Comment

Comment by Gaetan Pappalardo on March 23, 2009 at 4:28pm

I'm reading Consider the Lobster and other essays (david foster wallace),The Lighning Thief (Riordan), and Teaching the Neglected R.

Comment by Barry Lane on March 23, 2009 at 4:12pm

Check out these 2 videos of Updike. His erudition is fun to watch juxtaposed with Murray's simple style of questioning.

Comment by Barry Lane on March 23, 2009 at 4:10pm

Comment by Barry Lane on March 23, 2009 at 4:09pm

Comment by Roland Goodbody on March 23, 2009 at 4:05pm

I'm currently reading The Centaur by John Updike, which, as it happens, is about a teacher, George Caldwell (or Chiron, the noblest and wisest of the centaurs), loved by most of his students despite his own estimation of himself as an abject failure. It's a quirky book, yet was apparently Updike's own favorite. Really a father and son story, of how the son ennobles the father by mythifying him. The father in the myth sacrifices his own immortality for the sake of his son Prometheus.

Comment by Barry Lane on March 23, 2009 at 4:04pm

Hey that would be a great entertainment video series for teachers or maybe a whole Teacher cable tv channel. Psychologists and learning theorists try to teach 7th graders. " Tonight theory hits practice once again as Dr Willingham gets superglued to his Herman miller Airon Chair once again... Will his lesson stick???"

Comment by Barry Lane on March 23, 2009 at 3:38pm

To me it is interesting how theories of how we learn don't always work as well in the classroom as they do in books and videos. I include my own work on writing as well.
I applaud your open mind and I am sure that Willingham is sincere ( if a maybe a little arrogant) in his attempt to get us to re-think learning styles. Too bad he isn't as open-minded as Syd the Cynic.

Comment by Barry Lane on March 23, 2009 at 3:07pm

He seems to be saying that individual learning styles don't exist, that we need to teach to all styles at once, that no one student can call themselves a kinesthetic learner etc. His evidence is purely in the scientific model. He gives them a simple test and checks their recall. He is the kind of teacher who gives quizs' and assumes they learned it if they get a high score. On this shallow evaluation foundation he builds this whole argument. If you assume that teaching is situational and that learning is not just simple recall I think he has got a harder argument. A kinesthetic learner will learn more if given a chance to move, but beyond that, their attitude towards learning will improve. Attitude means nothing to the egghead scientist but a lot to the motivating teacher....

Comment by Joy on March 23, 2009 at 11:38am

I'm reading Getting to Got It, by Betty K. Garner.

Comment by Barry Lane on March 23, 2009 at 10:35am

I have been reading Thomas Newkirk's book, Holding on to Good Ideas in a time of Bad Ones: Six Literacy Principles Worth Fighting For. Newkirk gives us a historical context to understand the mess we are in with No Child Left Behind. He argues that the "scientific, quantitative "voices in education have always been at odds with the humanistic teacher voices that see educational success as situational. Newkirk's book was an eye opener for me because it gives me a new language to look at the ongoing debate. What makes Newkirk a great scholar and this book a "must read" is that he questions his own biases and writes with both passion and intellectual vigor.

Over the last few years great teachers have been leaving the profession because they have not been able to teach anymore. If a few read this book they would have a language and a sense of history that might just give them a reason to fight on for "real teaching."

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