Feb

27

Calculators are making students dumber

Filed Under "At-risk" students, The Way I See It | Leave a Comment

Kathy at Creating Passionate Users asked the question “Are our tools making us dumber”. I wanted to scream YES THEY ARE. YES THEY ARE. YES THEY ARE. Kathy’s graph says it all.(I love her graphs)

Dumbingdowntoolscalculator.jpg

Calculators are making students dumber. How do I know this? Recently, one of my grade nine students was using her calculator to calculate 3 x 6. That’s not the first time nor the first student that did that kind of thing. I had to restrain myself from ripping my calculator (she borrowed my calculator, because she had forgotten hers) out of her hands. Talk about adding insult to injury. I told her, ” Don’t you know you loose brain cells everytime you use your calculator to do simple math. Don’t you know that if you don’t use your math brain cells you’ll loose them. (I have a video called Inside The Teenage Brain from PBS that says if you don’t use specific brain cells, you’ll lose them. Honest, here’s the link.)

Last summer when I taught grade ten math at Camp I Can, I showed the kids how to do long division the old fashioned way, without a calculator. They were amazed. It was as if I had taught them a magic trick using chalk and a blackboard. They kept asking for more questions. It’s amazing to see how pleased they were that they could do math the old fashioned way. They were having fun doing long division- go figure. I gave them my brain cell speech too.

I really don’t know why kids use calculators for simple math. I guess maybe an elementary teacher could tell me. Now I’m a special education teacher, and I know all about short term memory and all that. But why could they learn to do long division in Camp I Can in grade 10 and not in earlier grades. It may be that they just have gaps in their knowledge. At-risk kids can have a few attendance issues. They skip a class or two or 89 of them. blackboard.jpg

Feb

26

Are you apathetic? Are you unmotivated? Are you bored? Good!!! Read this.

Filed Under Behaviour Management, Engaging Assignments and Activities for Students | 1 Comment

underwear.jpg Feeling tired, listless, apathetic, unmotivated and not interested in school? I thought as much. Well, help is on the way. Since I am a special education specialist, I have shelves of resource books all giving advice on how students can deal with boredom, but… they’re all too boring. So, I thought I’d ask the www for some advice about dealing with boredom in school and then pass it along you.

Yahoo! Answers advises:

- face it school is a boring place……. just try to pay attention and dont zone out……i’m 13…… i kow these things…..(I’maFruit)

-That’s easy. Get a pice of paper out and draw your worst enimey in their underwear OR you can listen to your teacher talk about stuff that don’t make any sence to you at all.(but that’s no fun now is it)Me i like to make my owne songs.Or make my own fashion. (Starr)

-Things are only boring when you are doing something that you don’t see a value in. When you’re forced to do something that you’d rather not do. The trick is this - ONLY do things that have a purpose. I’ll tell you though, school has a GREAT purpose for you. Learning to read, do math, how to interact with people, how to get yourself to do what your boss (teacher) is asking you to do all these skills will make you a MUCH happier person as you grow. Get in there (school) and don’t allow your time to get away without you getting those skills - and getting them BETTER than anyone else! You are getting FOR FREE what people in other places have to pay a forune for. Take full advantage of it!!! Then go out into the world when you get older and take over!!! But only if you’ve picked up the needed skills…..(teran_realtor)

If you actually listen to what the teacher is talking about, and you participate and raise your hand with answers, you will become more interested what you are learning. I get really bored in my geograpyh and history classes, but I try to participate and enjoy what I’m learning. We go to school to get an education, so that when we are older we will be smart and have a good job.

You don’t want to be working at Burger King when your 45 do you? That’s why we go to school, so we can be able to get a job when we are older that pays a lot of money. (Joseph)

You know what, I think I’m going to ask my students to share their strategies for dealing with boredom at school. That can be their blog entry for this week.

PS. I just reread the suggestions above, and I think there’s advice in there for me too-although I can’t draw.

Feb

25

Bored in class-too bad

Filed Under Uncategorized | 13 Comments

bored.jpgI don’t know about your household, but Saturday morning is a very busy time in mine. So today after all was said and done and before the birthday party with the Dora the Explorer birthday cake, I sat down with a cup of coffee, put my feet up and began to to read our community newspaper, The Mississauga News. I was just turning the pages , not too interested really just reading the headlines when I came to this “School principal silences student”. School principal silences student? Now that caught my interest.

A grade six student at St. Sebastian Elementary School has been censored by his principal after writing a speech about being bored in class…”My message is to you,” he (the student) writes in his speech, “let nobody steal your joy by keeping you bored. Find a way out. To be happy is your purpose in life.”

Whoa!!! The principal silenced the student because the student wrote a speech saying the teacher has stolen his joy by keeping him bored! Oh my goodness. Dare I comment? Well, yes. Let’s look at some of the assumptions

  • It’s the teacher’s job to keep students from being bored.
  • Students have a right to joy in the classroom.
  • It’s disrespectful for the students to say they are bored.
  • Student should be censored for writing about being bored
  • The purpose of life is to be happy

It’s the teacher’s job to keep students from being bored- I don’t think so. It’s my job to teach and my training supports that. I’m not paid to entertain students. I’m not a stand up comedian, nor am I Much Music or the latest greatest video game. My class isn’t divided into 10 minute time periods nor does it have a remote to change the channel. I plan my lessons so that the pace is appropriate, the strategies I use support all learning styles and my evaluations are mindful of the multiple intelligences. I do my part. Students need to do their part. Oh, they have a part. Yes indeed. When my students complain about being bored in my class or in other classes, I sit down with them and show them what they can do to help alleviate some of the boredom. Students have a part in their being bored. They can do things to get involved and not feel as bored. Sometimes things are boring. That’s a fact. My last bit of advice is: Suck It Up! Life is not a party.

Students have a right to joy in the classroom. I don’t think so. Students have a right to be taught by a teachers who know their stuff and how to deliver the information skillfully.

It’s disrespectful for students to say they are bored. I don’t think so. I think it’s a marvelous opportunity to have a discussion about expectations and reality. I relish these kinds of discussions. I don’t feel threatened by them because I know that it’s not my responsibility to entertain students. It’s my job to teach them, and that includes teaching them strategies they can use to help themselves when they feel bored. Teaching students how to deal with boredom is teaching them a life skill. They think they are bored now-just wait until they hit life outside of school. (I’m still marking those five paragraph essays)

A student should be censored for writing a speech about being bored. My first thought was- oh really! But, then I realized I didn’t know exactly what was said. So, I guess it would be prudent to withhold judgment. I know at our school there’s no rule against writing speeches about being bored, yet. :)

The purpose of life is to be happy-

As a Buddhist monk my concern extends to all members of the human family and, indeed, to all sentient beings who suffer. I believe all suffering is caused by ignorance. People inflict pain on others in the selfish pursuit of their own happiness or satisfaction.
-His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech, Oslo, December 1989

 

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