Advice for the middle school crowd

I wish there had been a John August when I was 14, or at least an easy way to contact professional screenwriters. In response to the question "What should a 14 year old do?"Mr. August provides a far from comprehensive guide for young, aspiring screenwriters, but his website contains many useful resources.

Looking at the texts he offers for downloading got me to thinking about E. D. Hirsch and his Core Knowledge Foundation. I remember all the hooplah and hype around the publication of Cultural Literacy. I started reading his book The Schools We Need and Why We Don't Have Them a couple of weeks ago. I agree with the concept of core knowledge. Combine this with Robert Marzano's research into Classroom Instruction That Works. The instructional strategy with the largest effect size is using similarities and differences. If we don't have a common reference point, or core knowledge, we will have a classroom full of different starting points.

The problem I have with Core Knowledge is who is determining what that core is. The shared common knowledge of a group of 3rd graders is different from that of 3rd grade teachers. Heck, the common knowledge of a group of new 3rd grade teachers is different from that of a group of 15 year veteran 3rd grade teachers. So what is the common knowledge that we should emphasize?

I agree that there are elements of Core Knoweldge that greatly contribute to being a functioning member of society. However, I also know that a teacher that can speak articulately about World of Warcraft guilds will find a way into connecting with the computer geek loner in the back of the classroom. I speak from experience.

When I look at my state reading standards I see sets of skills not specific great works. So will it matter if you use The Odyssey, a Harry Potter novel, or a movie like Pirates of The Carribean to teach elements of plot, character, and setting?

How familiar are you with the world and core knowledge of your students? Can you speak the language of a 14 year old?

That's One Big Twinkie

This is not how we learned science back in the day. The entire family is hooked on Mythbusters. Last week the New York Times asked: Is Mythbusters the Best Science Show on Television? Perhaps this is not the appropriate question. The questions should be: Why isn't science education as exciting as Mythbusters? Not every classroom teacher has the charismatic personality or sense of humor of a Jamie Hyneman or an Adam Savage. However I believe that the one thing they can attempt is to make science relevant to the lives of their students.

Coming of Age

At what point is it appropriate to begin monitoring your child's computer time?
Yesterday.

I just spent this weekend creating unique user accounts for the kids. This was done partially to keep them form accidentally causing havoc among the important files (i.e. songs purchased from iTunes, photos, work sutff, etc.) but mostly so I can gain some control over what they're donig. I installed Bumper Car. If you've got a Mac and kids this should be required. Now I feel much better. Even though they're usually on Nick Jr, Noggin, or Playhouse Disney, I just feel safer.

At least today I can pretty easily draw the line on what content is available to them. As they get older is this going to become more difficult? I'd love to shelter them from the world, but that's just going to frustrate me and them as they get older. So how do you create a safe knowledge of "This is the way the world is" without dangerous exposure. Every day I relate more and more to this dad.

Monday Morning Laugh - 32 Inevitable Truths

32 Inevitable Truths
(courtesy of blingblong!)
This is one of those things that's probably been circulating around via e-mail. In case it's an original work I wanted to be sure to provide proper attribution.

Speaking of attributions. I am curious how classroom teachers are adjusting to the increasing availability of sources for online reasearch, especially wikipedia. I'd love to hear how if you allow online research, what policies you have put in place for students to document proper attribution, and what you yourself do to deal with plagiarism.