I have to share this and I think a lot of you will enjoy it. I was really becoming disenchanted with teaching. I felt like I was just teaching to the test. Kids weren't interested and absolutely without a doubt forgot what I taught them in a month. I would ask my brightest kids a year later what the 4 bases of DNA were. Things I spent weeks, if not months covering. Things like the Calvin Cycle and the Krebs Cycle. Good luck if any kid could give you a rudimentary recollection of it 2 months later. I've felt for a long while that I covered things a mile wide and 2 inches deep. It would really hit me when a kid would say, can I please have the test so I don't forget "*". How freaking shallow was my job? No permanence whatsoever. I would delude myself into thinking I was doing a good job because my kids did well on standardized tests but deep inside I knew it was all bs. I focused on the bottom half of my class and pounded in rote memorization. I played the game and got really good scores but was never professionally satisfied. I knew I was doing a disservice teaching to the test.
I was discussing this with a colleague. He mentioned he took this modeling class last summer and he really enjoyed it and it refreshed his batteries some. So always looking to improve my craft I signed up for the three week class. I was trained to become a modeling teacher. Everything was hands on. No text books nor power points. I did everything that my kids will be doing this year. On average we learn 12 new words in the a English language a year. In a typical science course kids learn 5000 words a year based on Latin. It's foreign to them. Almost like learning a different language. It's almost an entirely new language every year and we are surprised when kids forget definitions? Ok long story short. You as the student are presented a problem or a scenario. You as the teacher are supposed to tell a kid you don't know when they have a question. The kids construct their own meaning as they engage the learning process. When they construct it and form it they commit it to a deeper memory. They remember it. So these modeling teachers in larger districts, their classes are scoring two standard deviations higher than traditional teachers and they are not teaching to the test. Their classes are scoring way above the average. It's phenomenal the growth they show.

So the first model I worked on this year dealt with the characteristics of life. I asked the kids to write on a white board in groups of 3 what consisted or characterized life. They all had their ideas. Use energy. Contain information that can be handed down to offspring. The level these kids discussed. I just sat back in wonder. One group actually debated AI. "We will have to one day reclassify computers according to our definitions". Then one kid said he read this summer two computers were actually communicating with each with a language that the computers developed. We "humans" couldn't understand their conversation so we unplugged the computers. I said are you sure this wasn't a pre text for a sci-fi movie? No this happened Mr. -------. I was just floored by the level of discourse. I then put a bin out of different objects. A solar calculator. A picked apple.. Snake skin. Dried peas. A germinating seed. An earthworm. I said use your constructs and tell me what is living and not living by using your definitions. I then said there are over 200 accepted definitions of life and it's not as black and white as I would have taught you last year. My quiz was based on 'is a picked apple alive?' Your answer must be in three parts. C.E.S. Claim Evidence and Support. The most important aspect of it supporting your evidence. I gave out a rubric before the assignment and the kids for the most part really put thought into their answers. I had one kid actually boil it down to saying this is the right to life and pro choice arguement and they could see how each bias would influence either answer. I WAS FLOORED!

Then this past week I just put out 60 cards with specific details about the organism. Very similiar or like baseball trading cards about each life I had about 10 cards from each Kingdom of Life. I had 10 organisms that I would consider that are hard to classify. Cyanobacteria that colonize. Different Algaes that are very close to being plants and then algaes that are more like Protistas. I didn't say a word. I told each class to just look at the cards. Kids immediately started to group them according to common characteristics. Some even grouped them by water land and air just as Aristotle did. I took out ten minutes and said to them this is so cool I have to mention this. I asked why did you guys start grouping them? We soon came to the conclusion that humans liked order. We try to put things in boxes but life doesn't always fit into nice boxes. Those boxes are a human construct and with all things human derived they are susceptible to error. Especially as new information may come to light. I then mentioned Aristotle and how he first started his classification system exactly how some of them did. What problems did you have? They noticed that some things were in different groups even though they had many other similarities, versus what was in their groups. I mentioned is there a better way? Then it just took off. They had their whiteboards sectioned off. They even started to make Venn diagrams! All of this without any prompts. I just started to list the things they came up with on the side. JUST LISTENED AS A GUIDE ON THE SIDE, not a sage on the stage. They came up with the Kingdoms and the characteristics of each. Then this is where it got really neat.
I told them guys I'm supposed to let you discover things but I bought brand new microscopes last year and I want you to know the techniques on how to use them. It would be like telling a lay person off the street to wire a house. I need to give you some tools and training. I have three labs this year where you have to know how to use a microscope to figure out the problems I give you. I've NEVER HAD kids soooo engaged. They wanted to do the work. They saw why they needed to acquire the information. I had kids bringing in pond water unsolicited. I had kids taking videos with their iPhones and posting Euglena and Amoeba on their Facebook feeds. This was learning for the sake of fulfilling curiosity. This wasn't memorizing definitions for a matching vocabary test. I could give two craps how my kids score on their proficiency tests in the spring because I see how much they enjoy to learn. They are kids again. Remember when you couldn't wait for science class in elementary? That first time you were given a test tube. That first time you looked under a micrsope? That excitement? Why do we lose that? Why do kids come to me hating science? I know why and I've been able to rekindle some spark in them. I'm refreshed. I'm a modeling teacher. May I never hand out a textbook again.

A lot of typos up above. In on my iPhone and I typed a bunch at a restaurant tonight before the appetizer. Sorry for the hard read but I hope you guys get the gist. This is what science is supposed to be. Discovery.

It really hit me when I would have the majority of my classes sometimes almost antsy to get a test because they just crammed all of this information in short term memory. That was teaching malpractice and it's happening all over our country and that's the kids who give a crap. We have whole crops of kids who see no connection to what they are learning. We are so engrossed into what they should learn we have forgotten it's the kids who should be first asking why they should be learning it. They have to at first see that before they will commit it to a higher level on the Blooms taxonomy. We are also trying to cover way too much info in a year. We should be covering a lot less to a deeper understanding. It should be like a good cup of coffee. Rich with a good dark roast instead of thin transparent tea.

That sounds awesome, Mach. It's no wonder they are excited. You are!

Impressive.

Cleaned up some typos above. Again sorry, but even with my IPad it was difficult to move maneuver the paragraphs to type.

Oh well, 1st world problems.

(09-18-2017 08:51 PM)Machiavelli Wrote:  It really hit me when I would have the majority of my classes sometimes almost antsy to get a test because they just crammed all of this information in short term memory. That was teaching malpractice and it's happening all over our country and that's the kids who give a crap. We have whole crops of kids who see no connection to what they are learning. We are so engrossed into what they should learn we have forgotten it's the kids who should be first asking why they should be learning it. They have to at first see that before they will commit it to a higher level on the Blooms taxonomy. We are also trying to cover way too much info in a year. We should be covering a lot less to a deeper understanding. It should be like a good cup of coffee. Rich with a good dark roast instead of thin transparent tea.

Its unreal how much our kids covered in Biology compared to what we covered. Of course, in 40 years, they have learned a whole lot.

Exactly bullet. It's now 2 miles wide but an inch deep. I gauranteeed they covered DNA and this is not a knock on their teacher or their education. Ask them what the role of DNA is? How does it replicate. What's the name of that process? It's Mitosis but the vast vast majority of kids don't recall that. They don't put a meaning behind what they are learning. It's data in data out onto the next data. We have to fundamentally redesign why we are doing things and how. Knowledge isn't as important to me. You have a smart phone with google. It's vastly more important that you can critically think about that knowledge and just as important is if you can get along with each other. Can you work in a group and be productive?

That's awesome. I'm not super into science really, but I say that because if the material was presented to me in that fashion it could have been different perhaps.

IMO, kids feed of the energy of their instructors. After reading Mach's example I'm even more in favor of the "system" spending more time engaging teachers and learning what makes them excited and that will filter down to student involvement/success.

Trickle-Down Education.

Mach, I can only wish I had more educators like you! I only had a handful....

there aren't many left that have a passion how they earn a living.....

well done!

(09-19-2017 06:52 AM)Machiavelli Wrote:  Exactly bullet. It's now 2 miles wide but an inch deep. I gauranteeed they covered DNA and this is not a knock on their teacher or their education. Ask them what the role of DNA is? How does it replicate. What's the name of that process? It's Mitosis but the vast vast majority of kids don't recall that. They don't put a meaning behind what they are learning. It's data in data out onto the next data. We have to fundamentally redesign why we are doing things and how. Knowledge isn't as important to me. You have a smart phone with google. It's vastly more important that you can critically think about that knowledge and just as important is if you can get along with each other. Can you work in a group and be productive?

Sounds great Mach. I have a biology background and I know how monotonous learning that stuff can be. It's always great to find new and better ways to teach the material. Kudos to you.

(09-19-2017 06:52 AM)Machiavelli Wrote:  Exactly bullet. It's now 2 miles wide but an inch deep. I gauranteeed they covered DNA and this is not a knock on their teacher or their education. Ask them what the role of DNA is? How does it replicate. What's the name of that process? It's Mitosis but the vast vast majority of kids don't recall that. They don't put a meaning behind what they are learning. It's data in data out onto the next data. We have to fundamentally redesign why we are doing things and how. Knowledge isn't as important to me. You have a smart phone with google. It's vastly more important that you can critically think about that knowledge and just as important is if you can get along with each other. Can you work in a group and be productive?

I agree with you Mach. Even when I took biology, ~22 years ago, I memorized a lot of stuff but learned next to nothing. I have no doubt that if you gave me a final HS biology exam right now, I'd be lucky to get a 30%. Spanish too... I was almost fluent by the end of HS, but now don't know schit. My own fault for letting it slip. History is another, but I am interested enough that I have stayed on top of it throughout my life. Pretty much any other subject I'd be fine.

(09-19-2017 07:52 AM)EverRespect Wrote:  

(09-19-2017 06:52 AM)Machiavelli Wrote:  Exactly bullet. It's now 2 miles wide but an inch deep. I gauranteeed they covered DNA and this is not a knock on their teacher or their education. Ask them what the role of DNA is? How does it replicate. What's the name of that process? It's Mitosis but the vast vast majority of kids don't recall that. They don't put a meaning behind what they are learning. It's data in data out onto the next data. We have to fundamentally redesign why we are doing things and how. Knowledge isn't as important to me. You have a smart phone with google. It's vastly more important that you can critically think about that knowledge and just as important is if you can get along with each other. Can you work in a group and be productive?

I agree with you Mach. Even when I took biology, ~22 years ago, I memorized a lot of stuff but learned next to nothing. I have no doubt that if you gave me a final HS biology exam right now, I'd be lucky to get a 30%. Spanish too... I was almost fluent by the end of HS, but now don't know schit. My own fault for letting it slip. History is another, but I am interested enough that I have stayed on top of it throughout my life. Pretty much any other subject I'd be fine.

I get what you are saying; however, IMO, that's more a function of never using those skills than simply forgetting them. Of course, never using them makes one forget but you learn something else along the way, more than likely related to what you actually do for a living.

Where do you teach Mach and at what level?

My twin brother is a high school teacher at the local school here and has my older daughter in his class this year. That's an interesting dynamic to say the least.

(09-19-2017 07:56 AM)VA49er Wrote:  

(09-19-2017 07:52 AM)EverRespect Wrote:  

(09-19-2017 06:52 AM)Machiavelli Wrote:  Exactly bullet. It's now 2 miles wide but an inch deep. I gauranteeed they covered DNA and this is not a knock on their teacher or their education. Ask them what the role of DNA is? How does it replicate. What's the name of that process? It's Mitosis but the vast vast majority of kids don't recall that. They don't put a meaning behind what they are learning. It's data in data out onto the next data. We have to fundamentally redesign why we are doing things and how. Knowledge isn't as important to me. You have a smart phone with google. It's vastly more important that you can critically think about that knowledge and just as important is if you can get along with each other. Can you work in a group and be productive?

I agree with you Mach. Even when I took biology, ~22 years ago, I memorized a lot of stuff but learned next to nothing. I have no doubt that if you gave me a final HS biology exam right now, I'd be lucky to get a 30%. Spanish too... I was almost fluent by the end of HS, but now don't know schit. My own fault for letting it slip. History is another, but I am interested enough that I have stayed on top of it throughout my life. Pretty much any other subject I'd be fine.

I get what you are saying; however, IMO, that's more a function of never using those skills than simply forgetting them. Of course, never using them makes one forget but you learn something else along the way, more than likely related to what you actually do for a living.

I really think biology is different. HS biology is almost nothing but memorizing terms. I think if the focus was more on how it was applied, retention would be better. I'd rather my child know that having a "blob looking thing" on the "crecent shaped organ" causes infertility than to memorize the official 20 letter Latin term for "blob looking thing" and "crecent shaped organ". If you know the applications, you'll learn the terms if you need to. Being able to identify the term on a multiple choice standardized test on a given day really doesn't teach you anything.

(09-19-2017 08:01 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Where do you teach Mach and at what level?

My twin brother is a high school teacher at the local school here and has my older daughter in his class this year. That's an interesting dynamic to say the least.

Reminds me of a friend of mine. He walked into his first grade class. His sister said "Find another class brother."

Georgia passed a law requiring students to pass an end of course test to pass the class. It got delayed a couple of years once they figured out most students would fail to graduate or move on to the next grade (think it was 5th and 8th to move on and in high school you had to pass to get your diploma). They have revised it. Its now 20% of your final grade. Still pretty significant.

These end of course exams are the worst things to come across in education in a long damn while and that's saying something. Ironically it's letting go of that and just freeing yourself from those constraints. Take the pressure off yourself and worry about the kids first, second and third. If my principal isn't happy with my scores he's welcome in my classroom every day. Make the material meaningful. I just wish I heard about this 22 years ago. It's a modeling approach to education developed at Arizona State University in the 90's. I'll find some articles. I'm an acolyte and I will sing it's praises.

What I hear, I forget

What I see, I remember

What I do, I understand

There's a lot of crap taught in school that most kids don't need to know.