Reflection #8

This week was a good one. They all are good ones. We talked about evaluation and assessment and the difference between the two, we learned how to make rubrics, we learned that Geoff’s father (or some older gentleman in the story he told) did not know what a rubric was despite being a professor for decades, and we learned about telemedicine, telediagnosis, and water conservation from Francesca and Kat, respectively.

The idea of validity and reliability in education is interesting to me. Ideally, students would achieve a high level of each (i.e. consistently achieving excellent results). But I was wondering, if I could only choose one, which would be more important? I was considering especially a technology education setting, such as the one in the movie clip we watched with the boys launching rockets. They had high levels of reliability (that all ended in similar failures), and eventually ended up with a successful launch (validity in that one case). But I wonder, if they could only experience a lot of failed launches OR one successful launch, and not both, which would be most beneficial to their education? Yes, only launching one rocket and having it succeed would be awesome and motivational to the students, but at the same time one could argue that the experience gained through the long process of working through failures is worth many times more than the success of that single launch. I suppose this is one of those questions that could be highly debated, and of course, answers are always situational. In this situation, however, I would be inclined to lean towards the side of many failures, and not the single success.  

What does this mean for me? Well I like the idea of validity and reliability applying to life as well. In what situations do I achieve a single result and move on? In what situations do I strive to achieve proficiency, the acquisition of a skill being more important than a result? I’ll definitely think about this as I observe my own actions. That’s about all for now. I do recognize the importance of all the other things we learned, but the idea of reliability and validity has given me the most to ponder.

Reflection #7

High school observations…

Our visit with Braden Boss was interesting. He had a rather unorthodox approach to teaching, grading, classroom conduct, and student expectations. One thing he focused on was student progress as opposed to student achievement. Individual project grades were given on a traditional scale (i.e. if you did a mediocre job, you’d receive, say 10 out of 20 points), but class grades overall were given on a scale of improvement. This means that if your first assignment earned only 5% and your last earned only 20% but you showed steady growth, effort, and improvement, you would receive a high grade in the class. I won’t summarize all his views here, but I thought this particular aspect of his teaching to be interesting. After all, progress is important and should be rewarded, but in the end, the real world cares more about how good something is, and not simply if it’s better than something worse. I still am not sure how I feel about this system.

Something else I noticed was a significantly higher general level of disinterest among students and teachers alike. However, this was not the case in each classroom. Between the two high schools, I was able to visit four classrooms and I noticed a very clear pattern: the students’ level of interest in the material directly reflected the teachers’ level of interest in the class and the students. The more indifferent the teacher was, the more indifferent the students were. On the other hand, it was clearly visible that when the teacher showed a great deal of interest and passion in a class or a particular part of a class, the students’ interest levels would rise accordingly. This may seem intuitive but seeing this idea in action helped solidify for me the importance of teaching with the heart as well as the brain.

What does this mean for me? Well, according to what I learned from Gong, I am at all times both a learner and a teacher. This bit of knowledge – that is, that teacher interest affects student interest – can significantly impact how I perform in both of those roles. For example, as a learner, I can rise above the wave of disinterest among students the next time I have a boring professor (not Geoff). I can prepare myself mentally to learn even when a teacher does not show a particularly high level of interest in my individual success. As a teacher, knowing how my attitude affects my students, I can prepare to teach in a much more heartfelt and engaging manner. I can gauge what the students’ reactions to my teaching will be, based on my own observations. 

Reflection #6

Reflecting time.

I really want to learn how to speed read like Dillon Inouye. 1000 words every minute.

I find the idea of the three person problem incredibly intriguing. I had never before considered that knowledge ends at the classroom door without a third person. But thinking about it, any knowledge I receive in a class does indeed die with me unless I go and tell somebody else. When I first read that knowledge has to be taught among a minimum of three people to grow, I thought, “what a fascinating idea, I can’t wait to learn more.” Then when I read a little bit more, I thought, “what a simple and true concept. This is exactly true with everything I learn.”

This makes me even more excited to share knowledge with others. I love when I learn something interesting enough that I want to share it, but the idea that knowledge will either die if I keep it in, or grow if I share it, makes me want to share everything I learn.

That’s all I’m reflecting on today. It’s probably the most interesting thing I learned this week, and the one that will affect my future actions the most. 

Reflection #5

This reflection is also going to be fairly short because my thoughts on Monday’s visit are included in “Junior High Analysis 2”, a separate document.

What we learned… we had a few people teach us about some fun topics, including Powerade, mirrors, and where swear words come from. I did not know that swearing naturally produces certain physical and emotional responses within the body, and I learned more about mirrors than ever before, including how exactly they reflect. That’s one of those things that people could never explain to me clearly, so I never understood it clearly until today. We also talked about an inspiring Japanese professor whose first name was Dylan (his last name escapes me), and the concept and ramifications of exponential growth in learning.

I must make mention of something we read in class that will have a lasting impact on my life. Go figure, huh, something from school is actually changing me. There was a phrase in the excerpt from Bonds That Make Us Free that better described how I want to change myself than anything else I have ever read, heard, or composed myself, as far as I can remember: “Nothing in my experience has been a greater source of sadness than this discrepancy, this distance, between the person I am when I am true to what I know to be right and the person I become when I am not.” That’s incredible. Never has my greatest personal goal been so exactly articulated. The circumstances in which this applies to my own life are private and I’m not going to include them in this reflection, but I find it wonderful that Terry Warner was able to so clearly identify and describe this unfortunate circumstance which is yet valuable knowledge.

The story about speed reading a stack of books at a minimum of 900 words per minute and somehow comprehending everything better than at traditional reading speeds has inspired me to investigate some of these techniques. I’m all about learning more, faster. (Especially since my reading speed is something I’ve actually tried to improve before.) Now that I have a goal – 900 words per minute, minimum – I will be able to more effectively focus my efforts. Also, I will continue to ponder and meditate upon the aforementioned quote, and how that can change my life.

That’s all for today. Cheers.