First, I would have to say that reading any posts that relates to using metaphors seems to be challenging to me. Even after reading this post several times, I still have trouble trying to understand what point is being made, so here's my thoughts. As I see it, using metaphors in this situation has no relevance. Since I am a result oriented person, I would have to agree with the concept that it would be simple enough just to teach these students how to solve for X. In this post, it was stated that the instructor wanted the students to understand that X was not just a number, but an independent variable which can be used in a variety of ways. I agree with this assessment, but I feel that if one can master the basic principles of how to solve for X, then they can also apply them to other life situations.
When a Child Hates Pencils
After getting a better understanding of what type of poster Mr. Johnson is, it forced me to try and think a little more outside the box. In my opinion, Mr. Johnson is trying to bring forth the issue of labeling children and lowering your expectations of them. In many school systems, by the time a child has reached second or third grade, it has been determined whether or not a child can be successful in school. In this post, he talks about how this child has basically given up before he ever begins. This is probably due to the fact that this child has been conditioned to the fact that he will probably fail anyway, so what's the point of trying. I think the main lesson that I learned from reading this post is the fact that Mr. Johnson did something different with the child to change the status quo. I feel like his approach was effective because it showed the child a different view, which was the fact that all is not lost and the fact that it's okay to give an effort because everything is not based on burping back information for a grade. Sounds familiar!
I Banned Pencils Today
After reading this post, here are my thoughts. I feel that Mr. Johnson is trying to make the point that there is more than one way for a child to learn, and I couldn't agree with him more. That's what made teaching my subject area so exciting, because my students were not just graded by what they wrote on paper, but also how they could apply what they learn to real life experiences. For example, while it was well and good that my students could recite all the measurements on a tape measure, I was more concerned whether or not they could actually take a piece of lumber and correctly mark off a measurement. If they could correctly do this, then that confirmed to me that they could apply what they learned to real life situations. While doing things the traditional way can be effective, we must also adapt to multiple and new ways of teaching because we all learn differently.
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