Week One

I totally agree with the Time article, “How to Bring our Schools out of the 20^th Century,” we read for class. If we want to give our students an authentic 21^st century education, we must update all aspects of our schools. Until I read the article, I really hadn’t thought how rigid school is, how little it has changed, or how stationary it truly is. There must be a compromise between the 20^th century concept of school and the 21^st century concept. The question is, however: What is that compromise? What does it involve?

I think the answer is the inclusion of technology, collaborative thinking, the elimination of standardized testing. The world is flat. We cannot afford to keep our students in the dark. They must know and understand technology. They must engage in collaborative thinking that acknowledges, accepts, and understands other cultures. They must also be tested in ways that are more authentic than standardized tests.

Overall, we need to rethink our schools. We need more rigorous graduation requirements, more languages in the classroom, more technology, more international mindedness, etc. The walls of our schools must stretch beyond the classrooms, beyond national borders, and into international territories. If we don’t make these changes, our students will not be ready to compete in an increasingly globalized world.

I chose to respond to Invitation to Reflection Section 1-4, which was about the different configurations of classroom seating.

1.     When I imagine my classroom, I see my students sitting in a configuration that allows for group collaboration and group discussion. Thus, my seating arrangement will most likely involve groupings of four or five students that allow discussion. (If you are looking in the book, that’s example d on page 7).

2.     This configuration was common in my school experience, but I certainly don’t think it was the most common configuration. Most teachers in my school had rows in their classrooms. In fact, almost all of my English teachers configured their classrooms into rows. I think this configuration communicated that the teacher was superior to the students—that he or she was more knowledgeable than the students. This configuration (a in the book) allowed for the teacher to be the most intellectually and physically active person in the classroom. It often meant that the teacher and the students were not equally engaged.

3.     If I were a teacher, I think I would be most comfortable with the configuration pictured in figure c (the circle), because all my students are on a level playing field. A circle configuration makes it nearly impossible for a student not to participate. In that sense, it takes some of the pressure off the teacher and places it upon the students. As a student, I was probably most comfortable with the configuration with the desks in rows, because it meant that the teacher had the focus and that I could put my head down and zone out if I wanted to.

4.     In my classroom, I see myself walking throughout the room, zig-zagging and circling, checking up on students. I don’t really see myself sitting all that often.

5.     My second choice of physical arrangement would be the configuration pictured in c (the circle). That change in configuration would definitely change my teaching method, because I would rely less upon student collaboration and more upon student discussion. Both styles hold merit, so in all likelihood, I would probably mix up the configuration depending upon the activity I had planned.

6.     In my classroom, I see my students actively engaged in small group discussion, collaborating on some sort of prompt that requires them to do some critical thinking. Naturally, I think my class design would change depending on the activity. So, if I were, let’s say, assigning my students an activity dealing with Native American narratives, loyalty in friendship, or slang in student writing, I would probably change the configuration to accommodate such an activity. The physical design would match the lesson design by mirroring it as best as I could manage.

7.     On a scale from most student centered to most teacher centered, I would put the configurations in this order:

.Most student centered: D, C, B, E, A : Most teacher centered.