone or your friend's phone to look up our end destination, if you do not already know it. Figure it out."
Many teachers recognize this type of question from the classroom. As content experts, it is tempting to reply to these questions with the answers, particularly to the easiest ones that we feel should be common knowledge.
My challenge to you is to stop answering your students' questions.
Give them the tools, point them in the right direction, but let them have the privilege of finding the answers for themselves.
I also spent three days running a ski trip to Vermont with more than 50 high school students. They were an excellent group, and the conditions were perfect, but I did get my topic for this week's entry from the students on the trip.
I noticed close to 100 times in three days that while chaperones would describe their recent runs down the mountain and other skiing-related tales by specifically naming the trail they were on, the students did not, and when asked what trail they were on, they did not know. They didn't look. When I asked why they didn't know the name of the trails they took to get down the mountain, nine times out of ten, their response was, "We just go down the mountain; we don't plan it out."
Similarly, when on the bus with the students, the chaperones are asked countless questions that students could answer themselves. An all-too-common example: "How much farther?"
My reply: "You can figure that out. Look at the mile markers on the highway. Figure our average speed. Use your phone or your friend's phone to look up our end destination, if you do not already know it. Figure it out."
Many teachers recognize this type of question from the classroom. As content experts, it is tempting to reply to these questions with the answers, particularly to the easiest ones that we feel should be common knowledge.
My challenge to you is to stop answering your students' questions.
Give them the tools, point them in the right direction, but let them have the privilege of finding the answers for themselves.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Snow Day, Schmoe Day!
We in Southeastern PA are getting pretty excited about the snow that is forecasted to fall between 5 p.m. tonight and 8 a.m. tomorrow morning. Yes, I know the the time frame, the average projected inches (six), and the potential that the storm will move quickly through the corridor between Philadelphia and New York (likely), dropping less snow than it has already dumped on our neighbors to the south. At least, I know what AccuWeather Online, Weather.com and several other sites are forecasting. Ten years into a career in education, I also know when to trust a feeling about snow days and late-arrivals. I just seem to know about snow. As I promised my FB network this morning, "Trust me. I'm a teacher."
However, today was a little different from any other pre-snow-day I can recall in the buildings around our district, because today I heard several conversations about how LEARNING will take place if school is cancelled tomorrow.
One teacher described the groan from her students when she said the assessment will take place on her Moodle site tomorrow, rain or shine ("Rain, sleet, hail, snow man").
Another teacher made plans to send an Edmodo update to her students in the morning, complete with instructions for completing a reading assignment.
"You can take 20 minutes away from hot chocolate and Facebook to learn something," said another teacher.
The teachers who are using the Internet are not worried about losing an instructional day tomorrow.
Are you?
However, today was a little different from any other pre-snow-day I can recall in the buildings around our district, because today I heard several conversations about how LEARNING will take place if school is cancelled tomorrow.
One teacher described the groan from her students when she said the assessment will take place on her Moodle site tomorrow, rain or shine ("Rain, sleet, hail, snow man").
Another teacher made plans to send an Edmodo update to her students in the morning, complete with instructions for completing a reading assignment.
"You can take 20 minutes away from hot chocolate and Facebook to learn something," said another teacher.
The teachers who are using the Internet are not worried about losing an instructional day tomorrow.
Are you?
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Self-reliance and Good Ol' Fashioned Ingenuity in the Face of "the Wussification of America" : My Wishes for 2010
Happy new year, everyone, and welcome to the first Tuesdays with Swindy posting of 2011!
My wife, Sarah, who is amazing for countless reasons not covered in this post, inspired this week's topic yesterday when she saved the day with a little do-it-yourself ingenuity. Returning from a ten-day holiday trip, we'd unpacked, put the kids to bed, and prepared to tackle the mountains of laundry that result from a family trip with two kids and a dog, when our washing machine started making unfriendly noises.
Upon investigation, we could see that the agitator was only catching when pressed or weighed down, so it was only turning intermittently.
Our washing machine is an older one, so it was natural that my first thoughts were about how much it was going to cost to buy a new washing machine, how quickly we could have it delivered, how much time it would take me to install, and how much time I’d be spending at the laundromat in the interim.
I wonder how many Americans would have followed through with those plans, and headed out to the nearest megastore to buy a brand new model (which sadly, might only last five years itself) without investigating other options. This is not going to be a rant about large home supply chains producing a lower-quality product to a consumer base that seems increasingly likely to purchase for convenience instead of durability. Fortunately, either because we don’t like to spend $500, or because we pride ourselves on being fairly sufficient do-it-yourself-ers, I can instead write about a small triumph and the importance of knowing how to effectively search the Internet.
During my work day the next day, Sarah looked up our problem online and found a very helpful video that showed how to check if the dog agits have worn out, and how to replace them. She also found a local business in our neighborhood that sold the piece that fits our model, broke out my ratchet set, and fixed the problem for a total cost under $7, before I even got home from work. Sarah rocks!
Now I don’t need to go as far as PA Governer Ed Rendell, whose recent comments about the “wussification of America” speak to me with the cutting honesty that only a lame duck politician can deliver. I won’t write about how quick we are to say we can’t do something when it seems difficult. And I won’t go as far comedian Louis C.K., who blasts our society for its impatience with technology when we should instead be amazed at the advantages we enjoy and often take for granted. “Give it a minute,” he says to people who complain when their cell phones take a few extra seconds to download information, “it’s going to space.”
But there certainly is a connection to be made here.
I was almost ready to swipe the credit card for a new washing machine when our problem was a cheap and easy fix. The availability of information, and our (Sarah’s, in this case) ability to search effectively were the factors that enabled us to solve a problem.
During Governor Rendell's appearance on The Colbert Report, he compared the US to China, unfavorably, and casually referenced the failure of our educational system. It was about the sixth time I'd noticed hearing or reading the words "our failing public school system" during the course of the day, and it is a phrase that I’m really getting tired of encountering. It seems to be becoming the cliché to explain the cause of all of our problems with impatience, lack of self-reliance, and poor performance. It has to start somewhere; it must be the schools.
But if all the information anyone would need for an education is out there in cyberspace and a student with proper guidance can access anything he or she needs to learn, I have to ask: WHO is failing?
I am tempted to answer this by saying that the students need to take their own education more seriously, and many certainly need to, but anyone who works in schools has to understand that there are age and development factors at play. People realize the importance of their own education, and their own level of control over it, at different points in their lives. Teachers want to create lifelong, self-sufficient learners, but this doesn’t always happen on cue.
When I look back at my own school experience, as a person who took it very seriously and thought I had a clear path figured out, I often think of several courses I wish I’d taken, looking back from perspective of someone who has now been out in the working world for over a decade. As an English major, I thought I was allergic to math back then… but after using it in some form virtually every day since then, I have developed a new appreciation for solving problems with finite solutions. In recent conversations with friends and colleagues, I think many of us who majored in the arts and humanities would enroll in more math and science courses if we had it to do over again, and many who majored in those disciplines frequently express their interest in learning more about the arts.
What if our educational system was set up for people to enter the workforce in their teenage years, then return to school in their twenties after gaining some perspective on the world?
OK, a change of this scale is not too likely. But we can all continue our education by consuming information online.
Sarah told me she was very grateful that someone had taken the time to create a video explaining how to solve our problem. I remember feeling the same way after I learned how to make our cement steps last summer. It’s almost like planting a tree after cutting one down – after getting help we both felt like giving something back to the online community by posting instructions or a video for an area in which we are knowledgeable.
Maybe we can be more than consumers, but also contribute by sharing our own knowledge. Maybe we can teach our students about this communal give and take, while sharpening their abilities to find the information they need on their own. Maybe the problems aren’t always as big as they seem.
My wife, Sarah, who is amazing for countless reasons not covered in this post, inspired this week's topic yesterday when she saved the day with a little do-it-yourself ingenuity. Returning from a ten-day holiday trip, we'd unpacked, put the kids to bed, and prepared to tackle the mountains of laundry that result from a family trip with two kids and a dog, when our washing machine started making unfriendly noises.
Upon investigation, we could see that the agitator was only catching when pressed or weighed down, so it was only turning intermittently.
Our washing machine is an older one, so it was natural that my first thoughts were about how much it was going to cost to buy a new washing machine, how quickly we could have it delivered, how much time it would take me to install, and how much time I’d be spending at the laundromat in the interim.
I wonder how many Americans would have followed through with those plans, and headed out to the nearest megastore to buy a brand new model (which sadly, might only last five years itself) without investigating other options. This is not going to be a rant about large home supply chains producing a lower-quality product to a consumer base that seems increasingly likely to purchase for convenience instead of durability. Fortunately, either because we don’t like to spend $500, or because we pride ourselves on being fairly sufficient do-it-yourself-ers, I can instead write about a small triumph and the importance of knowing how to effectively search the Internet.
During my work day the next day, Sarah looked up our problem online and found a very helpful video that showed how to check if the dog agits have worn out, and how to replace them. She also found a local business in our neighborhood that sold the piece that fits our model, broke out my ratchet set, and fixed the problem for a total cost under $7, before I even got home from work. Sarah rocks!
Now I don’t need to go as far as PA Governer Ed Rendell, whose recent comments about the “wussification of America” speak to me with the cutting honesty that only a lame duck politician can deliver. I won’t write about how quick we are to say we can’t do something when it seems difficult. And I won’t go as far comedian Louis C.K., who blasts our society for its impatience with technology when we should instead be amazed at the advantages we enjoy and often take for granted. “Give it a minute,” he says to people who complain when their cell phones take a few extra seconds to download information, “it’s going to space.”
But there certainly is a connection to be made here.
I was almost ready to swipe the credit card for a new washing machine when our problem was a cheap and easy fix. The availability of information, and our (Sarah’s, in this case) ability to search effectively were the factors that enabled us to solve a problem.
During Governor Rendell's appearance on The Colbert Report, he compared the US to China, unfavorably, and casually referenced the failure of our educational system. It was about the sixth time I'd noticed hearing or reading the words "our failing public school system" during the course of the day, and it is a phrase that I’m really getting tired of encountering. It seems to be becoming the cliché to explain the cause of all of our problems with impatience, lack of self-reliance, and poor performance. It has to start somewhere; it must be the schools.
But if all the information anyone would need for an education is out there in cyberspace and a student with proper guidance can access anything he or she needs to learn, I have to ask: WHO is failing?
I am tempted to answer this by saying that the students need to take their own education more seriously, and many certainly need to, but anyone who works in schools has to understand that there are age and development factors at play. People realize the importance of their own education, and their own level of control over it, at different points in their lives. Teachers want to create lifelong, self-sufficient learners, but this doesn’t always happen on cue.
When I look back at my own school experience, as a person who took it very seriously and thought I had a clear path figured out, I often think of several courses I wish I’d taken, looking back from perspective of someone who has now been out in the working world for over a decade. As an English major, I thought I was allergic to math back then… but after using it in some form virtually every day since then, I have developed a new appreciation for solving problems with finite solutions. In recent conversations with friends and colleagues, I think many of us who majored in the arts and humanities would enroll in more math and science courses if we had it to do over again, and many who majored in those disciplines frequently express their interest in learning more about the arts.
What if our educational system was set up for people to enter the workforce in their teenage years, then return to school in their twenties after gaining some perspective on the world?
OK, a change of this scale is not too likely. But we can all continue our education by consuming information online.
Sarah told me she was very grateful that someone had taken the time to create a video explaining how to solve our problem. I remember feeling the same way after I learned how to make our cement steps last summer. It’s almost like planting a tree after cutting one down – after getting help we both felt like giving something back to the online community by posting instructions or a video for an area in which we are knowledgeable.
Maybe we can be more than consumers, but also contribute by sharing our own knowledge. Maybe we can teach our students about this communal give and take, while sharpening their abilities to find the information they need on their own. Maybe the problems aren’t always as big as they seem.
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