Hey everyone!
So recently I made a website where students can come together and share their voices and ideas about learning and our educational world. VISIT ME I also made a video WATCH ME
please check them out thank you!
Monday, October 22, 2012
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
pros and cons of standardized testing
Standardized testing can have many benefits but along with the benefits there comes some consequences as well. Every year in school you are required to take a standardized test or test. They can be really nerve racking and scary,not knowing how you will do or what will exactly be on the test. Standardized test have been a part of American education since the mis 1800s
Pros-
- Can help your state and school faculty have a better understanding of what you know as an individual.
- Helps yourself know what you need to work on harder
- Shows you what you need help in
- An over view of what you should know (standard)
- doing something not sitting around
- gets the brain thinking
- can write down problems that you do not get and then address it to the teacher
cons-
- Everyone learns at different rate
- The test doesn't show you what the entire state knows and doesn't know because every school teaches differently
- puts kids down
- Makes a stressful environment for kids
- spending time doing test like these and not spending time doing projects that they would actually encounter in their real life
- doesn't get students ready for the 'real' world
- some teachers teach differently so understanding a problem could be challenging
Being a student that has been taking these test for about 11-12 years of my life I feel like they are a waste of time, because again we begin to compete. Competing is everywhere today because we are trained to do so. Standardize testing is testing that no student wants to take but, we have no choice. We do what our state tells us to and have no other choice. We can't say we don't want to take it. If you miss that day you have to make it up.
What do you think?
To read more about standardized testing and the pros and cons of it ; click here
Friday, October 5, 2012
TO THE FUTURE BELIEVE ME. IT MATTERS HOW YOU'RE GOING TO FINISH.
"How to we embrace change instead of running from change? " - John Seely Brown
When things don't work out the way people want them to, some people run, and some people stay, and try again.
Im not here to run away from what can change. Notice the word CAN. We CAN change the way of learning, and this is what I am here for. I know that sometime in the future learning will change.
There will be conflict with this, and ideas will be shut down and made to seem like they do not matter.
But I choose to have my voice heard and it will be heard. Everyone has a voice, some do not choose to put it to its power.
When you go down, you get back up. If I fail I am not going to stay down, Im trying again and again. I am not going to stay down and wait for someone to comfort me.
We are all capable of doing most things by ourself. We have a world of technology that is open to most of us. USE IT. I would have never known that there was such a thing as a Passion Driven School, if I had never took Web 2.0 Foundations. (a class that we never use a piece of paper or pen, every things digital). We have a strict image of school drilled into our head. When I say think of a school, the first thing that will usually come to mind is the school we are in now. Strict bell schedule and sitting in class nearly half asleep. Boring lectures about nothing that really matters.
TRY
Is this to much to ask for? To try something new. Get out of our comfort zone, and try.
I'm not going to lie. Starting this PDS will be hard, and we probably will fail the first couple tries we take. This is why we need a group of people to start taking on this topic. To drive people to want to do this, explore different ways of learning. Encourage the different ways!
And this is what I am here to do.
RISE NOT FALL
Now if we took a average school and turned it into a PDS than it probably wouldn't go so well. We need to test our thoughts, before we put them in stone. Start off with a group of 10-15 kids of all high school grade levels and intelligence levels, and in a school year see where those kids have gone, see what they have done, and accomplished. Now look at those Freshman, who are moving on to be sophomores, where are they now?
PROBLEMS WE FACE, WILL MAKE OUR POWER STRONGER.
As I think about starting a PDS I have questions being asked to me, and statements being made, like kids should be well rounded for going into their "adult hood". Yes I agree, but we can come up with ways to make this work, without being crucially graded. Every problem that comes up, we can try to come up with an answer that makes our thoughts and ideas stronger.
FAVORITISM
Going through school I can tell you that some teachers grade using favoritism.
You can write the best paper in the world, and that one teacher who doesn't like you will give you a terrible grade. But that guy or girl over there who wrote a half page paper with spelling errors gets a better grade than you. You begin to think, why? You can ask questions all you want but sometimes you do not get the answers and we have to deal with it.
Passion Driven Learning has no time for favoritism, with no grading system and no credit requirements how could there be.
TO THE FUTURE BELIEVE ME. IT MATTERS HOW YOU'RE GOING TO FINISH.
Heres to the future of learning, may the smallest voices of the world make the greatest impact.
, may the students of the world make the greatest impacts.
When things don't work out the way people want them to, some people run, and some people stay, and try again.
Im not here to run away from what can change. Notice the word CAN. We CAN change the way of learning, and this is what I am here for. I know that sometime in the future learning will change.
There will be conflict with this, and ideas will be shut down and made to seem like they do not matter.
But I choose to have my voice heard and it will be heard. Everyone has a voice, some do not choose to put it to its power.
When you go down, you get back up. If I fail I am not going to stay down, Im trying again and again. I am not going to stay down and wait for someone to comfort me.
We are all capable of doing most things by ourself. We have a world of technology that is open to most of us. USE IT. I would have never known that there was such a thing as a Passion Driven School, if I had never took Web 2.0 Foundations. (a class that we never use a piece of paper or pen, every things digital). We have a strict image of school drilled into our head. When I say think of a school, the first thing that will usually come to mind is the school we are in now. Strict bell schedule and sitting in class nearly half asleep. Boring lectures about nothing that really matters.
TRY
Is this to much to ask for? To try something new. Get out of our comfort zone, and try.
I'm not going to lie. Starting this PDS will be hard, and we probably will fail the first couple tries we take. This is why we need a group of people to start taking on this topic. To drive people to want to do this, explore different ways of learning. Encourage the different ways!
And this is what I am here to do.
RISE NOT FALL
Now if we took a average school and turned it into a PDS than it probably wouldn't go so well. We need to test our thoughts, before we put them in stone. Start off with a group of 10-15 kids of all high school grade levels and intelligence levels, and in a school year see where those kids have gone, see what they have done, and accomplished. Now look at those Freshman, who are moving on to be sophomores, where are they now?
PROBLEMS WE FACE, WILL MAKE OUR POWER STRONGER.
As I think about starting a PDS I have questions being asked to me, and statements being made, like kids should be well rounded for going into their "adult hood". Yes I agree, but we can come up with ways to make this work, without being crucially graded. Every problem that comes up, we can try to come up with an answer that makes our thoughts and ideas stronger.
FAVORITISM
Going through school I can tell you that some teachers grade using favoritism.
You can write the best paper in the world, and that one teacher who doesn't like you will give you a terrible grade. But that guy or girl over there who wrote a half page paper with spelling errors gets a better grade than you. You begin to think, why? You can ask questions all you want but sometimes you do not get the answers and we have to deal with it.
Passion Driven Learning has no time for favoritism, with no grading system and no credit requirements how could there be.
TO THE FUTURE BELIEVE ME. IT MATTERS HOW YOU'RE GOING TO FINISH.
Heres to the future of learning, may the smallest voices of the world make the greatest impact.
, may the students of the world make the greatest impacts.
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
What is a Passion Driven School?
A Passion Driven School is different from a normal school. No grading, no test, no strict bell schedule or sitting in a boxed up room being lectured all day. And most importantly no need to compete.
We are taught to always compete. Who has the highest grades, who gets the best score on what test and who is the smartest. We need to stop competing and start focusing on what really matters.
Last week I was introduced to these wonderful people. They were unschooled. But they were smart, and very successful for 12 and 13 year olds. They are going around the country exploring and soon will make their way to South America. Both children are very talented in arts. Keep in mind that they have never been schooled. These kids can speak Spanish and English.. Think about that. How far the have come without school. Probably further than any kid that has failed, or dropped out because they were bored, or didn't care. (learn more about this fantastic family at http://www.lizettegreco.com/grecolaborativo/ )
At a Passion Driven School (PDS) you base your studies on what you want to do in life, what your passion is.
Now for me I really would like to study Marine Sciences, If I was in a PDS I think I would go further and more in depth than in my normal school. I would have a better understanding in how this study works.
Right now kids are learning things that they don't need to know in life. Sure someone is going to walk up to you on the side of the road and ask you what type of insect is on the ground. NO. No one is going to care. And that is the Issue no one cares about what they are learning in school. They think it is irrelevant to their life therefore they don't try.
Think about it. What would it be like? Yes it's a change, but it's a change that needs to happen.
We are taught to always compete. Who has the highest grades, who gets the best score on what test and who is the smartest. We need to stop competing and start focusing on what really matters.
Last week I was introduced to these wonderful people. They were unschooled. But they were smart, and very successful for 12 and 13 year olds. They are going around the country exploring and soon will make their way to South America. Both children are very talented in arts. Keep in mind that they have never been schooled. These kids can speak Spanish and English.. Think about that. How far the have come without school. Probably further than any kid that has failed, or dropped out because they were bored, or didn't care. (learn more about this fantastic family at http://www.lizettegreco.com/grecolaborativo/ )
At a Passion Driven School (PDS) you base your studies on what you want to do in life, what your passion is.
Now for me I really would like to study Marine Sciences, If I was in a PDS I think I would go further and more in depth than in my normal school. I would have a better understanding in how this study works.
Right now kids are learning things that they don't need to know in life. Sure someone is going to walk up to you on the side of the road and ask you what type of insect is on the ground. NO. No one is going to care. And that is the Issue no one cares about what they are learning in school. They think it is irrelevant to their life therefore they don't try.
Think about it. What would it be like? Yes it's a change, but it's a change that needs to happen.
“Passion is one of the most powerful
engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put
your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active,
be energetic and faithful, and you will accomplish your object. Nothing
great was ever achieved without passion.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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