Some thoughts from students and teachers

From the classroom of Karl Fisch

This year I have learned why it is important to uphold respect in the classroom--respect between students and respect between the student and teacher . . .

I believe my teacher has done her best to respect us--to trust us that we can do things on our own . . .

If everyone taught in hopes of trying to make students think instead of telling them what to think, the world would be a better place.

It's one of my favorite classes because it is so innovative and personal. One assignment, called Philosophy books, gives us the opportunity to relate to any unit we've done in any media . . .

Last time, I played guitar and sang a song I wrote and it helped me to understand the Crucible better because I could relate a story based in the 1600s to my life.

I think it comes down to either presenting the facts and the rules and getting it over with, or infusing the students with a greater understanding of that era, idea, emotion, equation, etc.

How can you expect the students to create a rich, vast knowledge of many different subjects and make great connections to our world around us . . .

If the teachers don't have that themselves and can't present their own knowledge and connections to their students?

I feel more like my education is in my hands and I can do with it what I will. And I'm going to be honest; that's so much more appealing than "this is what I want for you to learn, and this is how you're going to learn it"

Quote from the comic strip Zits:

"High school isn't about education, it's about

endurance."

School exists for students, it's simply a fact, so when students are not informed as to the goal or point of being educated, half the value is lost. It simply becomes a lesson in direction-following as opposed to critical thinking skills we will need.

I personally think that there are two factors vital for learning. Allowing the students to discuss and test a new concept not only makes it more interesting, but it deepens our understanding . . .

This is regardless of subject. In algebra, all too often, people just learn the steps to solve an equation, but not why it works or why the equation does what it does, which is why it's forgotten quickly . . .

The other factor is relating the material to the real world. Just showing how some obscure chemistry principle applies to something we see every day makes it more accessible to students and more memorable, rather than just some letters we have to remember

When our teachers tell us why we are learning something, it makes us feel like we are actually accomplishing something for ourselves, which is a big motivator.

There is no way to teach everything we will need to know. But by designing our own learning, we have the opportunity to learn to adapt and how our minds work best, which is the best education we can be offered.

I'll tell you right now, we play the game. By now we are experts. We have found ways to pass homework checks without so much as looking at the book, we have become masters in the art of improvising . . .

But certain teachers have us figured out and make assignments that force us to understand, but also motivate us to learn.

Instead of torturing us with overheads and memorizing the vocab out of books, she engaged us in the learning . . . In a class like that, our learning is placed entirely on our shoulders . . .

In past years certain students might as well have been 2-dimensional cutouts because the only things I knew about them was how often they turned in their homework and how proficient they were in reading and writing . . .

When I look at them this year, however, I can see little pieces of the adults they're becoming. And I'm excited for their futures.

I feel like that now - everything I want to be as a teacher is connected to technology, improved feedback to kids, curriculum revision, daily interactions with colleagues and students, writing assignments, etc . . .

I think that I have become so bogged down in the day-to-day requirements of teaching that somehow I lost a bit of the big-picture focus I used to have.

I just looked at my blog for the semester. The students contributed approximately 450 posts in 10 weeks. Wow! This is even more impressive considering that blogging was completely optional!

I think I feel more attached to my students this year because I've taken more risks with them and made myself a little more vulnerable than usual . . . This year my students have seemed more like actual humans to me...

In the traditional class, when the teacher spends all the time at the board talking at us, I know that I can fall asleep for 20 minutes, make 3 paper airplanes and color a full notebook page with pencil in a single period and class will still go on the same ..

All I can say is that I've made a lot of paper airplanes in my educational career!

My Goal for you this year at Haverford….

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Good luck!Good luck!

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