Comments for Mr. Gonzalez's Classroom

Comment on Awards, Grades and Competition by Pattyferry2002

Pattyferry2002 — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 23:56:00 +0000

Hi mr G!

Comment on Guest Post: Science that Sticks by Jenna Smith

Jenna Smith — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:33:00 +0000

Hi, I very much enjoyed this guest post. I have looked but cannot find anywhere to email educatorAl. If anyone sees this and can help me out please email me!

-Jenna

Comment on Awards, Grades and Competition by Alfonso (Al) Gonzalez

Alfonso (Al) Gonzalez — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 06:06:00 +0000

Here’s a good read too:
In schools, self-esteem boosting is losing favor to rigor, finer-tuned praise
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/in-schools-self-esteem-boosting-is-losing-favor-to-rigor-finer-tuned-praise/2012/01/11/gIQAXFnF1P_story.html

Makes a pretty good argument against giving every student an award. Now as for our lottery, kids still want that but they agree that to be most fair everyone’s name should be in the box to have an equal chance of winning a prize. That way we’re not giving lotto tickets as rewards for doing things they should be doing.

Comment on Awards, Grades and Competition by Alfonso (Al) Gonzalez

Alfonso (Al) Gonzalez — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 05:24:00 +0000

Just read this blog post titled, “The folly of artificial and arbitrary recognition.” http://www.joebower.org/2012/01/folly-of-artificial-and-arbitrary.html

Another example of how awards can harm students.

Comment on Innovative Schooling? by Alfonso (Al) Gonzalez

Alfonso (Al) Gonzalez — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 00:22:00 +0000

Sorry, Allan. What I meant was that I wasn’t sure if the Mine Field group was the one you were referring to. When you do a search for Mine Field on Facebook a lot of things come up, mostly music but also a book and an album. When I peeked at the Mind Field group I didn’t notice anything about education so I thought it was the wrong group.

Comment on Blogging and Tweeting – WA STEM Follow-Up by Heather

Heather — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 21:42:00 +0000

Hi!
My name is Heather and I work for Worth Ave. Group. We’re currently holding a contest for K-12 teachers to win grants for their schools, and iPads or iPods for their classrooms. If you’re interested in participating, feel free to email me or visit the link I’ve posted below.
Have a great day!
http://www.worthavegroup.com/giveaway/
voteforteachers@worthavegroup.com

Comment on Innovative Schooling? by Knowfreedomnow

Knowfreedomnow — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 03:57:00 +0000

Please elaborate in regards to not finding related subjects on mind field. I just started this conversation on Facebook. Still trying to weed out those post and people that are not there for this purpose. And finding those that are interested yet unaware. Please all input and engagement is needed. Silence solves nothing.

Comment on Awards, Grades and Competition by Whitney Meissner

Whitney Meissner — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 23:36:00 +0000

Hmmm… I’m wishing I’d taken more notes are journaled right after the faculty meeting. I remember sharing some closing remarks about what I heard, and I think it had to do with authentic student recognition.

I’m not necessarily opposed to student of the month, but I do wonder about having students “apply” for recognition, or holding SOM recognition in a different way than in front of the whole school.

I’ll try to recapture some of the thoughts from last week and post more soon. Thanks for keeping us thinking!

Comment on Innovative Schooling? by Alfonso (Al) Gonzalez

Alfonso (Al) Gonzalez — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:38:00 +0000

Thanks, Allan. The Free Range Schools look great! Wow. It’s nice to see those things happening and so close to where I am!

Looked up Mind Field on Facebook and found a lot of things that didn’t look like what you described.

Comment on Awards, Grades and Competition by Alfonso (Al) Gonzalez

Alfonso (Al) Gonzalez — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 01:47:00 +0000

Our students definitely need to be educated about GPA and high school and graduation requirements. I agree on that point. Based on what I’ve been reading and after watching the movie Race to Nowhere I think it’s best for us to revisit whether or not having our high achieving students focus so much on A’s and high test scores is in the best interest for a successful future. If their goal is college I think it’s important to know that a huge percentage of kids who are on honor roll and score high on standardized achievement tests need remediation in college because preparing them to do well on standardized tests in place to other things does NOT prepare them to be good at learning and to be successful in college. So I will still argue that offering rewards such as grades and certificates for high GPA makes our highest achieving students working for the A and for the 4.0 instead of learning how to write to learn and share, instead of learning how to interpret literature or to read for the joy of it, instead of learning how to use math, and instead of learning science indepth versus just surface learning. I would like to challenge us to focus on helping our kids learn things like reading, writing, history, math and science as well as art, physical education, music, music appreciation, health, leadership, and other things that aren’t “academic” and aren’t tested on standardized tests but have much value to them INSTEAD of forcing their focus on an average of averages. We are reducing our kids and all they do to numbers. A portfolio is so much more informative than a 2.5 GPA. And how do you compare a 4.0 to a 3.8? Are all our 3.0, 2.0, or 1.0 students failures? How do they grow and learn if we make failure a bad thing.

So this is really a whole different topic, sorry. I got off on a tangent. At least we are agreeing that monthly awards and student of the month are not the best way to recognize and celebrate our kids. Right? I still vote to have kids (the Eagle Time) running each assembly choose how they want to share what students can do regarding the theme or our Rachel’s Challenge work. Kids entertaining kids by sharing what they are passionate about sounds like a great show.

Here’s a link to a Harvard study showing how many US students need remediation when their enter college: http://www.uknow.gse.harvard.edu/leadership/LP101-407.html.

Just Google “students needing remediation in college” to find more examples.