Tuesday, 28 February 2012
High School Stinks
After reading Shelly Wright's Just Curious blog post it brought me back to something I came across in my internship. I'm a secondary school teacher so this was much more evident in high schools. When students enter high school they have been in school long enough that all they want to do is get through with the best grades as possible. The only message students get from school is that high school stinks. Teachers are a big blame for this since they make their classroom lectures boring and their students aren't engaged. Shelly explains in her blog that students don't ask questions all they really want is the content and to learn the content and write the exam. She posted a TedTalk video by Chris Lehman called "Education is Broken." Chris explains how students are just to stay the course and do what they are told over and over again. So the point is, we as teachers need to make a better attempt, that school does not need to be boring and that school can be interesting and fun. Use a variety of teaching strategies and keep our students engaged.
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ReplyDeleteI believe that a lot of teachers just want to get through the day along with their students, as well. When a teacher has that kind of attitude towards what he or she is doing then it is surely going to rub off on their students at some point. Teachers need to be doing their jobs and actually teaching their students something and making sure that they are actually learning it. This is why formative assessment is so important. Students should always be showing you what they know and they should be getting consistent feedback.
ReplyDeleteReally good point!
DeleteI was reading your post and the thought occurred to me that when students start high school or even university they usually think about things like more freedom, more time with friends, different teachers instead of the same one all day, etc. How often do they think "I'm going to get to learn something"?
ReplyDeleteI think perhaps the problem stems from students being forced to attend school, I've heard of students in countries where school is a luxury and they can't believe that ehy are lucky enough to get to go to school. I wish I could teach a class full of people like that. I have no idea what to do to fix it because I think students should be forced to go to school. Sometimes teenagers like to push against the system as much as they can.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great blog! We as teachers need to keep this in mind and really love what we teach and love being in this profession, and it will rub off on our students.
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