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Surprise!

January 12th, 2010 by

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CRW_0001My top five list of MAT@USC surprises so far:

5. Rude awakening: The realization that I can actually be in the same class as someone born the year before I graduated from high school.

4. The seemingly insurmountable obstacles facing educators and students in underserved schools. On the list: deteriorating buildings with interiors that bear a startling resemblance to those of abandoned 19th century insane asylums; schools with a nurse on-staff only once a week; schools with only two or three computers for over 100 students; schools that can’t afford on-site cafeterias; and the list goes on. Watch Children in America’s Schools with Bill Moyers to see for yourself.

3. Another rude awakening: It’s not a good idea to attend online class discussions without caring about your appearance because your image appears onscreen alongside all your classmates. So, you can see yourself during the entire class! This can be especially disconcerting if you wake up, get the kids to school, finish a paper, and prepare for discussion without looking in the mirror before you go online.

2. How much I learned from the Framing Experience course. In four weeks I gained a solid understanding of the benefit of involving the community in education, the obstacles facing students and educators in underserved schools, and the issues facing the New Haven Public Schools. All of the above knowledge was constructed by working with peers, talking to educators, interviewing community-based organizations and writing papers. A powerful example the how effective teaching strategies grounded in the constructivist learning perspective can be.

1. How fascinated I am by Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of learning. Since studying his theory in the Application of Learning Theory to Classroom Practice course, I often find myself trying to mentally design sociocultural lesson plans. Strange? Yes, but also beneficial.

More next week. Until then…

Fight on!

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  • Anissa Fay

    Haha Cathy, #3 is SO true!

    Unfortunately, so is #4. We spend a lot of time familiarizing ourselves with the many devastating “Problems of Practice” that we will/do face as teachers. But we also explore some solutions!

  • cathycassar

    Anissa,

    Absolutely! Thanks for clarifying. After rereading my post, I realize it sounds as if I think that we only dwell on the problems. You are so right in saying that we explore solutions. In fact, that is what we've done for the past 12 weeks in our teaching theories and social context classes. I've especially found it fascinating to explore the underlying causes of “Problems of Practice” so that the solutions we create will be effective, and not simply “band-aids.”

  • cathycassar

    Anissa,

    Absolutely! Thanks for clarifying. After rereading my post, I realize it sounds as if I think that we only dwell on the problems. You are so right in saying that we explore solutions. In fact, that is what we've done for the past 12 weeks in our teaching theories and social context classes. I've especially found it fascinating to explore the underlying causes of “Problems of Practice” so that the solutions we create will be effective, and not simply “band-aids.”

  • Romell Peterson

    Then let the solutions began effectively immediatley in the most accurate way. This effort will comprise a progressive team continuity. Because rhetorical discourses are simply that. Without definitives that provide a clear guide to strong well planned directives stagnation becomes the peril of the day. It is at most expected and needed! who is the blame? This becomes irrelevant when real solutions are sought out and obtained. The seeker will always seek but the possesor must release. True solutions are always found when the informed informs the uninformed. That is teaching in a “nutshell” the passing of information in a form that can be informative and not deformed. There is a rarity to find any student that does not want to learn we just have to be creative enough to tap the vain of their heart so they can learn without restriction. most kids are waiting for the teacher and parents to unlock it then lock and load. I have never witness a kid say nothing when you ask them what do you want to be when you grow up. We who teach are bestowed with the grander and grace of cultivating a nation and all of us can do better and continue to grow. Every class was created around the need of a child or a standard. This is no different than medicines that address the sickness that ills our society and physical or mental state of being. The nature of teaching at best is to inform to motivate and to heal. Everything we learn becomes a solution to a problem.