Comments for Constructing Meaning

Comment on More than a tip o’ the hat by Greg Thompson

Greg Thompson — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 20:16:15 +0000

That is as I would have imagined . . . appreciate you using them to keep us all “on the ground” around the world.

Comment on More than a tip o’ the hat by Andy Carvin (@acarvin)

Andy Carvin (@acarvin) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 13:29:37 +0000

I generally use Tweetdeck on my Macbook, or a Twitter app on my iPhone. As for my iPad, my son has first dibs on it, so I don’t tweet on it much.

Comment on 21st century (fill in your educational consideration) by Greg Thompson

Greg Thompson — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 00:03:51 +0000

Please feel free to link to my site and thanks for taking the time to read.

Comment on 21st century (fill in your educational consideration) by Tahlia Newland

Tahlia Newland — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 02:01:39 +0000

Education needs reforming but evaluating teacher’s effectiveness on test results is ridiculous and so obviously flawed that I can’t believe that the pollies are still barking down that alley. Where are the educators educating the politicians. If they’re there the pollies obviously aren’t listening.

Is it Ok if I put a link to here from my site. I’m trying to build up a network of sites for teachers, that involve the personal element of the job.

Comment on “Well, why shouldn’t the classroom be the ‘real’ world?” by Simpol-UK

Simpol-UK — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 10:34:20 +0000

Like the ideas on show in this post. Someone put it to me recently that we need to move to an education system based on quality. The tricky bit is pinning down what exactly quality is and how to achieve it. There is much work to be done and it is good to see blogs such as this one asking the difficult questions.

Comment on 21st century (fill in your educational consideration) by Michelle

Michelle — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 18:36:09 +0000

Sadly, I work for one of the post-secondary schools to which students turn so that they can be acceptable to the HR departments and actually obtain a job. Desperate students pay these schools an extortionate amount of money in student loans, gambling that what they learn will actually prepare them to work and pay that loan back. They do this because they haven’t learned any useful skills in high school. You say that educators shouldn’t be preparing students for business, but in fact, most people end “in business” one way or another, either as employees or as owners. Somebody has to teach them, and it makes more practical sense for this to be part of a required and guaranteed public education. Many of my students are in poverty because they graduated as new adults without the skills to make a living, since workforce preparation programs are no longer present in most high schools. It is impractical to consider that high schools should turn out insightful kids prepared to dream of what they want to be when they grow up, rather than adults prepared to work for a living; it does not help break the cycle of poverty. Having a massive student loan for the education which gave you only basic work skills hanging over your head does not help, either. Modern workforce skills preparation in schools is part of the reform that we need – programs in biological science, engineering, computer programming, math, and technical writing as well as bringing back business classes and artisanal and skilled labor programs. We’ve rendered 18-22 year old adults practically unemployable under our current system.

Comment on “Well, why shouldn’t the classroom be the ‘real’ world?” by Jessica Reeves

Jessica Reeves — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 17:23:15 +0000

I hope that the classroom is evolving into the real world. I am a teacher and have often said that I learned nothing until college…can this be true? Yes! I learned to read at home and then “played” school very well until graduation. I was dead center in academic achievement because I prided myself on never taking home homework or textbooks. I was not interested in the least…it showed.

When I enrolled in college, the same thing happened until I reached my 300 level classes…I breathed a sigh of relief; finally I cared about what I was learning. I graduated and went straight to grad school–only to drop after one semester. My grad classes were reading the same literature that I had read as an undergraduate…they didn’t care what I already knew…one size fits all.

Fast-forward to present day, and I have my graduate degree in teaching (it was completely relevant) and am left wondering why school is still taught in this manner. I know I have to do something different, and to the credit of my district, I do. I play with conventional lessons, tweak tired thinking, and sprint to new arenas…hopefully some of it will reach my kiddos.

Thanks so much for the post…100% agreement=)
Jessica

Comment on 21st century (fill in your educational consideration) by leadership and organizational structure | The REAL School Design Blog

leadership and organizational structure | The REAL School Design Blog — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 12:53:44 +0000

[...] into our own practices. In this work, teachers are perhaps the most powerful sensing instrument. Teachers must be agents of change. You would think, as @edreformer laments,they would be involved in designing [...]

Comment on 21st century (fill in your educational consideration) by Larry Fliegelman

Larry Fliegelman — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 20:06:15 +0000

Just this afternoon, the twitter discussion on centered around the idea of how teachers can be a louder voice in the ed reform debate. There were a few good ideas that all center on more teachers speaking up. It is more work, and some (many?) teachers are uncomfortable in the limelight. However, if each teacher does not grab the spotlight, then papers like the LA Times will shine the spotlight on their terms. Some of the ideas: comment on blog posts that have a positive ed message, upload 1 minute video showing PositiveEd, old-fashioned letters to the editor, ask more teachers to get involved, on and on. Thank you for writing and posting your opinion about this.

Comment on 21st century (fill in your educational consideration) by JenWagner

JenWagner — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 00:43:57 +0000

Very good post

I had similar thoughts in August 2009 —
and I think we need to continue to have these discussions.
http://projectsbyjen.com/blog/?p=1153

Thank you for sharing this —
Jennifer