January 17

For the Writing into the Day, we responded to a quote by Paulo Freire and discussed his concept of the "banking" model of education.  We defined this model in the following ways:

• It's a "repeat after me" model.
• Students get the information, regurgitate it on a test and forget it.  It's a "cram, cram, cram" method.
• Students memorize without thinking about or applying the information.
• Students do not have their own opinions, interest or investment in the information.
• Students learn the information only to learn it.
• Education is a big herd of sheep.  Teachers are told what to teach so students learn only what the system wants to be taught.  It's black and white; no other path is offered.
• In some classes (like Math or Physics), there is only so much creativity a person can have, so the "banking" model isn't as bad.

We also talked about teachers and what "good" teachers do:

• Teachers can make a subject interesting even if students do not completely understand the subject.
• Teachers contribute a lot to the learning environment.
• Students can tell when teachers don't care about what his/her students think.
• "Good" teachers are both entertaining and effective.  They push their students.  They are interested in their students.  They are able to teach what the students are there to learn.  With "good" teachers, students take away more than just what's on the curriculum. 
• The purpose of teaching is to get the message across to students.

Then, we discussed the expectations and due dates for the Exploratory Proposal (first draft due February 7 for workshop; second draft due on February 14).  Next, we watched "Is Education Killing Creativity?" - a TedTalks video (minutes: 9:00-20:00).  We discussed the video in partners, concentrating on questions about whether school is really killing creativity and the kinds of people that school produces.  Finally, we used the "Dialogic Journal" handout to annotate the article, "Keeping Creativity in Schools."

Homework: 

• Finish the dialogic journal for "Keeping Creativity in Schools."  You do not need to post it on your blog.
• Read "No Child Left Behind Act 2001" and post a reading response on your blog.  Use the "Responding to Readings on Your Blog" handout that we discussed last class. You need to bring the article to class, but not the reading response.