Posts
"I think if you got rid of the pissing and moaning this site would be better. "
Anonymous clearly doesn't understand that the pissiest of the moaners (like myself) have flipped the public (and private) schools the bird and are homeschooling. The pissiest of the moaners also don't bother to blog about what we perceive to be a hopeless cause. I live in a district that recently lost its accreditation, and while the district stagnates in its failure the elected board and the appointed board fight over which board gets to control what. Compared to the fur that flies daily in this town on the subject of public education, KTM is a model of civilized, diplomatic discourse.
"We are all waiting for THE answers. I guess teachers and administrators are too stupid to figure it all out, so make sure you use really small words in your detailed plan."
In my district, it is very clear that the teachers and administrators ARE too stupid to figure it all out, and using small words wouldn't help since several of the major players barely speak comprehensible english. And if Anonymous is still waiting for the answers, he just hasn't been paying attention. KTM has been an invaluable resource for me, even (perhaps especially) as a homeschooler. Just because I homeschool doesn't mean I don't care about public education. I consider it one of the most important problems our society faces today, and I appreciate the honest, 'boots on the ground' reporting I find here. I visit every day, have ruthlessly plundered the archives, and daily (shamelessly) implement at my own kitchen table some of those 'nonexistent' posts on the 'nuts and bolts' of teaching not just math, but reading as well. Thanks to KTM, its a lot easier for me to save my child from people like Anonymous, who think I'm too stupid to know when I'm being snowed. Keep up the good work, KTM.
All I can say is: wow.
Ed seconds the emotion. After I gave him Crustiest's comment to read a couple of minutes ago, he said, "This is like a blurb on a book jacket." (Speaking of which....)
CotB describes my own experience writing and reading ktm, though my situation isn't dire (a district that's lost its accreditation) and I haven't been as ambitious as CotB (homeschooling), though in retrospect I wish I had been.
Nevertheless, I owe the fact that C. is still alive in accelerated math (or in any math, for that matter) to the collective wisdom and experience of ktm writers and commenters.
I also owe a portion of my own brand-new knowledge of math (Lesson 93, Saxon Algebra 2) to the folks here.
Beyond math, Ed and I have been able to supplement and enrich C's education in reading, vocabulary, spelling, and grammar thanks to the collective wisdom of ktm.
Lately ktm has helped me start to think seriously (as opposed to musing, that is...) about ways in which U.S. writing instruction might be improved. In this realm, I claim expertise. I began my worklife teaching freshman composition at the University of Iowa which was then - and is perhaps today, I don't know - thought to have one of the best freshman composition programs in the country. That's where I was taught how to teach writing.
I went on to teach freshman composition at Cal State Long Beach; then I taught college composition to science majors at UC Irvine.
My last teaching job was with the Johns Hopkins CTY program where I taught college composition to gifted middle schoolers. I used the workshop model the University of Iowa had developed - quite different from the Calkins model - and I thought, at the time, that it was terrifically successful.
I might still think so today. Not sure. (I do know that if I could enroll C. in a class like the one I taught, I'd do it in a heartbeat.)
My point is: ktm - the whole megillah that is ktm - is now helping me think about the teaching of writing in a way I couldn't - and wouldn't - do on my own. Some of you may remember Carolyn Johnston saying it was hard for her to teach math to her 6th grade son because math, for her, was "a seamless whole." She couldn't break it down for her son.
Carolyn said writing was probably a seamless whole for me, and I've come to realize that she was right. I can write, and I can probably do a good job teaching writing one-on-one by walking a student through the process of simply writing a paper with him. (Is that a good way to teach writing? Should we try to have all students co-write one or two book reports with a mentor? I don't know!)
But I can't disaggregate the global skill of writing into its component parts - not coherently. And I'm pretty sure I'd have a hard time diagnosing which areas of a student's writing beyond the obvious (spelling, grammar, punctuation) need work.
ktm is now helping me do that! (ktm and the precision teaching folks, whose various writings and websites I'll be plundering henceforth.)
Very cool.
So thank you, CotM, for taking the time to think out loud - and thanks everyone else, too.
...............................
Blogs turn 10 years old this year. ($)
Speaking of the Univeristy of Iowa, it looks like they're doing interesting things today, too.
I'm going to check it out.
3 comments:
KTM is an invaluable resource for parents. My learning disabled daughter tested advanced proficient on the state standardized math test after I worked with her using Saxon Math, and to a lesser extent, Kumon. I would not have chosen these programs if not for KTM.
KTM has given me very useful advice about teaching my daughter math and bringing her up to speed. If I'd left her education to our school district, it would have been a disaster. They were more interested in labeling than in remediating. I have gotten much better advice from KTM than from the "education experts."
My learning disabled daughter tested advanced proficient on the state standardized math test after I worked with her using Saxon Math, and to a lesser extent, Kumon.
This really is extraordinary.
Also: it's important for all of us to MULL.
The "radical" critique of LD has always been that a very large number of LD kids are actually "curriculum casualties" or "NBTs" - "never been taught."
That's what Morningside says, I believe.
I've seen that process in action, both here and in friends' homes.
When your kids is CONSTANTLY struggling in a class, and when you know there are kids who aren't struggling, you start thinking there's something wrong with your child.
I've done it myself; I've seen my friends do it.
It's hard to keep in mind that the fact that some kids aren't struggling in a class doesn't mean that "the class is right and your kid's brain is wrong."
Post a Comment