Session Ten Replies
Valencia Grinage,
Wow, I did not think about the decrease in teacher shortages in certain subject
areas. My thinking was that teachers would be stressed out from trying
to teach areas they don't feel comfortable with that the shortage would increase.
Maybe, we both have good arguments here. The fact is that there is
no way that a school is going to become that liberal in real life.
As teachers, we are so focused on the traditional. My cooperative learning,
experiments, and hands-on techniques are considered unorthodox at my school.
I just see my teaching as the way the future should be, but that makes me
the weird one.
Thanks,
Tara Hernandez
Amanda Hawkins,
I am very impressed at the amount of detail that you used in your outline.
Are you already using this at your school? What have you found to be
the biggest obstacle? Is this obstacle the same as what you thought
from your outline or was it different? You have some very good sources to
use besides a textbook. Where are you looking to find alternative sources?
Thanks,
Tara Hernandez
Mikala Hill,
I see the importance of having the set benchmark for subjects to reach in
the first semester and second semester. An example of something that
happens at my schools is that sometimes students get put in the B part of
a subject before the A part. Now having the B part of a subject before
an A part may be terrible in Math, but with history it is not such a problem.
The situation occurs when a student takes the B part and then later goes
to take the A part but ends up getting into some of the B part because the
class goes too fast or if the A part never finishes, then the B students
would be doing A work when they are suppose to be finishing the book.
My students are still working on A part work because I took over for this
teacher. Out of 23 chapters the teacher only got through 4. It sometimes
is necessary to have some guidelines, but not enought to prevent adequate
teaching.
Thanks,
Tara Hernandez
Jennifer Grinage,
I love FOSS. It is time consuming to have to revise work to meet the
special demands of ESL, Special Ed, TAG, and other types of students.
One thing that I have done is as I revise I keep in mind all the possible
special students that I could have and make a modified version. Once
you have done the modified version once, it saves you from having to repeat
it the next time the class is taught. Something to think about????
Hands on is wonderful and it is great to hear that schools are changing.
Have you had a hard time with your techniques because you are not traditional?
I am considered unorthodox because I use the new hands-on, fun, non textbook
centered approach.
Thanks,
Tara Hernandez
Robert Gunnip,
Your response is so detailed. I did not think of several of the ideas
you thought of. You seem to have an eye for those type of details.
Maybe you are a business man. I am not a business woman. You
mention the Board of trustees and many other people in your outline and I
think you have a point to the obstacles that you would have to overcome in
such a change from textbook-centered classrooms to student-centered.
It is very true that the school board can be a problem.
Thanks,
Tara Hernandez