Life Lesson Lecture

My economics professor gave us a "life lesson" lecture today in class instead of a regular lecture. He said it would be about some of the things he wished he had known at our age. I think it was very insightful and a good speech for anyone to hear, regardless of age. It was based on the “human capacities” that Marshall Gregory had identified:

Imagination
Introspection - check list of virtues, too much sensory input
Reason
Language - English class, theater
Morality/Ethics
Aesthetics - love of knowledge, pleasure in beauty
Sociability
Physicality - maintaining alertness, controlling impulses, mind and body

I think this would be a good workshop topic.

Mommy and Me/Baby Weight

I think a great program would be a combined Mommy and Me and Baby-Weight-Burning class. Half an hour would be spent on Mommy and Me activities, and the other half would be spend doing a low-impact workout that helps burn baby fat. During the Mommy and Me portion of the class, either the instructor or a nanny/babysitter would be in charge of watching the babies. The mothers would, of course, be close by, just in case.

Speaking

There also needs to be an emphasis on proper speaking in my school. Proper speaking and writing increases a student's chances of success. This can be done in speech, culture, or English classes.

Even at a top twenty university, my mythology professor today used the words "um" and "uh" 106 times...in 20 minutes. That's 5.3 times per minute or once every 11 seconds. Now, she is a fairly extreme case, but not as extreme as people might think. No person should use "um," "uh," "like," and other filler words regularly in their speech patterns. This is another part of proper speaking.

I think a good way to deal with that is to take off one point - especially at the middle school level - for every "um" or "like" or any other filler word used in a presentation. Train them young! I also think that a teacher should give the students comments (for example, on their rubric) about ending strong if they don't and being confident in what they're saying.

Other endeavors

I'm also interested in programs outside of the school I would like to start, so be on the lookout for those posts!

Three semesters?

Update as of 6/1/12:
I think I will not have three actual semesters but will have two normal semesters (possibly with the Spring one going until mid- to late June, like some European schools), and then there would be volunteer trips (and other kinds possibly, like leadership trips and such) in the summer. To my three semester idea:

PE classes

   I'm not actually liking anything I said about P.E. before (but it is all still there underneath the page break). Instead, I think students should not have a P.E. class but should have sports that are practiced for a few hours on Saturday, either at the varsity or JV level.

I must say I am not terribly interested in having the students compete with other schools though. I read an article about Finnish kids and why they are so smart, and it looks like Finnish schools take a lot of the bells and whistles out of school, including sports teams. I want sports teams, but I'm okay with not having them compete and possibly miss school or scheduled time.

Culture Classes

I envision culture classes to have a large focus on etiquette like a traditional finishing school. The first semester is the same for all students in their respective levels, but second semester, the students get to choose from a much more limited list of classes to pursue for the entire semester. These classes should work well for classes with both males and females. 

Schedule

  I have had conflicting views on the schedule recently (6/1/12). Below the page break are what I thought when this post was originally written, but I have since changed my mind a bit. Here is my new proposed schedule. It is based on the "block" schedule, where there are four classes every day (two before lunch, two after). Monday and Wednesday would have periods 1-4, Tuesday and Thursday would have periods 5-8, and Friday would alternate between 1-4 and 5-8. I am still debating if Friday classes should be half as long, all before lunch. At the moment I am thinking that will not happen.

1. English – all four years

2. Foreign language – all four years

3. Social studies – all four years

4. Experimental Sciences – have to do one year each of biology, chemistry, and physics and at least one of these has to get to the second year of it – can we have the first year be AP?

5. Math – all four years

6. Culture – all four years

7. Arts/PE – at least one year of each, three years total

8. Further Studies – at least three years total 

Students whose first language is not English can be placed in an English as a Second Language (ESL) class instead of a language other than English as his or her second language. This is only if the student's English needs improving for the student to excel in school and in the work force.

These classes are just numbered, not put in the order in which students would learn them during the day. All students would take all of these subjects all four years. Subjects 7 and 8, in this schedule, allow for students to go to a higher level in several classes if they are interested. 

Single-Sex Education

My position is that there should be a heavy emphasis [updated position below] on single-sex education within a coeducational structure. There is so much to be learned by simply interacting with students who are different, and there are huge differences between males and females. I also agree with the argument that coeducation can prepare heterosexual couples for future marriage. All of this being said, I do think it would be very difficult to have single-sex classes within a coeducational institution. There are obvious subjects, like health class, that could be made much more beneficial if taught to each gender separately, but I remember learning a lot from a guy friend by simply seeing his facial expressions (shock, horror) when we learned about the birds and the bees for the first time in the sixth grade.

Memory: The Effects of Violence on Children

  I did a project and presentation on violence and memory in children. The Prezi I made was (quite brilliantly, if you ask me) Harry Potter themed, which held the attention of my classmates much more than anything I could have said about my topic...ever. Not to say the topic was boring; in fact, it was rather fascinating to learn how much young children can actually remember. This project was important to me because it was the first time I was allowed to explore my interests in education. I must say that the actual delivery of the script was not terribly smooth because I was told at the last minute that I had a lot less time than I originally thought! However, my professor seemed impressed with my final project, so that was good. Here is a basic script for my presentation, containing my findings (and relating some of it to Harry Potter), some pictures of parts of my Prezi, and my works cited page.

Dialogue About Education and Violence

 For one of my education classes, I had to have a "dialogue" (not interview) with someone about education and violence. I talked with someone who went to the same high school as I did. His father was a police officer at our school. This assignment was important to me because it opened my eyes to a wide range of what "violence" actually is. One thing I need to stress is that violence is not just physical and verbal. It encompasses everything from racial stereotypes to security in schools. It looks like we end the conversation on a very somber note, but the conversation continued for a few minutes. My recording devices failed soon after the conversation, so I do not have the entire conversation.

Exam Questions

Exam and homework questions can be much more effective if they are related to the students.

A student in Atlanta, GA, being tested on supply and demand should get some questions that have to do with, for example, the mayor of Atlanta wanting more people to use the MARTA (a form of public transportation) and the different ways the mayor could make this happen.

Multi-Subject Classes

Courses to expose students to as many subjects as possible.

For example, a general social science class that introduces students to the basics of philosophy, anthropology, education, and many other classes.

http://www.gs.emory.edu/about/special.php?entity_id=93
Emory University has a class like this that introduces many topics in a freshman seminar. Each topic covered lasts for a week or two during the semester-long course.

Many of my classmates have no idea what subjects they are interested in (and could possibly pursue a career) because they have not been exposed to many of the subjects that are present in the real world.

Seating Groups

University or high-level/diverse classes:

• assigned into groups for the semester/period of time that have assigned groups of seats in the classroom 
• groups based on mixing up something diverse, like home cities for students who come from many different places, so the students are not resentful
• deterrent for coming in late because student would have to somewhat disrupt class to get to their seat instead of sneaking in and sitting in the back 
• reduces talking generally because the students are less likely to know those seated around them
• encourages students to get to know other students in the class 

The last two points somewhat contradict each other. My experience in a class like this was in an intro-level college class, so there was a lot of information to cover, so there was not much time for the students to socialize and get to know each other. However, the we had certain clicker quizzes that we could work on together, so there was a degree of getting to know each other. 

ICT Classes

Information and Communication Technology classes

British School of Amterdam

• http://www.britishschoolofamsterdam.nl/national_curriculum_key_stage_2.htm#ict In key stage 2, children are taught Information and Communication Technology, both as an individual subject and as part of the general curriculum. Each class has lessons in fully equipped ICT labs. Each child uses a variety of online and specific software through which he or she is taught skills including word-processing, communicating information through database and spreadsheet packages, multimedia applications, E-mail and Internet use. These skills are then transferred into the classroom, where children are encouraged to use ICT tools to enhance their work in other areas of the curriculum, for example research in history, using spreadsheets to solve Maths problems, presenting work in Literacy and making a database for a science topic. In Year Five and Six the children follow a scheme of work developed by Cambridge International Examinations Board. This assesses the children's capability across a range of applications including word processing, spreadsheets, image manipulation, databases, email and presentation. The children work at their own pace towards the Cambridge ICT Starters award (Next Steps), providing an excellent grounding for their work in key stage 3.

• Memorable: making working models of rides like ferris wheels and carousels 

Usefulness classes/seminars

Ex: how to balance a checkbook, buy a house, grocery shop "smart"

Parental Involvement

• A certain number of parents have a teacher representative (like professors who are advisors for students)
• Teacher webpage that has a parent section (for students' parents and parents the teachers represent)