Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Thing 4
I can't believe how much teaching and learning have changed from when I was in Middle School. Students need to be prepared to think through problems, work in teams and distinguish good information from bad information...and technology is a big part of preparing learners to gather, use, and communicate information. When I was in school we did a great deal of memorizing facts that teachers provided and had less freedom in directing our own learning through group projects. One difficulty I find with my middle school child is that even when her teacher puts her homework online she chooses to use her time to do other things. I didn't have a computer or cell phone. I did spend a lot of time on the phone and playing "Pack man" video games, but I think I found school assignments to be more meaningful and worked more persistently to get homework done..., of course that was a long time ago...I learned to type on a typewriter in high school. My daughter spends way too much time texting friends on her cell phone, IM -ing friends on the internet, and updating her my space. I wish she didn't have so many distractions. I think this is a problem for many kids at this age...they are overwhelmed with all of the "fun" distractions and have a hard time getting work done. I just keep thinking about the survey of what employers rate for job success as #1 is work ethic....this is something we really need to think about. How can we improve the work ethic for students???? I'm going to keep in mind the job success top factors: work ethic, collaboration, oral communication, and social responsibility...in planning lessons/projects.
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Someone else in our class has also commented about students' lack of work ethic, and my 25YO son has noticed this problem with some high school students he supervises at his job.
ReplyDeleteI wish I knew the answer to that one. Certainly parental example has a lot to do with it, but some times I think students have lost all hope in their future. They know how bad the economy is, and that their generation as a whole will probably not have as high of a standard of living as their parents' generation.
It's reassuring to know that you're going to have a job for the next 30 years. But now there are no guarantees. We tell our students to work hard, get good grades, go to college... but then they see the cold hard reality of people with degrees losing their jobs and their homes.
I'm starting to see why they might not care as much as we think they should.