I'm Learning Like SpongeBob

I've always loved the SpongeBob cartoons! SpongeBob is one of those ineffable characters that means something different to each person. To me, SpongeBob is the ultimate learner. He is fully aware of his lack of knowledge, and yet that doesn't daunt him as he plunges forward to soak up the knowledge that others around him offer. He doesn't care that he doesn't know everything. It doesn't hold him back from trying new things, no matter how great the risk of failure. Throughout, he remains upbeat and kind to his friends, bringing them along for his intellectual forays.

Even when the going is tough, SpongeBob keeps on trying. I'm still not sure if SpongeBob ever got his driver's license, even though he must have taken the test over 15 times. Despite the frustration of his teacher, he still applied effort with enthusiasm. After all, if a goal is truly important, it's worth repeated efforts to accomplish it. Mastery is worth the effort!

I think SpongeBob is a great example that we all can emulate. We shouldn't be afraid to take on new educational risks, but should relax and enjoy the challenge before us. Like SpongeBob, we should soak in all the information around us, process it, and squeeze out the wonderful juice of knowledge. Look for the knowledge others have to offer. Read the attachments for presentations you were unable to attend. Follow up on the links that others share. There's a wealth of information for the taking, and your friends have already narrowed down the pool to the really worthy material. Take advantage of these gifts that are offered to you. Don't shrink from the challenge, but explore your world and your discipline with the childlike enthusiasm of SpongeBob. You'll swell up in no time!

Keep it Moving!

I just attended some great workshops this past weekend at the NJEA convention in Atlantic City, NJ. Two were particularly inspiring: "I'm the Write Teacher" by Joseph Pizzo and "The Kinesthetic Classroom" by Mike Kuczala. Mr. Pizzo brought new energy to classroom pedagogy with his integration of fun activities that accomplished the same tasks as a boring lecture. I particularly enjoyed his impromptu poetry slam made up with teacher-supplied excuses. It was a fun exercise that also demonstrated parallel structure, a win-win strategy!  Mr. Kuczala showed some simple ways that movement can increase cognitive processing, class cohesion, and just plain fun. He managed to get over 150 teachers moving, laughing, and agreeing that these were worthwhile activities.  I plan to purchase his book that offers more background on the research and many practical applications of movement for all disciplines.

My point? Our classrooms don't need to be boring to be effective.  We need to work on developing energized environments that appeal to all learners and keep them engaged. Humor, movement, and just plain silliness are great assets for teachers.  Let's remember that if we're bored, our students are probably asleep.  Plan for movement. Plan for group interaction. Plan for laughter and silliness.  You'll be glad you did!

Here's a link to Mike Kuczala's book:

Inspiring Future Teachers

Why teach? This is the question that many ask. Given the rigorous academic standards, the difficult credentialing process, and the demands of the profession itself, the question of whether to teach or not may seem like an open and shut case of "No." Nonetheless, for those driven to interact with our youth and to develop the next generation of leaders, teaching is the shining light that beckons from afar. However, there are some who just need to know a bit more about the process before they commit to this rewarding career, and that is where teach.gov comes in.

Teach.gov is a comprehensive site prepared by the federal government to inspire future teachers and to ease the transition into teaching. It provides video testimonials, checklists for the educational and job search process, and many resources, no matter what stage of the process you are in. It even includes job postings! While the site can be a little cumbersome to navigate, it's still a worthwhile venture. Note that you have to explore several levels of menus in order to see the full breadth of offerings. I encourage you to roam its pages and to become a bit more inspired yourself.

Check it out here:
Teach.gov

Celebrating Banned Books Week, Sept. 25-Oct. 2nd, 2010

They banned that?! WHY? This is the comment that I received from students, colleagues, and friends when I taught a lesson on censorship as part of this year's Banned Books Week. It may be hard to believe, but even in this enlightened America, the Land of Free Speech, there are still many challenges to great literary works. When I say banned, I'm not talking about the marching band at football games. No, I'm talking about removing literature, film, art, and other media from publicly accessible libraries, museums, schools, and websites simply because some find their content offensive. 

We all need to remember that banning books has disastrous consequences. It denies an author a voice and risks cutting off the cry for help from oppression. It allows others to make choices, instead of allowing one to make decisions for oneself. It necessarily stifles the creative juices of genius, limiting our citizens to a mediocre, generally accepted existence. I don't mean to say that all censoring is bad. No, some is clearly needed to protect young children from sexually explicit material, and there are other instances where it's appropriate as well. Rather, I'm suggesting that we think twice before removing literature from our schools and libraries. What is offensive to one person may be totally acceptable to another. My students were amazed that Captain Underpants was a challenged book. They appreciated the goofy antics and the language of their peers (elementary school bathroom talk). My friends were amazed that the Harry Potter series was at the top of the list for challenged books when it has received such widespread acceptance and huge movie deals. I, too, was astonished that one of my favorite young adult novels by Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, was banned from a Stockton, Missouri high school library this month even though it was adopted as a required summer read by a New Jersey high school. Nonetheless, if you take a look at the American Library Association's list of challenged and banned books, you'd be hard pressed not to find some novel that you have read.

So, take some time to celebrate our literary freedom. Read a great work, perhaps one that's been banned. Let others know that we don't take our freedom of speech for granted!

Here's a link to the ALA's list of the top 100 banned/challenged books for the last decade:

ALA (American Library Association

Here's a link to some lesson plans for Banned Books Week by ReadWriteThink.org:

ReadWriteThink.org

Here's a link to Sherman Alexie's book on Amazon.com:

Fun and Games

Don't you wish you could play games all day? Many kids do, and now, for some, it's a reality. A New York school has incorporated game theory into their educational curriculum, and it has transformed how the students approach school. No longer a dreaded institution, the school is an eagerly awaited home for fun and games. Cloaked in the guise of games, however, is some very high-order thinking. Students work in teams to develop their own games, taking on roles as writers, directors, and costume designers. They must learn how all the components fit into the bigger whole, and they must work together to achieve a cohesive product. Further, this systems theory is applied to other standard subject matter as well. Students learn how fractions fit into the bigger picture, how sentences build the story, etc.

The application of systems theory is something we all can use in our classrooms. Students not only need to understand the workings of individual components, but in order to use them to their greatest advantage, they need to understand how the parts function in the bigger whole. They need both the big and little pictures in order to move fluidly through the working world. Sometimes, we get hung up on one concept or another, and we forget to include the relationship of this concept to overarching concepts, or even other disciplines. If we teach with a systems mentality, we can help our students understand the total picture, and they'll be ready to paint new vistas for themselves and others.

We just need to keep it fun!

Here's a video from The New York Times about the gaming school in New York:
New York Times Magazine

Challenges for a Changing Curriculum

After reading a recent article by a Harvard economics professor, I realized that we have a long way to go to prepare our students for the challenges of the 21st century. He advocated basic courses for students and adults such as introductory economics, psychology, and probability and statistics. His viewpoint is that in order to respond to the issues of today's economy, we must have a better understanding of the forces that influence it. New Jersey's recent addition of a financial literacy requirement is a good step in the right direction. Surely many of our country's home mortgage woes could have been avoided if we all were more informed consumers.

However, there are broader challenges on the horizon. Making sure that our future citizens are empowered to make informed decisions regarding their financial futures is great, but we need to think beyond individual sufficiency. We must prepare our students for the teamwork required of the global workforce. They must develop an awareness of and appreciation for different cultures in order to effectively interact with their global counterparts. The U.S. State Department has identified 10 critical languages for the future: Arabic, Azerbaijani, Bangla/Bengali, Chinese, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Punjabi, Russian, Turkish, and Urdu. Many of our students may not even be able to locate where these languages are spoken, let alone have any appreciation for the cultures of these foreign language speakers. When one realizes that China and India have more honor students than America even has students, the need becomes more apparent. Moreover, India is a young country with over 50% of its population under the age of 25.

Our isolated approach to preparing American citizens must change if we are to empower our future leaders to move fluently in an economy where India and other growing countries play a greater role on the world stage. It is not enough to remotely study these other cultures. Our students must be able to interact with students of other cultures, thus broadening awareness on both sides of the divide. Sure, foreign exchange programs are great for this, but they serve a limited audience and are financially impractical. Rather, we educators must fully use the technology available to us. Setting up Skype conversations, furthering email contact, opening up global wikis, or perhaps even arranging for group projects across nations are a first step. The CIA World Fact Book provides comprehensive information about all aspects of different countries, and is a wonderful resource for both teachers and students. The door is wide open. It's our job to help our students cross the portal onto the world stage.

Here's the New York Times article from the Harvard professor:
A Course Load for the Game of Life

Here's a link to the U.S. State Dept.'s Critical Languages Program:
Critical Language Scholarship Program

Here's a link where you can explore the over 6,900 languages of the world:
Ethnologue

Here's a link to the CIA World Factbook:
The World Factbook

For the Love of It

I've been an avid reader since I was introduced to books as a preschooler. I was always finding opportunities to read. Even the labels of cereal and tissue boxes provided reading material while eating breakfast. Yet there are many kids who are turned off by reading. What led to their dislike? After reading the linked New York Times article, it seems clear that kids need to be given their choice of what to read.  They need to be encouraged to read anything, even if adults consider the material trashy and media-centric.

This article relayed a recent Florida study that offered students their choice of summer reading material. Some of the books were simply about celebrities, while others were kid classics like Junie B. Jones. No matter the selection of books, these kids who read over the summer outperformed their counterparts in standardized tests, even years later! Moreover, offering $50 in free books (of one's choice) for summer reading provided results comparable with summer school attendance.

We need to do more to encourage our kids to read. We need to stop getting hung up on whether they are reading celebrity-studded news or fantasy-based dragon novels. We first need to develop the avid interest in reading, and then guide that interest toward more challenging works. My youngest children love to read, and will pick up books easily. My eldest son has been a reluctant reader, and I struggle to find the genre that interests him. Recently, I think we've clicked on something that works. He seems to prefer nonfiction, military history works. I never would have suggested what I consider such dry reading. It goes to show that we need to offer our students a WIDE variety of literature. I'm hopeful that this will be the light that switches him on to reading. If not, I'll keep on trying other avenues.  We need our kids to read!

Here's a link to the New York Times article that got me thinking.
Kids Must Read Anything