Automate vs. Informate
I feel that I am actively helping “informate” my campus. I started a pbworks.com wiki earlier this year for the school that will soon have our teacher handbook, resources for committees, school schedules, etc. All the staff are editors, and there are 4 administrators besides myself.
In this era of budget cuts, I want to make sure that knowledge isn’t lost just because personnel is lost. It looks like elementary librarians in Austin ISD will be 1 librarian to 3 elementaries, and I don’t know if I’ll be staying. I don’t want the school (and my replacement) to suffer due to the state’s funding issues.
Educational Philosophies
Constructivism – This sounds like the Montessori education method, but the district’s new “curriculum roadmap” doesn’t leave time for students self-guided education. We get bad notes from the district visitors if every class isn’t working on the same stuff (their stuff). http://www.montessori.edu/
Existentialism – I think this could be explored during Art class, but would be difficult to implement realistically elsewhere in an elementary school. http://www.cas.sc.edu/engl/emerson/images/Eyeball4.gif I remember this picture from my “Intro to Philosophy” course! I couldn't reproduce it without permission, but you are more than welcome to follow the link to check it out.
Idealism – This sounds like the “Great Books” curriculum, where you read a series of great books and learn vicariously through them. I think this is a great way to supplement the curriculum for GT kiddos. There are “Great Books” for youngsters listed on the website http://www.greatbooks.org/.
Pragmatism – This is where I usually go with my teaching. When I teach math, I teach that you need math to be able to go to the grocery store, get a job, and pay taxes. When I teach science, I teach what happens when an iron skillet is washed and not seasoned with oil or what happens when warm water is thrown on a frozen windshield. When I teach library skills, I teach them so that students can check out books they can learn skills from.
I think the education system needs more of this type of curriculum, social and life skills, because more and more parents can’t or don’t seem to teach their child basic skills needed to function in the world. I am starting to realize that things I think are common sense because my parents taught them to me are not so common for my husband, who was left at home alone from 3 on up because his parents split up and his mother had to work 2 jobs. There was no one to teach him common sense, and although very “book smart”, my husband was never taught very basic things.
Realism – This is where modern education seems to be stuck. Teachers talking, students memorizing facts, some experiments, lots of tests.
Reconstructivism – Students becoming social activists does not always go over well with parents. We have already had issues with parents complaining that we tell the kiddos that smoking is bad for their health. The child goes home and asks their parent to quit. The parent gets mad at the school, the kiddo ends up in tears because they have to face the reality that their parent knows there are negative consequences to smoking and chooses to continue anyway.
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