My husband just coined a new term: “urban camp”. That’s what he is calling our apartment. Let me explain. For us, our main place for our belongings is our country dwelling. It’s where we have our roots. Our city dwelling is smaller and sparser. It’s like our urban camp. We have some kitchen tools to cook with, we have some of our clothes there, just enough to dress properly for our day jobs, a few pieces of reading materials, minimal channels on the tv, and a very nice bed. Even the dogs have their second set of dog bowls. Our city dwelling (urban camp) is where we go to exist during the week, the country dwelling is where we go to relax and live. We also have come up with a name for our country dwelling: Chateau-ed-teau (we are still working on just the right spelling of it). If you can’t figure out what this in reference to you might have never smacked your big toe on something in the middle of the night as often as my husband has…..
Month: <span>December 2006</span>
The National Council on Teacher Quality has a brochure that outlines what makes an effective teacher. What I like about this publication is that it looks at the research before it makes a general claim about what makes an effective teacher. I was also interested in their finding that teacher literacy was the most effective indicator of student acheivement. So, keep reading and writing and keep those kids reading and writing. It may feel like you are not making any gains in the education of your children but research shows that you are! And it doesn’t hurt to brush up on those ‘soft’ issues that make a great teacher such as the ones outlined on page 12 of the brochure.
I have just finished reading a biography of Leta Stetter Hollingworth, (“A Forgotten Voice” by Ann G. Kelin, Ed.D.) One of my favorite things to do is read or watch shows about influential people throughout history. The Biography Channel and the History Channel feed this hobby for me and many other people in our world.
What was so significant about Leta? First, you wouldn’t be drinking the same amount of caffeine in your Coke without her research back in 1911. Second, women may still be in the “stone ages” without her research and writings. Third, identification and education of the gifted child may not have the solid foundation that it has with her findings. Fourth, the field of Psychology may not be recognized as a professional field of study. She was the founder of the American Assoc. of Clinical Psychologists.
As a newly married woman in the early 1900’s, Leta couldn’t continue teaching after her and her husband moved to New York City from Valentine, Nebraska. Teachers could not be married and still teach, “because it was viewed women teachers as interchangeable and replaceable like pieces of machinery.” She had a graduate degree and several years experience before her move; after her move the public viewed her experience and knowledge as nonexistant. More important was her skills in birthing and raising children. Then her husband was awarded a research project from Coca Cola to find out if the levels of caffeine were harmful to human behavior. As a man who respected the individual’s achievement, he gave the study to his wife to conduct. She was meticulous and thorough, finding that there was no significant difference in human behavior. Caffeine was only a mild stimulate. From this success, she gained the respect of others and continued researching in several fields including differences in the sexes and intelligence through her 53 years of life.
At the time, there were several myths about sex differences between men and women like male brains weighed more than female brains,. Her research refuted many common myths of the day and forwarded the women’s movement by research rather than banter. She believed that you should not claim something unless you had the research to back you up.
She oversaw one of the first large-scale studies regarding the education of the gifted child. She looked at each child as an individual rather than a number or label as she conducted her studies. Her findings mirror most of the concepts we used today to teach the gifted. Namely, IQ was the most accurate and valid measure of intelligence but use of multiple methods were most effective, IQ’s of 130-180 occur in the top 1% of the population, schools should be obligated to make provisions for educating the gifted, funds should be made available for those students of profound giftedness to further their academics regardless of their family’s income level.
Despite all the progress made today in the field of educating the gifted, though, many states choose to educate their gifted populate through the use of programs that are enrichment based and meet only once or twice a week with a trained gifted teacher. Leta understood the social and emotional value of gifted students meeting frequently with their intellectual peers and would frown upon this practice if she were alive today.
Leta was a gifted, influential woman of the early 1900’s when it wasn’t acceptable to be one. She worked tirelessly to use her giftedness to better our world. She struggled without a mother (died in childbirth), a father who abandoned his family, an alcoholic step mother and the ideals of the day. She did have strong grandparents and a caring set of friends and teachers. Would she have been as effective without this background? That was a basis of a discussion my friends and I had on a recent trip. How many gifted individuals are ‘discarded’ because we as a society ignore them? Leta was one individual who rose above the circumstances. My opinion is that society loses about 75% of its gifted individuals because it ignores their existance. What about the child rummaging through the garbage heap for his/her existance because there was no adult to care for them? What about the child who must labor in the fields to help his/her family survive? What about the child who much suffer at the expense of an unstable parent?
We have much to do as a society to educate each child to their full potential. The ‘one-size-fits-all’ mantra needs to be adjusted to fit the capabilities of the individual. Under the No Child Left Behind program put forward by the Bush Administration, the education of the gifted child is ignored, and the education of the special needs child is misdiagnosed. Responsible law makers need to look at educating the child the way Leta Hollingworth did throughout her studies. A child is an individual with propensities, interests, capabilities and feelings. And law makers need to provide the means for the teacher to meet the needs of the individual child by providing resources, training, and support.
This post is to address Nancy’s blog recent blog entry (see Nancy’s link below). I wish I could share this book that I purchased at the recent TGAT conference with you, “Differentiation: Simplified, Realistic, and Effective – How to Challenge Advanced Potentials in Mixed-Ability Classrooms” by Bertie Kingore, PhD. I needed a clear and precise definition of what it means to have different things going on for the different learners in the classroom. Everyone talks “differentiation’ but no one tells you what it is. This book does it very clearly.
A determined teacher could use any number of Bertie’s suggestions for any age level with appropriate modifications. Not only did she outline and define 12 different methods of differentiation, she points out their strengths and lays out strategies to implement each in a simple way that is mostly handled/managed by the student. She gives you clear and concise forms and suggestions to manage your differentiated classroom. In addition to this book, I attended several other workshops about differentiation, one by Susan Winebrenner, another by a professor from UT Texas. All of them stressed that differentiation enables the learner and frees the instructor to truly assess the learner’s depth of understanding (not the topical learning.)
I’m eager to try some of what I see in this book. It was reassuring to find out that I had already tried some things during the four years that I taught. I did have some success and could immediately tell when something did not work. Now, I can go back and try the failures again using the information I’ve learned. Start small, work up.
I have this vision of a classroom with students taking full responsibility for their learning. They determine the level and quality of their work. Not many children know just how this can be done, however, a much older student already has a concept of their strengths, skills and interests. They need coaches, encouragers, resources and demonstration.
Think about it – are you always in the mood to paint with watercolors? or read a technically challenging book? or write an essay? or sew clothes? We should, as teachers, respect the fact that our students aren’t always in the mood for creating the product that we want. In some cases, we can allow them choice and still attain the goal of assessing their learning.
I’ll write more on this as I think it through for my particular situations. In the meantime, visit Bertie’s site at http://www.bertiekingore.com.