Not the Ideal Students!

As a seasoned teacher, reading through Theory Based Principles of Learning really did not give me many new insights. It seems that in my earlier teaching years, these issues were easier to address. However in the last four years, the student body at MATC has changed significantly. 90% of incoming students are under prepared learners with almost non-existent study skills. They range in age from 22 to 49, are single parents, and are trying to shuffle school with jobs and child care. Their main goal is to finish courses quickly and in the easiest manner possible. Attendance is problematic, state curriculum demands are unreasonable, and the feeling of many of my math colleagues is that we are doing a job that should have been done during the first 12 years of our students’ schooling. Thus, we are presented with many issues to try to overcome.
We presently gather prior knowledge of our students through placement tests given day one of the courses we teach. These tests consist of a series of math problems from General Math through Intermediate Algebra. What is measured is tool use—not critical thinking or application of knowledge.
I believe it’s important to present learning objectives and goals, give feedback continuously, use criteria based rubrics, and use different forms of assessment. Since all instructors have a BlackBoard shell per each course they are teaching, these items can be posted using this learning system. All students also have an MATC gmail account which can be used for instant messaging and e-mail—a good way to get students involved with each other’s learning.
I am constantly harping at the other instructors to meet and go through the course outcome summaries for all of our courses—the courses are presently jam packed with topics and concepts. I look for a general agreement on what should be stressed and what can be touched on. Once this is done, I believe “mastery” is more attainable. I also truly believe that if only certain parts of the curriculum are stressed, there is more time for class discussions, student collaborating, and class projects. This would move the instructor into those different roles of synthesizer, moderator, challenger, and commentator vs constant lecturer.
One of the biggest problems I have encountered is my students’ inability to make connections—to synthesize. They memorize a series of facts and once the unit is over, they don’t see how the previous unit ties in with the new. Technology can be used as an aid in this area—blogs, web sites, applets, etc. I blame this on the frantic pace of our courses but also on the lack of study skills owned by my students.
So, as summer progresses, I will start jotting down new ideas and strategies and look forward to continuously learn.

We Need Balance!

Call me old fashioned—is face-to-face human contact and communication becoming a thing of the past? Is enjoying quiet times or a scenic walk through a park less important than checking text messages or answering a cell call while getting ready to tee off on the 4th hole? Are too many young adults missing out on “best human friends”, parental guidance, reading good books, playing Scrabble or Monopoly, going outside and participating in a baseball game or hopscotch, or just taking a walk because they have become emotionally dependent on online pals, on chat rooms, and now on idealistic avatars? Does getting hooked on playing video games enrich their lives? Life is about relationships and interacting and dealing with people--real people. Technology is here and its uses are ever expanding—but I believe that there needs to be balance in its use. Too much of anything is never good.

Thank You!!

Thank you Jim Kasum for helping me to educate myself on the copyright law! This is one of those items that I knew existed but was never quite sure about all that it involved. At MATC there are all sorts of documents hanging in the copying room about the copyright law but they all use lawyer jargon. Almost everything that has been communicated to me about this law has been in lawyer jargon--I don’t understand the words of lawyers! I now feel more confident about how to use internet sites in my classroom, about what the fine text at the bottom of many web pages means, about what I can copy, download, and upload. When students fail to buy textbooks and ask me to copy parts of the books for them “until they can buy it”, I now know that I am totally on the right and legal track by saying no. I have created online courses never really knowing that I own them and have rights! I have created many worksheets and projects and I am thrilled to know that they are totally and legally mine. Some people may read this and think, “Where have you been??” I think there are many people who are in the same boat that I WAS in. Thanks again!

Seek and You Shall Find?!?

How many times do people hear the statement, “You can find what you’re looking for on the web”. For many people the web, with its seemingly endless amount of information, is intimidating. They know what they want is on the web—but WHERE???? One of the topics covered in my latest class has been a very rewarding indeed. I have been introduced to Google Noodle and through time spent I have discovered a rich array of search engines that deal with specific types of searches. I have also learned about the difference between meta searchers, subject directories, gateways, and subject-specific databases. By using Boolean logic, quotation marks, + and – signs, lower case letters, the * which is the wildcard symbol, I have been able to narrow down my experimental searches and actually get the results I was looking for. All of the information I acquired in this lesson was invaluable and I intend to pass it on to my fellow instructors and to my students. After all, what good is information if you can’t find it????