C4T Summary #1

Comment One

In my first C4T assignment I was assigned to Michael Keachele, a teacher from Michigan. Kaechele teaches Social Studies in problem based learning high school. In his blog “Concrete Classroom” he says he gives his ramblings about whatever is on his mind about education.

In the first post I read from Michael Keachele “I hate standardized testing so why am I choosing to start the year with a test on standards” he discussed the problem with Michigan’s state standards. Keachele was lucky enough to have been with the same students for three years in a row and because of that he realized there was a great deal of information that was being taught and retaught each year, an overlap if you will. Keachele decided that since there was such an overlap of information being taught he could speed through the things the students already knew about and spend more time on the things they were interested in and were less familiar with.

In my comment to Keachele I expressed my amazement with this approach to teaching. It is unlike anything I have ever heard of, yet I was interested to see how things would go. I mentioned that I have several friends who teach here in Alabama who complain about an overlap of state standards as well, I told him I would be interested in seeing if they too could benefit from this type of teaching. Keachele replied to my comment letting me know he will be posting his progress/struggles throughout the year and I will most certainly be checking in on how this goes.

Comment 2

In the second post I read from Michael Keachele “All kids are born geniuses” Keachele reflects on an interview he watched with Michio Kaku. In the interview Kaku says “all children are born scientist” he says we are born with the curiosity of where the stars come from, why the sky is blue, and what makes the sun rise and then we enter the danger years (middle and high school) and our curiosity is crushed killing our interest in science.

Keachele reflects on this interview saying we must stop this awful trend. We must stop making science a memory subject and making it more fun. He says we need to stop planning rigged labs that we as teachers know the outcome to, but plan activities that will allow students to apply the scientific method to problems/issues they actually care about.

In my comment back to Keachele I thanked him for opening my eyes to this problem. I told him about myself and how I can see that I personally lost interest in science because of these same reasons. I lost my curiosity. I told Keachele that it was my goal as a future educator to apply these ideas when teaching and do all I can to never squish my student curiosity but to do all I can to light a fire underneath it and watch it burn out of control