This link has been bookmarked by 10 people . It was first bookmarked on 28 Dec 2011, by Robert Hunking.
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16 Oct 12
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03 Jan 12
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If schools saw their worth not in how many kids got accepted to college, but in how many kids went on to live meaningful and engaged lives and who would point back to their school years as the point of relevancy that was the foundation of it all.
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If schools gauged themselves not by how many kids passed a test, but in how well it prepared those kids who did not pass the test to see themselves as worthy of respect and ready to take on the challenges of life.
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The kids who got something out of school come back and tell us how great we were. So there we are only getting feedback from the kids for whom the whole thing -- or at least something important in it -- worked. But when's the last time you heard back from any of those kids at the bottom of the rung? The quiet kids? The ones whose names you never could remember right?"
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And so we Scantron and five-paragraph essay our kids to death in the interest of getting them to achieve; but what is that elusive achievement? Is it a demonstrable improvement over time? (If so, why do we give grades based on summative assessments?) Is it an accumulation of honors? (If so, does that imply that most kids achieve nothing?) Is it an acceptance to the next level, the next school, the next diploma?
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Imagine if schools were judged not by how well students achieved while they were in school, but in how well they achieved once they left. If schools saw their worth not in how many kids got accepted to college, but in how many kids went on to live meaningful and engaged lives and who would point back to their school years as the point of relevancy that was the foundation of it all.
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If schools gauged themselves not by how many kids passed a test, but in how well it prepared those kids who did not pass the test to see themselves as worthy of respect and ready to take on the challenges of life. In fact, if schools worked to make entrepreneurs and role models of every kid who failed a standardized exam. If failure became a calling card for innovation.
If schools prided themselves on knowing the dreams of the quiet kids. If they prided themselves on helping those kids attain those dreams.
Dreams don't always fit into curricula. -
Neither do successful failures.
We need schools that recognize failure as being as much a matter of how well one fits into a prescribed system than how well one understands, well, much of anything really. -
And kids know we are blowing smoke when we give lip-service to how everyone should think outside-the-box and then we hand them a box and tell them that everything they've learned should fit back into it. And when they leave things outside-the-box we define them as failures.
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we live in a world comprised of systems of struggle and unanswerable questions. And we fail on a regular basis. And we need students who understand how to fail.
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31 Dec 11
jmarkey2TeachPaperless: If School Is Not Relevant - http://t.co/EJedLUzV
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30 Dec 11
Bret BiornstadGo Long! When I played the tight end position i football this cry was yelled from the quarterback on numerous occaisions. This posting challenges us to Go Long!; thinking about creating learning environments that create more than just good students, good tests takers, good test passers but good people.
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29 Dec 11
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28 Dec 11
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Ashley TanAnd kids know we are blowing smoke when we give lip-service to how everyone should think outside-the-box and then we hand them a box and tell them that everything they've learned should fit back into it. And when they leave things outside-the-box we defin
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