Cathy Larson
  • Home
  • Resume
  • Writing Portfolio
  • Educational Blog

We Don't Need More STEM Majors

12/28/2015

0 Comments

 
The field and science of education can be considered a study in the art of the pendulum. If anyone works in education long enough, the same approaches, beliefs, techniques, and ideas will come back around -- albeit, recycled with a few new elements, a new name and updated packaging.

Let’s take the vocational classes of the 1960’s as an example. My parents had options of graduating high school having taken classes that trained them for a job. My mom took classes that prepared her to be a secretary. My dad didn’t take any, but could have learned to be a car mechanic or electrician. Their generation spent high school learning a trade, giving them the experience to get work right after graduation.

These classes became the ROP I knew in the 1980’s. I could get out of school early to work or attend a trade school. Instead, I opted to take advantage of the “get out of school early” option and left school at noon every day of my senior year to work at the local movie theater in the evenings. Not sure this was the ideal use of my ROP opportunity.
Then ten years ago, I was involved in CTE (Career Technical Education). The local schools and community colleges were receiving money to align core curriculum with predetermined career technical pathways, intended to give kids real world experience in the classroom. I wrote curriculum for English classes that embedded cross-curricular career units. Because of this program, students were exposed not only to the content, but to its application, allowing them to make more informed college and career choices. This was presented as a novel idea, given that we were mired in No Child Left Behind at the time and schools were focused on tests, test taking and rote memorization. But we all knew we were simply participating in the movement of the pendulum once again.

Today, with the advent of Common Core, the push now is to prepare students for life after high school. Apparently we haven’t done this before. Today we are calling these courses Pathways. Again, not a bad idea -- in fact, it’s been a great idea since 1776 and the founding of the United States when we began training future leaders through apprenticeships and females for the teaching profession. And it’s been a great idea ever since.

This time, however, the pendulum has swung a little too far for my taste. The concept of Pathways allows students to take a sequence of coursework during high school to connect a student’s interest to a post-graduation career or college degree. Again, not a bad idea. But, unfortunately, the Pathways favor science, technology, engineering and mathematics, with some business courses thrown in for good measure. The newly minted label is STEM. My argument lies in what’s glaringly absent from these courses -- where are the liberal arts options? The art? Music? Language? Law? Writing? Philosophy? History? Anthropology?

Where are the courses that create well-rounded citizens of the world?

When I think about the companies that are currently changing the world, I see companies that embrace not just technology, but also design, sociology and storytelling. Apple is Apple because of Steve Jobs’s obsession with design, touch, feel -- the beauty of the art and aesthetic of his products. Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook is what it is today because he understands humanity and its need to be social -- a social media empire as much psychology and sociology as it is technology. And let’s face it, Starbucks does make great coffee, but this coffee company isn’t what it is today because of a specially-engineered coffee maker. It is what it is because of the culture, the people, and the story created around the brand.

Just like great movies take more than just a camera engineer and video editor to become classics. They take well-integrated music, camera angles, scripts, nuance, and storytelling.

Do we really want to be a country that writes bad software code because our programmers don’t understand fluency and cohesion? Do we really want to be a country that simply manufactures great microchips, but offers nothing value added? Or do we want to be a country that drives innovation because of our creativity, ability to solve the world’s problems and critical thinking prowess?

I will argue every day that STEM is only half the equation -- that a solid, well-rounded liberal arts education in conjunction with STEM will give us a leading edge advantage as a country and our kids the leading edge advantage as world leaders and innovators.
​

The world of the 21st century is going to need more than just STEM -- it is going to need another pendulum swing.
I just hope it isn’t too late.

​
0 Comments

Is technology substituting or redefining?

12/14/2015

0 Comments

 
I and a small group of teachers from my school had an opportunity this past week to spend one day visiting a high school in San Diego County. As a teacher, being given an opportunity to visit another campus is a learning experience that forces me to rethink my practice, potentially transforming the learning and teaching in my classroom. What came out of this last visit for me was a question about my use of technology -- does it simply substitute what can be done with paper and pencil or does it redefine my classroom, allowing for teaching and learning inconceivable in a traditional model?

I’m guessing this question will percolate with me over the course of the next semester and find its way into the design of my upcoming lessons, but what does this mean for us as parents? How do we know our kids are getting the most from the technology in their classrooms? I don’t know about you, but with every school year, my own kids talk about all their new classroom gadgets, including Chromebooks and iPads and tablets. It sounds great, but what are the kids actually doing with all these tools?

I thought I’d introduce you to the SAMR model, developed by Dr. Ruben Puentedura, which provides a way for us to talk intelligently about technology implementation. The SAMR model outlines the increasing degrees of adoption, allowing for more meaningful uses of technology in teaching in order to move away from simply using technology for technology’s sake.

I hope this inspires us all to ask better questions of our educators, in turn, inspiring educators to want to experiment with technology and ask more of our kids.

S. Substitution. At its most basic level of implementation, technology is being used in the classroom as a direct tool substitute with no functional change in content, knowledge or instruction. In this level of adoption, if you walked into a classroom, you might see kids crafting an essay in a word processing program or students taking a multiple choice test by clicking a radio button in a testing program that displays the same test as the one being given in the classroom next door on a traditional bubble Scantron. Both of these tasks can be done the old-fashioned way -- the technology doesn’t add anything. It’s just a substitute.

A. Augmentation. The next level of technology sophistication acts as a direct tool substitute, but it also offers some functional improvement. Let’s take a look at those same two tasks: the essay and the test. With technology being used to augment, the student writing the essay could use the Internet to research MLA style, uncover evidence from current events, or even find textual support from online novels not available in hardcopy at the school. And for the exam, the students may take the multiple choice exam online, but be allowed two or three opportunities to get the right answer, providing immediate feedback, and a learning opportunity, for the students.

M. Modification. Now things start getting interesting. With modification, kids are learning from teachers who have significantly redesigned the tasks. When walking into this classroom, you will see the essay being written, designed and revised through online collaboration, blogs, discussion boards and video conferencing.  And the exams will be more project based -- demonstrations and applications of learned content. Rather than selecting A, B or C as a right answer, the technology will be used to build a virtual model of DNA, a chemical reaction, a computer program, or a 3D sculpture.

R. Redefinition. This is the classroom I want my kids to experience -- the one that allows for the creation of new tasks previously inconceivable in the traditional classroom. Herein lies the power of technology. The students in this classroom potentially work collaboratively with students from other parts of the world to research global challenges, get creative to present findings of their research via video that they’ve filmed and edited, and think critically about the impact of this issue on the local community, building partnerships, designing new clubs, developing their strengths, and networking for internships. This classroom no longer looks like “the essay and the test” as we’ve seen in the others. The learning, rather, is applicable to real world, designed to connect content from all their classes, and built to be relevant beyond the classroom.

A classroom redesigned by technology is the one that exposes our kids to the interconnectedness of knowledge. This is technology in the real world.  

​This is education redefined.
0 Comments

Are Our Kids Safe?

12/7/2015

0 Comments

 
In light of the tragic events in San Bernardino this week, I have been preoccupied by thoughts of safety on school campuses when untold violence -- at any moment -- threatens our community and children.

My thoughts took me back to the various Indiana schools I attended as a kid. I was educated both in one-room schoolhouses in rural farm country and sprawling campuses in a metropolitan city. And in each and every school, regardless the setting or location, the only threats I remember were the inevitable danger of the seesaw and whether or not I was going to be able to find the right school bus after school. And as best I can remember, the only fences were around the playgrounds, and those only existed, I’m guessing, to keep us in and not strangers out. They were installed to keep us safe from ourselves and our need to wander across busy streets.

In Indiana, we also had the luxury of being protected from outside influence and violence because of the weather. Our schools were all built as large buildings with interior classrooms and hallways. In the course of the school day, we didn’t venture outside unless the weather was cooperative enough for an outdoor PE class. Our cafeteria, gymnasium, band room, classrooms and lockers were all housed inside this one large building.

When I moved to California in the late 1980’s, my high school was quite a shock to this Hoosier. Classrooms that opened to the outside? A school completely surrounded by a locking fence? I quickly discovered that I wasn’t going to be able to easily sneak past the security guard who monitored the only opening to the student parking lot. Thinking back now, I see why the fence was a necessity. But again, was it to keep us in, rather than keep someone else out? It was a high school after all, so I’m guessing the fences were installed to protect us against our rebellious selves, lest an off-campus lunch turn quickly into a ditch day.

So here we are thirty years later, and I am saddened by our need to install fences for safety from others, and our need to conduct more than just earthquake and tornado drills. The drills on my campus now include Threat Levels 1, 2 and 3, procedures designed to protect us from everything from an event happening locally in the community across town to the most serious of on-campus violence -- and I am thankful that my district is working to build these procedures.

In the instant that violence occurs, however, I don’t know that these procedures will fully protect us. The moments are too instantaneous. Too bold. What we need, additionally, are security measures that enable us to prevent, secure and survive.

First and foremost -- prevention. We need to be able to identify outsiders. The only people on any campus should be those who attend and those who teach, all campus staff included. These people need to be identifiable at a glance. All students and staff should wear their student or staff ID’s in plain sight on a brightly colored lanyard. They all have ID’s, let’s put them to use. In one quick glance, anyone without this would raise an eyebrow, providing a first layer of protection. Also, let’s have drills when kids aren’t in a classroom. Schools have a tendency to run perfunctory drills during the same class or at the same time. But what happens when a threat comes during lunch or recess, when most everyone is outside and vulnerable? Let’s run drills during this time, intentionally teaching kids where to go and staff how to direct them. Should the kids run? Stop? Hide? Fight back? Does anyone even know? I imagine chaos. Training could help prevent the panic, potentially protecting all kids.

Second --  secure. I happen to work in a classroom that opens to the interior hallway of a building. Our teachers all have keys that allow us to lock the building’s exterior doors from the inside; however, we have no way to lock our classroom doors from inside. If a threat were already inside the building, we would have to go outside our room to lock the door -- not too safe if you ask me. And the windows in the classroom don’t open. Are they safety glass? Could we break them quickly if necessary to escape? Can they be covered in an instance to prevent someone from seeing inside while everyone is hiding? So I ask, do all our local school’s classrooms have the ability to lock safely from inside?

Third -- survive. Do we have numbers on the top of all buildings to help law enforcement in the sky quickly identify buildings for police on the ground? What is the emergency communication plan to parents and the community? If a shooter is on one of our campuses, I’m guessing the entire community will need to be put on alert. How does that happen? Additionally, should students be on their cell phones? Why or why not?   

I know these aren’t our only concerns with regard to terror threats; nevertheless, the more questions we ask, the stronger the emergency plan and the safer our kids.
​

The safer our kids, the more opportunity they have to worry about only those things that should worry a child -- the seesaw and the bus.
0 Comments

    Archives

    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014

    Categories

    All
    21st Century Classroom
    21st Century Curriculum
    College And Career
    Common Core
    Communication
    Culture
    Curriculum
    Equity
    Funding
    Fundraising
    Homework
    Instructional Minutes
    Inter District Transfers
    Inter-District Transfers
    Intervention
    Literacy
    Rigor
    Safety
    School Board
    School Calendar
    Stress
    Student Engagement
    Summer
    Summer Loss
    Teachers
    Technology In The Classroom
    Traffic
    Transparency
    Writing

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.