Opposition - Enhancing or Downgrading

Opposition – Enhancing or Downgrading

I came to the realization that opposition can be both positive and negative, enhancing and downgrading.

Negative (downgrading) Opposition is based on stopping, blocking, or, at least, impeding another or others.  Negative Opposition is always looking for what is wrong and emphasizing it, drawing everyone’s attention to it.

Positive (enhancing) Opposition looks for what was done right and praises it.  Then looks at what was not optimum and asks how it can be improved.  Positive Opposition is what coaxes and pushes others to do better than they thought they could, to reach beyond themselves.  It creates strong, collaborative, integrated teams.

Imaging the students and learning we could have, the accomplishments that would take place, if our teachers were able to practice Positive Opposition.

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Please tell me about a teacher, mentor or coach you had who practiced Positive Opposition.  They pushed you to be and accomplish more than you thought you could.

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I rescue failing students by remedying the Barriers to Learning

www.howtolearneasily.com

www.thelearningcurveradioshow.com

www.howtolearneasily.blogspot.com

Boredom - It's Not Your Child's Fault

Boredom – It’s Not Your Child’s Fault

I’m bored with school.

How many times have you heard that?!

According to studies on this subject of boredom – students’ boredom can be linked to Stress.

Here are a couple of quotes:

1. “Boredom is one of the most consistent experiences of school and one that can be frustrating and disheartening for teachers.”
2. My favorite, “By definition, to be in a state of boredom is to say the world sucks out there in some way.  But often that’s not the case; often it’s an interior problem, and students are looking in the wrong place to solve the problem.”

What’s wrong with those quotes?  You’ll notice that they are all centered on something being wrong with the student.  We most heartily disagree!!

I’m Virginia Koenig, co-author of How to Learn – How to Teach, Overcoming the Seven Barriers to Learning, and we think this is evidence that your child has been mishandled by their teacher.

One of the reasons your child can express boredom is because they are in the last and final stage of the Three Stages of Student Decline.

Parents – you need to be aware of the Stages so that you can recover your child before they decline too far and are beyond reach.

It’s all too common that a child’s want to learn and contribute is trampled on.  In their enthusiasm to share, they may speak out in class only to have their teacher tell them to be quiet.  The child is dominated, overwhelmed and made subservient to their environment.

The good news is this can be reversed.  To learn how to reverse the harm being done to your child go to howtolearneasily.com.

I rescue failing students by remedying the Barriers to Learning

www.howtolearneasily.com

www.thelearningcurveradioshow.com

www.howtolearneasily.blogspot.com

Personal Methods of Learning

Personal Methods of Learning

I know mine.

Do you know yours?

But more importantly, do you know your child’s Personal Method of Learning?

I’m Virginia Koenig, co-author of How to Learn – How to Teach, Overcoming the Seven Barriers to Learning.

We’re all gifted with the ability to learn, however we each have our own Personal Method of Learning – the way we learn best.

Some children learn best by hearing what they need to learn.  They can listen to a lecture and absorb everything.

Some children learn best by seeing what they need to learn.  They can read a book, watch a film or demonstration and absorb everything.

Some children learn best by doing what they need to learn.  They enjoy taking things apart, running experiments, building things.  They are usually 3-D learners who are able to envision a 3-D model of what they’re learning.

When you know your child’s Personal Method of Learning you:

1. Are better able to help them with homework,
2. Can speak with their teacher so their teacher is better able to help them learn.

To learn more about Personal Methods of Learning go to howtolearneasily.com.

I rescue failing students by remedying the Barriers to Learning

www.howtolearneasily.com

www.thelearningcurveradioshow.com

www.howtolearneasily.blogspot.com

Teacher's Unions

The Plight of Teachers' Unions
Arthur Levine
Education Week    May 7, 2013

I felt compelled to share this post by Arthur Levine in Education Week.

Mr. Levine really hit the nail on the head when he stated, " Industrial societies focus on common processes, epitomized by the assembly line.  information economies focus on common outcomes. Process is variable. With regard to schools, the emphasis is on learning;"

"the shift to an information economy and a focus on learning is inevitable. Teachers' unions can oppose it or lead the transition."

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2013/05/08/30levine_ep.h32.html?tkn=WYXF9QgfOk55Hq0Dw4QyWLoUrPC64wJJB3S1&cmp=ENL-EU-VIEWS1

I rescue failing students by overcoming the Barriers to Learning
Virginia

The Monster At the End of Common Core

The 'Monster' at the End of the Common Core

Education Week,  May 1, 2013
Laura Thomas

Since the Common Core State Standards emerged, people I respect have come out in opposition in a way that reminds me of a book from my childhood: The Monster at the End of This Book. In this classic, Sesame Street’s Grover begs us not to turn the pages, lest we unleash the monster at the end. He becomes increasingly agitated, building walls and threatening us as we get closer to the end. His panic sounds a lot like what I hear from some of my colleagues in the educational community.

I think that, if we're as smart and committed as we say we are, we can use the common core as a stepping stone to better outcomes for all of our kids.  And by "outcomes" I don't mean just "test scores." I mean, you know, Learning. Engagement. Success. . . . but also the skills and dispositions that kids need to succeed in life, like communication, collaboration, curiosity, organization, and problem solving.

What we should be celebrating as an opportunity, we're dreading. We've been buried under "teach to the test" and doing the heavy lifting in our classrooms for so many years that we’ve forgotten a basic premise of education: The learner does the learning.

http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2013/05/01/fp_thomas_commoncore.html?tkn=YNZFlmo7PgdMn7ZVZWbneEhGWrseJp1hXTLr&cmp=ENL-TU-NEWS1

 

I applaud Ms. Thomas’ view on this situation.  Common Core Standards are an opportunity that allows the student to direct their own learning.  What better way to interest and engage our students, and engage our teachers.

I rescue failing students by remedying the Barriers to Learning

www.howtolearneasily.com

 

Math Teachers Strive to Core to At-Risk Students

Math Teachers Strive to Bring Core to At-Risk Students

Education Week Teacher

Published Online March 13, 2013

These math teachers are practicing the prevention of Learning Barrier #4 – Missing Foundational Knowledge or Too Steep a Gradient; and I applaud them!

The learning of any subject requires the correct sequence of the development of knowledge or skill.  Earlier pieces of information are necessary for the later understanding of the advanced steps.

These teachers are breaking down each concept into its basic, foundational pieces and introducing each piece to their students in a methodical, gradient fashion.  This allows the student to learn and digest each piece before the next level of knowledge is given.

Parents – these are all methods you can use to help your children with their homework.

The Common Core State Standards for mathematics are now being introduced in schools across the country.  While many accomplished math teachers are enthusiastic about the standards' emphasis on mathematical reasoning and strategic expertise over rote computation, some say the transition to the new framework poses daunting challenges for students who are already behind in math.

Some math educators are taking steps to refine their practices and adopt creative methods to help at-risk and struggling students make the shift to the new instructional paradigm.

One approach commonly cited by teachers is to maintain the common core’s emphasis on abstract reasoning and conceptual understanding while using word problems that require less advanced math skills.

Similarly, Todd Rackowitz "focuses on problems that don't involve complex computation at first."

"You have to help kids understand how to justify solutions through discussion, interaction, and close guidance.”  When his students are struggling with a problem or new concept, Arcos said he demonstrates how to work through similar problems and discusses his reasoning with them.

Justin Minkel said he also makes an effort to give his students problems that have "practical applicability" to the real world. He noted that he has had success in having his students use what they were learning in math in an economics unit that involved determining the costs of materials for a building project against a budget.  Such activities can help students "make sense of problems and begin thinking about the ways math relates to their own lives.”

I rescue failing students by remedying the Barriers to Learning

www.howtolearneasily.com

www.thelearningcurveradioshow.com

www.howtolearneasily.blogspot.com

 

 

It's Not the Test That Made Them Cheat

It's Not the Test That Made Them Cheat

Education Week    Published Online April 9, 2013

By Michael J. Feuer

News came down about the indictment of the former Atlanta schools chief Beverly Hall and 35 other current and former officials for their alleged roles in a massive cheating scandal that has rocked the city for the past three years.

There is nothing good to say about cheating on tests.  However, some of the reactions to the scandal have been surprising.  The most troubling response comes from people opposed to standardized testing generally and to current federal policy specifically.  They somewhat gleefully use this sorry episode as the ultimate smoking gun, the perfect we-told-you-so case that clinches their claims about the evils of testing, and the entire reform movement.

William Ayers, an education professor emeritus from the University of Illinois at Chicago, posted, “the Atlanta story proves that teaching toward a simple standardized measure and relentlessly applying state-administered tests to determine the outcome both incentivizes cheating and is a worthless proxy for learning.  The road to the massive cheating scandal in Atlanta runs right through the White House.”

Mr. Feuer has several problems with that logic.

First, shifting the blame for egregious mischief away from the perpetrators and onto the system strikes me as morally and politically bankrupt. Here’s an analogy to consider: Do we react to the worst instances of tax evasion by condemning the concept of taxation rather than by prosecuting the evaders? I assume that Mr. Ayers would not call for abolition of the graduated income tax as a way to finance public goods and redistribute wealth just because the system has its imperfections and because some people lie on their tax returns. Shall we excuse individual or group criminality because certain social institutions create pressures for greed and misconduct? Banking executives accused of fraud will be delighted.

Second, pinning the responsibility for the Atlanta disaster on the White House is an extravagant example of misdirected blame. Maybe current federal policies lead to unwanted outcomes, such as narrowing of the curriculum and teaching to the test, but that’s a far cry from the outright fraud of the sort listed in the Atlanta indictment.  In any case, there’s no evidence that federal policy causes cheating, or that “cheating is inevitable.”

Third, indicting testing, rather than cheating, undermines the possibility for reform in the design and uses of tests.

What’s often ignored in the popular frenzy against testing is that tests can help gauge individual learning, give teachers additional information about their students’ progress, provide objective indicators of student achievement, and expose inequalities in the allocation of educational resources.

Read all of Michael Feuer’s excellent article at http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2013/04/09/28feuer.h32.html

I rescue failing students by remedying the Barriers to Learning

www.howtolearneasily.com

www.thelearningcurveradioshow.com

www.howtolearneasily.blogspot.com

RI Students Gaining "Badges", Credits Outside School

RI Students Gaining “Badges”, Credits Outside School

Published Online: February 5, 2013

Published in Print: February 6, 2013,

Education Week

What Providence, RI is doing in their high schools is a perfect example of recognizing that students (people in general) learn in different ways.  Each person has their own personal method of learning, which may not be sitting in a chair and listening to a lecture.  I know that I am an active, experiential learner, sitting still and paying attention was hard.

“Providence district is allowing students to engage in for-credit, badge-earning learning experiences outside school. Examples range from developing and pitching business plans to local venture capital firms to learning how to make Android phone applications at Brown University.”

"But good learning is learning that is relevant and rigorous that takes place in and outside of school,"

"Digital badges are designed to recognize learning that happens anytime, anywhere," said Mr. Ewens, adding that badges can have a powerful impact on students themselves, helping them take greater "ownership" of their learning.

“The district hopes eventually to use the badges to help students gain credit within classes for relevant work outside the classroom that reflects mastery of academic content.”

“Rhode Island, like some other states, has high school students gain credits for showing proficiency in academic courses needed for graduation, rather than by the amount of time they take to complete a course, known as "seat time." Increasing numbers of states are moving to such "competency-based education" models, in which schools want students to demonstrate knowledge of subject material in new ways to show they have mastered it to move forward.”

Let’s all applaud the strides Providence is taking in making school and learning relevant and useful for their students.

If this is something you want for your child, contact Providence After School Alliance, a non-profit organization that collaborated with the Providence School District.

I rescue failing students by remedying the Barriers to Learning

www.howtolearneasily.com

www.thelearningcurveradioshow.com

www.howtolearneasily.blogspot.com

New Argument Against Vouchers

New Argument Against Vouchers: Your Kid Might Have to Ride the Bus

Posted: 02 Apr 2013 11:08 AM PDT  by Mike Antonucci

 

NEA president Dennis Van Roekel appeared on PBS Newshour in the wake of the Indiana Supreme Court decision to debate “Should Public Money Be Used for Private Schools?”
It went routinely along the lines of the usual talking points, until the end, when Van Roekel was asked:

All right, Dennis, what about the idea that we have this system where G.I. Bills, Pell Grants, and for post-secondary education, we’re taking taxpayer money and distributing it through people to whatever school that they’re interested in? Why is it so different for primary and high school education and kindergarten?

To which he replied:

I think post-secondary education, college and university, I think you have to put that into a different category than K-12 education, because then you’re choosing between a career or college and specialized training. That definitely makes sense. But for young children, they shouldn’t have to be bussed somewhere. It should be in their neighborhood.

Van Roekel then went on for a few sentences about teachers teaching out of their area of expertise and how he was a math teacher – which means he is very familiar with tangents.
I’m sure Van Roekel is aware that an awful lot of K-12 public school students are riding the bus to school right now, particularly since his union represents tens of thousands of school bus drivers. So let’s play that popular game “What He Really Meant Was…”
You can start off by saying “What He Really Meant Was… neighborhood public schools should be improved so parents won’t have to send their kids to a voucher school out of their neighborhood.” Then I’ll say, “What He Really Meant Was… we should have voucher schools in every neighborhood.”
It’s fun! See how many interpretations you can come up with.

See more of Mike's posts at:
http://www.eiaonline.com/intercepts/

I Already Know All About It: An Adult Sized Barrier to Learning

I Already Know All About It:

An Adult Sized Barrier to Learning

The consideration that a subject is already known about is a huge Barrier to Learning and mastery of any subject.

Folk who run this pretense of “already knowing about it”, routinely alter any new information they are given.  They mis-identify it as being “the same as” what they “already know”, when in truth it is not.

Because of this they fail to learn, and fail to gain full understanding and application of the new knowledge.

The new information is misunderstood and misaligned with what they think they already know.

The best way to remedy this Barrier to Learning is to have the student define the word(s) in their own words, then look up the word(s) in a dictionary.  Many misunderstandings and difficulties applying the new knowledge will suddenly fall away.

I help failing students by remedying the Barriers to Learning

www.howtolearneasily.com

Apprenticeships Are Valuable Learning Vehicles

Internships Help Students Prepare for Workplace

Education Week, January 29, 2013

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2013/01/30/19internship_ep.h32.html?tkn=TSSFQTR6pGmpfoO3r8fcI5%2BpiWT9aiBgp9MD&cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS1

Apprenticeships are valuable learning vehicles that have been dropped out of our educational environment.

In the rush to push every student to go to college, we lost sight of the fact that not everyone needs to go to college to build a career.

Going through an apprenticeship, becoming a journeyman, a craftsman and finally a master is the proper gradient to ensure each master is built on a solid foundation of knowledge and experience.

Anytime you address a subject, skill or ability you want to learn or teach be sure to first break it down into the gradient steps that should be learned, and approach them in the right order. Equally important, be ever alert to the symptoms of the by-passed gradient when they manifest so you can backtrack and get it right.

Dr. Maria Montessori demonstrated this with her methods a hundred years ago.

Great masters of any activity do this. They achieve their mastery by having broken down the subject of their area of mastery into its parts and practice, practice, practice each of those parts until mastered. Then they combine the parts into the whole of the performance.

I rescue failing students by remedying the Barriers to Learning

www.howtolearneasily.com

Your Child Lags Behind in Reading Skills - What To Do

Your Child Lags Behind in Reading Skills – What To Do

I recently read a post from a concerned homeschooling parent.  They were concerned that their son, who is their fourth child, was not yet reading at age 7.  He/She was wondering if they needed to perform an intervention or wait for him to grow into it.

One response to this post was “What if your child is the same age as you other children were when they were eagerly reading, but is either not interested in learning to read, or is having great difficulty learning to read?  Do you panic?  Do you have this child tested? Do you wait?  Will the reading just ‘click’ at some point if you wait long enough?  How does a mother know if this is a ‘maturity issue’ or if this difficulty is a sign of a learning disability?”  This person then went on to recommend some curriculum.

I, on the other hand, have a different view on this.  Since the child has little interest in learning to read I would ask: what subject is the child greatly interested in?  Once that is known I would then show the child how learning to read can help them in learning more and doing more in the subject they really enjoy.

The child has not been shown the Purpose & Value of learning to read.  This is one of the prime Barriers to Learning and one that is tripped over continuously.

If this child were shown the value and relevance to them of learning to read, I would bet that child begins devouring books.

I rescue failing students by remedying the Barriers to Learning.

www.howtolearneasily.com

Drowned in Stream of Prescriptions

Drowned in Stream of Prescriptions

An addict's parents couldn't halt a flow of Attention Deficit Drug

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/03/us/concerns-about-adhd-practices-and-amphetamine-addiction.html?ref=todayspaper

Richard's death is horrendous and all too common.

He wanted ADHD drugs because it helped him to focus and get through his college classes.

That's because we don't teach good study habits.

We don't teach our kids how to learn.

I rescue failing students by remedying the Barriers to Learning.

www.howtolearneasily.com

Creatively Satisfying

Common Core Drives Interest in Open Education Resources

Education Week: October 15, 2012

“Spurred by the adoption of common-core standards by nearly every state the movement for open education resources is seeing a surge in interest as districts re-evaluate and realign their curricula.  Open Education Resources, which are free to use, remix and adapt, also engage teachers more fully in curricula, allowing them to more easily differentiate instructional materials for students,”

This engagement by teachers in creating, remixing and adapting curricula for their classrooms, and even individual students, reminds me of the Montessori Method.

All Montessori teachers are required to create and adapt all of their own learning materials.  This allows them to customize the learning materials for each student’s need and Personal Method of Learning.

Not only is this customization wonderful for the students, but I found making the materials creatively satisfying.  You have a principle(s) you want to convey and how you do that is completely up to you.  I had such fun making my classroom materials.

Teachers in public schools should revel in this opportunity to be creative.

I rescue failing students by remedying the Barriers to Learning

www.howtolearneasily.com

Powerfully Crippling Learning Barrier

Powerfully Crippling Learning Barrier

N.M. School Builds Bridge to Standards for ELL’s

Education Week, November 13, 2012

“The new English/language arts standards demand that students sharpen their skills at reading, understanding and analyzing a variety of complex texts.  For teachers of English-language learners like xxxx, using strategies and supports (such as clarifying unfamiliar words and expressions), have long been crucial tools in effectively teaching ELL’s,”

This is a PERFECT example of one of the Barriers to Learning – Non-Defined Words or Symbols.

Having properly and thoroughly defined words and symbols is essential for anyone learning something new, and I’m shocked and appalled that teachers are only now coming to realize that this is crucial!

This is such a powerfully crippling Learning Barrier that in the presence of a non-understood (absent definition) or an incompletely understood word, blankness and non-comprehension can be so damning that an individual is unable to act or perform.  He or she is at a complete loss, numb and immobile.

If you doubt the power of this Learning Barrier recall the last time you could not act or perform.  Locate what was the not understood word or symbol, define all that word or symbol involved — and then see how you do!

I rescue failing students by remedying the Barriers to Learning.

www.howtolearneasily.com

New Education Consumerism

Having a Consumer Mindset

Schools need to have a “customer service attitude” towards their “clients”, which are the parents and children.  Parents need to become informed “consumers” of the educational services being provided to their children, and not accept anything less than the best.

Access to information about their child’s school is crucial for parents if the system is to work to the benefit of the “consumer” (parents).  Remember when we first began changing to “consumer-driven” health insurance?  Information about the cost of care and the quality of doctors and hospitals was critical for employees to make informed decisions and being good consumers of healthcare.

Just as people have learned to become consumers of healthcare, parents need to become consumers of education.  Parents need to view education, even public education, as a service/product they are purchasing.  After all, public education is purchased through your tax dollars.

If the consumers (parents) don’t demand a quality product we will not have positive changes in our education system.  Change needs to come from consumers (parents) demanding something better.

Parents need to “kick the tires” to ensure they’re getting the quality of education their children deserve for the dollars they’re spending.

I rescue failing students by remedying the Barriers to Learning.

www.howtolearneasily.com