Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Curious?
I know I'm older than most in the class, I know I've lived in every area of the United States, I also know that any good dictionary supplies the phonetic breakdown of the words in the language. When growing up, from preschool through the fifth grade, a huge 10 to 12 inch thick dictionary was present in the classroom and required to be used by the students. We expanded our vocabulary and picked extra spelling words. The question becomes; why don't todays teachers review the successes of the past, research the methods, include them in best practice, and include them in the classroom.
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I remember challenging myself as a young, avide reader/learner, the dictionary was one of my past times. My fifth grade teacher challenged us to pick a word that interested you and use it in a sentences a few times during the day. This really helped me expand my vocabulary. I wish teacher's would use this teaching tool more often.
ReplyDeleteI think that teacher's trying to expand on a child's own creativity may have been the original goal and not focusing so much on just routine in the classroom. And for many this was a new way of communicating and advancing. However, I think maybe the original goal has been forgotten and now (not all) but teachers are just trying to get through the day with all the "paperwork" they are suppose to make sure they cover. The idea, I feel, has been taken away from the individual students and the focus has been put on how much paperwork can be checked off. I do feel that there is a shift that is being placed and put back on some of the basics as we have high schoolers who are graduating and still not able to achieve some of the basic skills of education.
ReplyDeleteI feel teachers are too busy teaching the "test" that they do not have time to teach anything else.
ReplyDeleteI wish this was more important in the classrooms today. I hope if I do teach one day, that I pass this importance on to my students.
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