Further note on schooling

As a student in a teacher education program, I would never presume to say that the current education system is perfect.  I hate the idea of tracking and the fact that students are judged by a test.  I think that that's awful.  I think that students should be able to pursue their dreams, be they music, sports, reading, writing, physics, whatever.  I think that the kind of education that Summerhill and Sudbury Valley schools offer is wonderful, and I think that public schools have a lot to learn from them.  Creativity is one of the most important traits that students should have.

However I think that there is a definite need for accountability in education, and as someone who hopes to teach in public schools for years to come, I am perfectly willing to submit myself to a standard.  Personally, I like having a bar to start from, but that doesn't mean that I want to teach to the bar.  I want to challenge my future students to reach new levels of learning that they never dreamt of before stepping into my classroom.  I want to challenge students to create and to do something with what they are learning.  I always learned the most in classes where my teachers asked me to respond to something and not just learn it, and I loved those classes more than my lecture classes.

As someone who never attended a private school until college, I think that the public school system produces fine students.  I was lucky to have parents who encouraged my learning outside of school and pushed me to realize my best in my faith, my physical well-being, and my artistic abilities.  I would love to experience Sudbury and Summerhill to a fuller extent than I have in just the two-hour video and discussion that we had my class, but until last Thursday, I did not even realize that these schools existed!  Thank you for the thoughtful comments I have received so far and I hope that you'll understand that I totally agree with you, I'm just the kind of person who needs some structure.  :)

"Alternative" schooling

In Ed Psych last week, we talked about two "alternative" schools built on the humanistic, transformative model of education: Summerhill in the UK and Sudbury Valley in Massachusetts.  The transformative model of education is based on the idea that the main purpose of teaching is to mold each student into the learner that they are becoming, rather than giving students a list of facts to process and memorize.  Transformative education says that knowledge exists within the learner and the teacher exists to shape and create and to kindle that knowledge in their students, based on their individual strengths and values.  Schools like Summerhill and Sudbury Valley allow students to learn whatever they want to, without grades or tests.  Check out the Web sites above, and then read what I have to say about the values of each.  There is a marked difference between Summerhill and Sudbury Valley that I highlight below, but see if you can discover it for yourself.

What I wrote for class:

Some aspects of A.S. Neill’s schooling philosophy resonate well with me. I am very attracted to a transformative education in general. I think that students should learn for learning’s sake, and that learning is more than just books and facts, but this is a viewpoint that has been a part of my view of learning since childhood. My parents have always emphasized learning the arts and being physically active, and they involved my sister and me in many co-educational activities in multiple disciplines. Education is valuable because it gives students tools for understanding who they are and relating that identity to the world around them. A transformative education aids in this discovery, especially one along Neill’s philosophy. I like that students live at Summerhill because this emphasizes that learning is done in community and encourages learning to happen all the time, and not just at school. I also think that Summerhill does a good job of emphasizing classroom learning and keeping it separate from playtime. Students at Summerhill acknowledge the value of learning literature, history, math, science, and other core subjects. Further, they take an active interest in the democratic process and are constantly involved in making it work since they live at the school.

In contrast, Sudbury Valley is more like a daycare center. Students can show up whenever they want and leave pretty much whenever they want as well. It’s a larger school, so there is less accountability for what individual students are learning than at Summerhill. Further, there are many more activities than there are at Summerhill. I am sure that Sudbury Valley would consider this a benefit, but I think that students would learn more of core subjects if they were limited to more academic pursuits. I do think that there is value to playtime pursuits, but maybe students should be limited to them for a certain amount of time each day. I understand that students should be able to choose what they want to learn, but I think that this philosophy gives children too much credit. I wanted to be an astronaut until I was in middle school, and I only discovered that I enjoyed writing and history much more than science and math because I had teachers who pointed my skills and gifts out to me. I am not sure if I would have discovered this on my own. Sometimes we need others to point out our own skills before we can see them for ourselves.

I think that students should be able to develop their own path for learning, within limits. I like that Sudbury Valley and Summerhill provide this opportunity. I think that K-12 schools should value the arts and physical activity just as highly as book learning, and that test scores should be devalued in favor of the development of the whole person. On the whole, SOL standards actually do aim toward the development of the whole person, because there are standards for the arts, but they are not required tests. I think that we should motivate students to learn what is on the SOLs, but give them choices on how they want to learn those subjects and be assessed on them. Students should be able to choose whether they want to write an essay or respond in some other creative way to a subject in literature or history. They should be able to demonstrate their knowledge of math or science in a way consistent with their strengths. I think that the SOLs are beneficial in that they offer a standard for what students should know, but that students should be given the latitude to decide what they want to do with that knowledge.

PGD-I3: Dinner, party of one

It's been a while, so it's time for a new post-graduate discovery: you can save so much more money by cooking in than by eating out.  Again, like my other discoveries, this should be intuitive.  I just never realized how much you can save by cooking your own food.

For example, tonight I made a vegetable and kielbasa sausage saute over about a cup of rice.  Pretty good stuff.  I diced and sauteed (in olive oil) a quarter of a green pepper, an eighth of a red onion, and half of a yellow squash, and I also sauteed half of a sliced package of kielbasa (Polish sausage).  I made the rice in my rice cooker.  Grand total?  $3.06

1/2 sausage = $2.25

rice = probably no more than .10

1/4 green pepper = .22

1/2 yellow squash = .25

1/8 red onion = .14

1/2 tablespoon olive oil = probably no more than .10

Okay, add another .25 for my glass of orange juice (if that).  That brings it up to about $3.30.

Just for kicks, I went online and looked up similar dishes.

Olive Garden has a Mixed Grill for $15.50.

Red Lobster has a Grilled Chicken Breast (with vegetables and rice) for $11.25.

Tuscany Italian, a restaurant in Lexington, probably comes closest with Risotto con Vegetali (Italian sausage with rice and vegetables) for $11.95.

Most restaurants would charge $2ish for a glass of orange juice.

I've made my point.

Oh, a subpoint ... fresh fruits and vegetables are a lot cheaper than processed ones.  Further, making one's own pizza and other such items is cheaper than buying it.  A box of 18 Bagel Bites cost about $4, whereas I bought three apples today for $3.44.

Again, the point is simple.  Eating healthy, making your own food, is cheaper than eating out or eating something fried (which you usually will only get eating out).

Life in the icebox

I've been in the W&M Curriculum and Instruction program for eight weeks now, so I suppose it's time for me to write an update about what I've been doing.  I've been busy, obviously, but that's nothing new.  That seems to be what I write about whenever I do a "life update."  My weekly schedule consists of 16 hours of class, 10-15+ hours at my graduate assistantship (depending on the week), who knows how many hours of homework, and 3-5ish hours of prep work for my impending volunteer staff work with InterVarsity.

I have entitled this entry "Life in the icebox" because the 30+ hours I spend on campus each week are spent in Jones Hall and Morton Hall, where W&M campus staff have seen fit to set the thermostat at sub-70 degree levels.  At least, that's how it feels to me.  I've been bringing socks and zip-up sweaters to class/work so that I stay warm.  :)

My schedule in June was a bit more unpredictable, but my schedule for July is standard: work MWF for 5-8 hours, class TR for 8 hours.  Our class blocks are 4 hours long.  I had been dreading this length of time for class, but now it doesn't seem so bad.  It will be interesting to go back to 1 1/2 hour classes in the fall.  I've been learning a LOT about teaching, curriculum, instruction, assessment, tracking, learning styles, educational psychology, educational research, multidisciplinary learning, ... clearly, there's a lot for beginning teachers to learn.

I was very excited about the program at the end of June, but a bit overwhelmed because I had started to realize how much more I need to learn before I start teaching.  Now, almost done with summer courses, I am still very excited and I feel more confident in my abilities.  We have been spending more time thinking about how to teach in terms of curriculum, instruction, and assessment this term, taking into account learning styles and developmental psychology, and I feel like I have a better grasp on what I am supposed to do as a teacher and different ways that I can do it.

I've been so blessed through other students in the program.  There are 44 of us total, 22 secondary education and 22 elementary education.  There are no men in elementary, and only 8 men in secondary.  So, there are a lot of women in the program, but that just matches the contemporary trend in education.  One of the secondary women, Cati, has been having us over for the past few weeks for dinner to just unwind and enjoy one another's company.  Last week there were about ten of us and this week there were about fifteen to twenty!  We're expecting more next week, and we're planning a BBQ.  :)  We all get along very well.

Work has been fun.  I've been working as a technical writer for the Technology Integration Program, mostly rewriting content for their Web site and writing papers that can be handed out at their events about how to use their various programs.  I'll post a link to these once they go up on the TIP Web site, at the end of the month.

Finally, IV.  I'm so excited that I can continue being involved in this ministry.  I have been so blessed by IV through GCF at W&L, going to Urbana, and going to winter camp, and it's wonderful to be able to give back and serve God through this ministry, even at another campus.  Marty, the W&M campus minister, and I have been meeting and talking about discipleship for the past two months and I'm really excited to get to know students this fall.

So, while life in the icebox is pretty cold, the people in the icebox are very warm and my work is fulfilling.  I can't wait to start classroom work in the fall!

Theological worldview?

I found this quiz to be very interesting, especially in light of the fact that I've been visiting a Methodist church in Williamsburg, haha, and I've never before really attended one.  Though, the description for Wesleyan theology here is pretty much accurate for me.  So I guess this is accurate?

I do find it funny that I'm 50% Roman Catholic and 50% Charismatic/Pentecostal.

What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God's grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavly by John Wesley and the Methodists. Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 96% Fundamentalist 82% Emergent/Postmodern 71% Neo orthodox 64% Reformed Evangelical 64% Roman Catholic 50% Charismatic/Pentecostal 50% Classical Liberal 39% Modern Liberal 29%

Something Brilliant -- published!

I waited a month before I wrote a post plugging "Maybe Not Today," but I'm too excited about my new story to wait.  "Something Brilliant," a story that I started writing last December, went to validation last night and came through sometime this morning!  I already have two reviews on it, which makes me very happy.  This is my first Ron/Hermione story in a very long time, probably since junior year of high school.  It was SO very much fun getting back into writing them.  R/H was what got me into writing fanfiction in the first place.

"Something Brilliant" came out of a J.K. Rowling interview in which she reveals that Ron's finest moment was when he found out that he was on a chocolate frog card.  I took that idea and ran with it.  ;)  The summary of the story is thus: Ron wants to ask Hermione to marry him, but he's just a bit nervous and unable to think of the best way to do it.  Will Harry, Ginny, and some chocolate frogs show him how?

Clearly, I had a lot of fun writing this story.  It's probably one of my more humorous stories.  On another note, "Maybe Not Today" is now hosted at Checkmated.com, and I'm working on getting "Heart of Gold" (and maybe some of my other stories) hosted at a few other fanfiction Web sites as well.

If you're looking for anything else to read, check out St. Margarets' new story "Beautiful Boy (He Has His Mother's Eyes)" and "Unless We Believe" by MissDaisy1.  Two of my new recent favorites.