Teaching Middle School Science

I have been caught up for about the last 8 months with this thing called web 2.0.  it is poorly defined, but widely accepted as a good thing.  I have at times been caught up just like everyone else.  But at times I reflect that it can be flash and trash, Death by power point is a great description,  this link seems to do a good job of curing it.  Dan at dy/dan has an interesting post that describes the idea much better than I.

And if you don’t, I’m going to suggest here that you’ve driven yourself to distraction with what’s new *coughs in Plurk’s direction* and lost sight of what’s useful, that you’ve confused your adult enthusiasms with your students’ needs, that you’re approaching the learning transaction from the new tool downwards (”Plurk is awesome. Where can I fit Plurk into the classroom?”), rather than from the necessary instructional goal upwards (”What is the best tool — offline or on-, new school or old- — for teaching this concept?”).

I did see at the TIE some good uses of technology to teach, but also I think some teachers are really relying on a geewiz factor, that somehow, using technology will cause students to be more engaged.

Coming back I was listening to Moving at The Speed of Creativity podcast #257 which featured Dr. Steve Wycoff talking about what schools get wrong.  He did get my blood pressure up, mostly because he made good points about how our schools simply are not meeting the needs of all our kids.  I wonder though, he says the students should study what they are interested in,  if a kid wants to be an artist, learn what ever math an artist needs,  he claims engineers should bother with three years of calculus, because the computers do all the math anyway.  I am sure he is correct up to a point, but if no one takes calculus 3, who tells the computers what to do?  Are computer programmers going to need advanced calculus?  My next question is, how much does a 16 year old kid know about careers?  Maybe we need to fill that part of their education in, and maybe if we make life-long learners, getting them close will be enough because they can fill in the gaps later.  But I teach 8th grade, 93.78% of my boys are going to be professional athletes.  Just ask them.

Another point Dr. Wycoff made was about how many engineers are retiring from aerospace in Kanas and how there are not enough grads to take their place.  Can a college grad really take the place of an engineer retiring with 35 + years of experience? Shouldn’t the person replacing them have graduated say 25 years ago?

He points out that the colleges in Kansas are not producing enough engineers to fill the need of the Aerspace industry in Kansas, which apparently is big, (I did not realize this)  I don’t have the numbers handy, but it sounded like the typical brain drain scenario that get a lot of press.  I am sure his numbers are accurate, I just wonder about why the Urban Institute said the following in their report, Into the Eye of the Storm:  Assessing the Evidence on Science and Engineering Education, Quality, and Workforce Demand
on science and technology education. Click here to get it.

Analysis of the flow of students up through the S&E pipeline, when it reaches the labor market,
suggests the education system produces qualified graduates far in excess of demand: S&E
occupations make up only about one-twentieth of all workers, and each year there are more than three times as many S&E four-year college graduates as S&E job openings.

I have lots of questions and not many answers.  I don’t think Dr. Wycoff trying to say I am doing a lousy job,  it seemed he had nothing but respect for educators, he was in public school for years himself.  I know we got to do things better, but the how still eludes me as a system anyway.  It will always come back to me, because I am am not going any where.  I am a teacher,  I am at the top of my career ladder, I am not angling to be a principal or  other administrator, nor am I trying to get a bunch of web 2.0 cred so I can quit to be a consultant.  (consultant is someone from out of district who has a laptop and a slick powerpoint)

Right now I think I have it about as good as it gets in public education, my Principal and vp give me alot of support and I get the resources I need.  I have a positive reputation in the district (that one still amazes me) my voice is heard, and in a few more years when every one realizes I am always right, their lives will be as nice as mine.  I am not going to quit to go teach in an inner city school,  but I will gladly take the tough class if that would give an inexperienced teacher a lass stressful first year.  I am not going to write “the book” that fixes everything, but I will try and blog.  I will not use every thing on the Web 2.0 Top 100 list, but when I find something that works better than What I do already I will use it.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS