Mark London: Have We Reached the End of the Amazon

Tonight I went to one of the Paideia lectures. I was required to go as part of my J-term trip when I will be going to Ecuador (including the Amazon), but I would have attended it anyways because it's a very interesting topic. Mark London spoke about how he had not had much formal science education and how he didn't even know much about the Amazon before he went there. He said he just wanted to do something out of the ordinary, and a trip to the rainforest was about as unordinary as he could think. When he arrived, he just kind of went with the flow and discovered that he had a passion for the forest. He then traveled back to the states and returned to work at his law firm. He told a friend who worked for the Chicago Sun-Times about his trip and his friend suggested they both go there and do a series for the newspaper. Mark thought this was a good idea. However, the Sun-Times wouldn't fund just any trip: it had to be with the formost expert on the Amazon. So, that's that Mark and his friend portrayed Mark as. Then, Mark went to the library and read every book on the Amazon or South America or Rainforests that he could find. He also taught himself Portugese. Then then were able to go on the trip and become famous, yadda yadda.

Actually, the yadda yadda stuff is quite interesting, but it would make this post far too long, so I just want to write a bit about Mark's informal education. Although he knew next to nothing about the Amazon, London realized he had a passion for it's future and that he could do something to make that future a bit brighter. He did this in what sounds like a relatively simple way: he educated himself. The complication is that he educated himself about everything that might pertain to it. I think that, as teachers, we will have students who have this kind of drive, but they will likely all differ in what moves them. As Woolfolk points out, we need to do what we can to support these interests. But, in some cases, they won't fit into our curriculum. This could happen by it not being "important enough" to teach about or, for us secondary teachers, it might not be in our subject area. In this case, I think it would be best if we could somehow incorporate our student's passions into our class. An English teacher could let the students choose what their argumentative research paper is about, or a History teacher could have the students do projects in which they could learn more about thier passions. We will have the opportunity to show our students that interests can span across subject lines.

October 13th Panel

So this post is a bit delayed, but I want to make it anyways. On October 13th, two administrators, one from the Decorah High School and one from the Decorah Middle School, came to talk to our class. I really thought they had interesting perspectives to communicate and I'm glad they came. I especially liked how they described "good teaching." Here are some things they said good teaching was: kids actively involved in class and know what they are learning; teachers facilitators, and are intentional and preplanned about what they are doing; teaching is about reaching all learners, not trying to fit students to bell curves; teachers are centered on the concepts of differentiation and individualism; and a connection with the kids-kids must know that the teachers care about them.

When we become teachers, we will need to know how to work with the administration, so I am glad that we had a chance to get to know the kinds of views an administrator would have. I was actually kind of surprised that they did not call No Child Left Behind bad. However, they didn't seem to wholeheartedly support it either. I am guessing that their view is that since NCLB is here and we need to comply with it, there is no use dissing it. But they would probably appreciate some changes to it.

Educational Metaphor

Education means something different to everyone. It is one of those things where words often don't truly express your views. This is a case where a metaphor-a picture, for example-can explain views and thoughts. I connected my metaphor for the Luther Education Department's five-part conceptual framework with one of my favorite pastimes: being outdoors.

Firstly, Luther's strong belief in the liberal arts is represented in my picture in the fact that being in the wild requires much more knowledge than how to set up a tent. It requires knowledge of terrain, water systems, weather patterns, animal behavior, and plant characteristics, just to name a few.

The Education Department's second goal is to develop "knowledge, abilities, and dispositions necessary for quality teaching and learning." This relates to being outdoors because not only do you need to know, be able to do, and possess expedient qualities, but you must be able to adapt and learn as you go. If you are static in everything and never learn, then new knowledge, abilities, and dispositions can never be acquired.

The third goal of Luther's Education Department is to have its students demonstrate skills that show they will be a competent teacher and will be competent in their vocational choices. When one goes camping, he or she needs to know how their skills relate to what they are doing-it is no good going into the wild full aware that what you know will not get you through the situations you will face.

Fourthly, the Education Department desires to provide students with experiences with "diverse populations," which will ultimately provide teachers with experiences that reflect the modern classroom. This is represented in my metaphor by all the different ecosystems. If it is good to know how to be in one environment, knowing how to be in any that may be encountered is invaluable.

The last goal of the Education Department is to develop "ethical, reflictive and critical thinking" All people who are taught about the outdoors are told the Leave No Trace principles of outdoor ethics. Thus, the individual who is hiking has certain ethical knowledge on how to treat nature in order to preserve its pristine beauty.

Young, Gay, and Murdered

The article we read about Larry King was very applicable to an educational psychology class. As teachers, one of our roles will be to "read" students and try to determine what they are going through. We definitely have to be empathetic and understand what is going on in their lives-we can't just teach our material and forget about the needs of our students. I'm definitely not saying that Larry's teachers were not watching, because they had spoken with both him and with Brandon about their conflicts. I am just pointing out that, even though it will be a difficult task, we need to try to understand what is going on in the lives of our students. We must recognize not only how they are responding to the subject matter, but also how they are responding to others and how others are responding to them. There is also a fine line to tread, though. You don't want to seem like you are singling a student out because this could label them with a social stigma. It's almost like you have to be involved with everyone to show the students you care, but you also have to be a little more involved in the lives of someone without them or anyone else noticing. This will be a tough task.