Chapter+04+-+Teachers

Experiences with School reinforce an attitude that carries into society’s negative attitude toward teachers. However, Papert has realized teachers are truly mensch (people of integrity and honor). School “disguises them as something else” (p. 58). Papert feels School is actually a disease and that hierarchy is not the appropriate organization for education because it sets narrow limits in which teachers can exercise a degree of personal initiative and neither side “fully accepts these limits” (p. 60). He feels School approaches Knowledge as “facts, concepts and skill” building blocks. A graduate needs 40,000 blocks to be ‘educated’. In my school today, I was having a conversation with a teacher about the pace of her predetermined prescribed curriculum. She said that her heart breaks because she is told to keep on moving forward even though she knows there are gaps in the children’s education. Basically, the foundation she has built is full of holes. A small variance in what blocks the student possesses will result in the graduate being ‘uneducated.’ Therefore, School built a plan where teachers write lesson plans for every day detailing how many blocks will be added to the student’s education. The facts are built into concepts that form the subjects that are divided into grade levels. Progress in transferring the blocks can be determined with standardized testing. Papert would like to see teachers viewed as co-learners rather than technicians who can be trained to do teaching. My favorite part of my job is when I am more like a trail guide then a teacher a co-adventurer per say. Teachers should be able to develop a personal teaching style and share their styles freely in this way a learning culture will develop as long as the sharing of ideas is done with respect for all styles of teaching. One way that my personal teaching style is being forced is that I have a prescribed curriculum. It gives me the questions to investigate, the methods to assess, and the projects to do. The School system never asked me what works best in the classroom or for my students. Papert laments that society’s best teachers are being held back by the majority of School-believers being unwilling to change. TD

__Chapter 4: Teachers __ Does technology improve teaching? Leaving the curriculum and practices the same and adding this foreign thing without changing the way you teach/learn. Teachers can’t be learners........they are trying to apply to teaching all the time Teachers have objectives to meet and lesson plans to follow, they need to be okay deviating from them Teachers are scared of technology and that students will know more after the technology is introduced. Teachers won’t be able to help them learn. • Even though this book was written 20+ years ago, its application relates to address on today by... I agree that still today sometimes I wonder if the students are going to know more about the computer and the programs then I am. I also think that although we have computers and use them often now, I am still learning how to and when to use them in the classroom. That’s why we are in this group. I also think that because I am weak in the technology department that my students don’t get to see the full potential of computers. Some teachers I am sure are great at using technology in the classroom, but I am still learning. I think it’s all applicable today because although some schools and classrooms are moving toward computers in the classrooms, there is still a large emphasis on computer labs and teaching technology tools in those computer lab times. • This chapter ties into the TPCK model by.. TPCK model would be torn in this chapter. TPCK does like to include technology and curriculum and knowledge all together to get an end result. I do think that the model would think of using technology to facilitate the learning of the curriculum and using technology, not making technology into curriculum itself. • Practical uses for this site? info in my classroom... We have computer objectives to meet in the classroom with the computer lab for the students. I don’t know how to deviate from that quite yet. I may have to think of a way for the students to use the program in place a little more freely and have “free time” after to explore and discover on their own. Unfortunately if there is a curriculum and objectives we as teachers have to meet those. Wow that goes back to this chapter about teachers and their need, want, or their bosses forcing them to stick to curriculum and make sure the students are learning and knowing the standards. It is sad that we as teacher must stick to learning and teaching certain things so students can pass certain test so those teachers can keep their jobs. Maybe finding games and programs that would enhance their learning with the one computer I have in my room, but how do I let all students have a chance on that one computer.



I'd like to just say that I do not love this book. I'm not sure if I found the reading too in-depth into the topic or because Papert just seems to delve too deeply into Logo, but I had a hard time getting through this book. I'm thoroughly ecstatic to be finished with it. OK, enough said...

I loved Papert's suggestion about teachers being learners right alongside the students. I think this is a really important and rarely practiced concept. I have found that my most memorable teaching moments have been when I let the students teach me a thing or two. Thankfully, in my teaching area -- computer technology -- I do have many of those opportunities. Even though I cover the basics of Microsoft Office, I try to throw in a new tech tool for the kids now and then. They are typically tech tools that I have not used extensively -- for example, Wordle, makebeliefcomix, Glogster, etc. It's so much fun AND the learning is sparked when the students feel that they are learning alongside me and each other. There is a always excitement when the students are looked at and listened to as teachers. These new tech tools and learning their ins and outs seems to be best suited for my middle school classes. However, even in lower elementary, when we're practicing a new skill (new to the kids), I invite a few students up to my computer (projected) and have them demonstrate to the rest of the class how they were able to make use of a particular tool. They are so proud of themselves and the other students seem to be ready and willing to try new things their classmates have tried -- moreso than they are when it's taught only by me.

Papert talks about the skills and building blocks that they teachers are responsible to teach and the students are responsible to learn within a given grade and time frame. In my subject area, I find that I don't get the support from the technology end. My school has left it up to me to decide what to teach, but they don't provide me with the proper technology to do so. I try to follow the NETS -- National Education Technology Standards put forth by the ISTE -- International Society for Technology in Education, and there are no MN Technology Standards. Without our computer technology integrated into the curriculum and having it taught in an isolated lab (which Papert also points out is NOT the way to teach children), I'm unable to meet the standards. Additionally, there are standards I could meet in the computer lab, but without proper accesss for students, I'm unable. I definitely find myself frustrated over the lack of access and the lack of interest placed on student learning (by IT administration in my building). - Carol

 

On page 59 Papert writes about "supporting the evolution of those currents" and how that may be one of the most important skills one can learn in helping education move forward. This is a theme that surfaces here and there throughout the book and I have to say that I think Papert has a great sense of how change happens in a society. While many of his concepts and suggestions raise my blood pressure quickly, I think his knowledge and suggestions about the pace and direction of social changes are "spot on".

<span style="background-color: #008080; color: #ffcc00; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">In the last chapter when Papert offers the ideas of the "little school" as a way to go I think that fits into his notion in this chapter of school being a nurturing place as compared to an institution whose primary purpose is to provide workers who can keep the cogs of our economy rolling along. To some extent, I suppose it depends on the lenses one uses to view schools. I like the smaller school environment because it was very good to me and it gave me a chance to take chances and do things (play sports, take pictures, etc). I know from studying about how school districts across the name approach teaching (i.e., it is November 7, you had best be on page xxx in the curriculum guide) as something that you can just plug in almost any warm body to do. I am more attracted to the vision of teaching being an art form and a calling.

<span style="background-color: #008080; color: #ffcc00; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">At times I think Papert seems anti-test and I have to say that I think assessments do have their place in the classroom. In these tougher economic times, I think it is important to be able to discuss with parents where their child is, and what the plan is for moving forward (okay--I teach in a private school, so I can do this, where it would be next to impossible if I taught 150 students a day).

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">byron