writer's blog block (blogck)
I sat down to this blog several times over the last few days, thinking I knew what I was going to say. It's not that I don't have ideas; it's that I have too many. Today I thought I would talk about what I've learned this week as a new Wyzant tutor.
I learned that I love working with elementary school kids. They are totally into learning, no matter what their test scores say. They love their teachers. They don't understand at all what political influence means nor do they care that much about grades. Honestly, I don' t think they have a competitive bone in their bodies in the early grades. That is when we could be capitalizing on community and peer learning; they are powerful "tools" in the classroom.
Back to tutoring, I had my first session with a college student this week and found that it was not as rewarding an experience but I did learn a lot. I learned that many students DO hire others to do their classwork for them. I got the feeling that this student was looking for that kind of service so I will not be continuing work with him.
I'm running my own nonprofit because I want to focus on what I think is important -- learning -- and not compromise my principles for the money I could certainly use. I need to always remember that.
There is a deeper message that I got from the college student and that is that we have put so many restrictions on learning and politicized it so much that students worry more about the grade than their own learning. Students feel a lot of pressure. They have to pass every test. If they just thought about it differently -- are they learning there at Joe Blow University? They're definitely paying a lot. Can they take the information they have acquired and apply it to their lives so they will be successful?" -- learning wouldn't be so stressful It's about the students, not the school. Does a school pass its students' test?
The school is there to help learners meet their goals. We do not put our kids through school so that the US has the best test scores compared to other countries in the world. We put them in school because we want them to have good happy lives. (To some of us, it's about getting a good job, but still, a good job often contributes to a good happy life.)
If we want positive change, it is going to take a dramatic shift in perspective.
I learned that I love working with elementary school kids. They are totally into learning, no matter what their test scores say. They love their teachers. They don't understand at all what political influence means nor do they care that much about grades. Honestly, I don' t think they have a competitive bone in their bodies in the early grades. That is when we could be capitalizing on community and peer learning; they are powerful "tools" in the classroom.
Back to tutoring, I had my first session with a college student this week and found that it was not as rewarding an experience but I did learn a lot. I learned that many students DO hire others to do their classwork for them. I got the feeling that this student was looking for that kind of service so I will not be continuing work with him.
I'm running my own nonprofit because I want to focus on what I think is important -- learning -- and not compromise my principles for the money I could certainly use. I need to always remember that.
There is a deeper message that I got from the college student and that is that we have put so many restrictions on learning and politicized it so much that students worry more about the grade than their own learning. Students feel a lot of pressure. They have to pass every test. If they just thought about it differently -- are they learning there at Joe Blow University? They're definitely paying a lot. Can they take the information they have acquired and apply it to their lives so they will be successful?" -- learning wouldn't be so stressful It's about the students, not the school. Does a school pass its students' test?
The school is there to help learners meet their goals. We do not put our kids through school so that the US has the best test scores compared to other countries in the world. We put them in school because we want them to have good happy lives. (To some of us, it's about getting a good job, but still, a good job often contributes to a good happy life.)
If we want positive change, it is going to take a dramatic shift in perspective.
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