| Google has a policy that allows its employees to work on anything they want to for 20% of their time. Their employees get to work on anything that interests them, collaborate with other people, just to create new an innovative ideas. Some examples of programs that came out of this idea are Google Sky. A program that allows individuals to point their phones to the sky at night and the app will tell the person what they are looking at. Another idea that came out of this program is gmail itself. A few engineers just wanted to create an email system that worked better than anything that was out there. I believe this is an amazing way to instill creativity in their employees. It allows them to work on what they want to, and doesn't restrict Google's research to what ever the heads think it should be. It would be amazing to implement this kind of program in the classroom. I feel, learning would happen much more if the students were able to pick what they wanted to do. But as teachers, we are restricted to the standards that are mandated by the state, and are required to try to educate out students these standards. The idea of allowing the students to work on anything they want for 20% of their time is great, but finding ways to implement it in the classroom would be very difficult. We would have to have really open minded administrators to be able to make this kind of program to happen in our classroom. The theory is great, but actually making it work might be near impossible unless you have all the right factors in place. |
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After reading Chapter 1 and 2 in Wagner's "Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don't Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need--and What We Can Do about It", I feel it is true that teachers, even the best ones, have a certain expectation to "teach to the test". Many teachers would like to be able to provide a more student centered, discovery type classroom, but with the required standards, it is hard for the teachers to justify the time put into the discovery lesson with the time it takes to do direct instruction. I am a firm believer that students learn more by doing, rather than being told the answer. We do produce bright students who are able to take a multiple choice test, but cannot critically think through a problem. We need a way to adjust the standards, or a change to the way we assess them, so that teachers can feel like they have more wiggle room in their lessons, or at least give them more time to accomplish the goals of a inquiry, student centered classroom.
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May 2015
Kyle HutchinsTeacher Candidate at Cal State San Marcos. Currently doing clinical practice at Orange Glen High School in Escondido. Categories |