So for this post I read a few posts from a blog titled "The Tempered Radical." It's written by a sixth grade language arts teacher from North Carolina. Well, after getting past the first post in which he says he will be leaving the forum I continued on to a couple topics that have been hot buttons for discussions in a few of our other classes. In these posts he describes the issues of testing under the new "race to the top" initiative, and also whether or not college is the right path for every student.
I'll start by talking about the blog itself first. When I first heard about the assignment I'll be honest, I wasn't exactly enthused. I've never really been a fan of the whole "blogging trend" and just for some reason envision a lonely person pouring their heart out on an online diary. But this edublogging thing is kind of different. I got really excited by the third post and realized that this guy was talking about all the issues that are going on in his class right now, that we're talking about in our graduate classes. I think it was just last week that we had a long class debate about standards and their pros and cons. In his blog this teacher describes how these new tests are having a direct effect on his teaching, the time he has to cover each topic, and what material he is giving his students. It's really interesting to read and theorize about these topics in class and then get online and read about how they are actually impacting teachers in the real world.
Another topic he mention was whether or not college is right for every student, and what the purpose of high school then is for those students. This is something that has been brought up repeatedly in our small discussion groups for another class. I noticed that the blogger didn't really have an answer to the question. He ends his post by asking, "How important is college?" In our groups we've discussed that high school might just be an avenue for preparing students to become active citizens in a democracy. Not everyone will go on to college, and that's O.K. What we need to do as educators is make sure that our students leave school with the problem solving skills, critical thinking skills, and self-confidence to become active citizens and excellent at whatever they choose to do in life (would anyone else add another skill to this? disagree? agree?) In this way I am reassured that we are learning more about the field of teaching and the different questions that are being posed within this realm. It's comforting to know that I'm gaining more and more knowledge about the issues surrounding this profession and also learning how to make educated responses and theories about these questions.
I'm glad that you found a edublog that you ended up finding informative and interesting, I had the same lack of enthusiasm about reading through other blogs to begin with. My first few I read through were not terribly applicable to my own practice. I eventually did find one that was really interesting. I think it can be really helpful to read more perspectives about important issues in our field.
ReplyDeleteI really like that you mention the discussion about college you found on the blog. It definitely seems to be a hot topic, even just within our classes here! I like how blogs can be another outlet for our thoughts as we continue learning about teaching and I think we're all finding uses for our blogs even if that means including a post on a controversial topic like whether or not we think students need to attend college.
ReplyDeleteLet me begin my saying what a lovely blog you have! I agree with what your initial reservations about not being "enthused" to jump on the Edublogger bandwagon. I thrilled to learn that your soon became "enthused." Blogs, in general, are, well, just that: blogs. But is there a way we, as 21st century educators, can make them more educational? My eyes were immediately drawn to the blog of a high school Latin teacher because, well, I thought I would learn a thing or two about Latin, such as some Latin phrases or verb conjugations. I didn't lear anything about Latin grammar! What I did learn, however, was how another person, a high school Latin teacher, uses his blog to connect to the WWW. What I did learn, then, was about metacognition, which, in and of itself, is educational. So think about that!
ReplyDeleteThanks Mr. C! I agree with both your and Kelsey's comments. While I was initially expecting blog posts to be about the specific disciplines or events that occurred in the classroom, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the topics were much larger and connected to me and what I'm learning. I've found that the blog is actually a great way for me to kind of think our loud and mull over my own opinions on controversial topics we've discussed. It might be helpful if we even used them to reflect on issues we discuss in some of our other classes. I agree with Mr. C in that I feel I'm learning about my own metacognitive process and metacognition in general.
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