Although the core gives life, it is not very palatable on its own. The flesh is where the meat is, the tasty, fiber filled, crunchy, sense-pleasing part of an apple that we long for, and of course the skin that wraps and protects the apple as we are lured into tasting it from the vibrant and varied colors.
I think that many students feel like they want to eject the core – in the U.S. they are not able to see how knowing the three R’s will benefit their future, particularly students in low SES environments. Self, survival and pleasure are the motivating factors for my students. Interestingly, it is the contrary for students in countries with extreme poverty – they know that the success of their future lays in the understanding and completion of educational pathways.
A Strong Foundation
When I was growing up, I had opportunities in school to learn and apply foundational knowledge in classes that created something – architecture, welding, woodwork, home economics – where has all the creation gone in public schools? There is so much focus on the core academically and political red tape that it feels like all the children are being left behind and that it has come down to numbers – not in the classroom, but on papers and in computers that fulfill government requirements as evidence for learning. The “Einstein’s” and “Van Gogh’s” are being neglected and cast down as invaluable because they can’t record evidence of their brilliance on a bubble or click test. This makes me sad.
Starry Starry Night
There has got to be a way to prove to the world the value of students who are able to create and apply knowledge in ways that are not able to be measured by national testing. My philosophy about my students is based on a quote by Paul Cezanne who said, “I will astonish Paris with an apple”. I believe that I can use educational tools to develop my students into outstanding and diverse “apples” that can affect positive change in the world they live in.
Scotty! Engage The Warp Drive!
After attending college and learning about teaching and learning, I wrote a mission statement to drive my teaching – to Engage, Enlighten, and Empower my students. Most of the time my students, who come from low SES environments, could care less about being enlightened. I decided to try and create situations so that they would first become engaged, because they are living in a society full of engagement and activity. If they come in my classroom and I don’t engage them first, they have a hard time getting to the enlightened stage – it’s not impossible, but somewhat difficult!
I am participating in a project with one of our universities in Oklahoma to develop scenarios for activities that use authentic strategies for students to construct knowledge, learn through meaningful questions, substantive conversation, have value beyond school and are student-centered. I worked with an 8th grade science teacher who is part of the same project, and we developed sister lessons that were similar but different, and students could see a clear connection from a core science class and an elective Family and Consumer Science class (the old home economics on steroids!). She had students develop a fair way to analyze UFO cleaning solutions and create a way to compare, contrast and analyze and assess data. I had students investigate cleaning solutions that could be made with baking soda, vinegar, rubbing alcohol or water. Once they found a formula, they had to prepare it, perform a cleaning comparison test, collect data and present it in a table, do a cost comparison analysis, reflect on the product they would use based on economic impact, opportunity cost, environmental impact or convenience. Afterwards they researched MSDS sheets and created one of their own.
WOWOWOWOWOW!! The students had so much fun, were working together, having great academic conversations and learning powerful foundation concepts and vocabulary throughout the task. Since then the science teacher discovered that information the students learned were on an EOI for another class, so she and I were able to have students learn curriculum about our class as well as other class – integration at its best!
We don’t have to eject the core, we just need to be creative and DESIGN lessons that will integrate the core as well as empower students to become 21st Century learners by giving them tools for investigation.
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