852 karma · joined July 16, 2021
For example, a day one teaser (these are 12 year olds) I liked to give was an 8 by 8 grid on the floor. They would get in groups and devise a way to move from a start to an end location. Then they would enact it, first me receiving their directions and later other students. I would of course take their directions a literally as possible, with them frequently getting exasperated ("that's not what I meant!").
We'd go from that to generalizing some rules and formulating steps. Once they had working rules, I'd add obstacles or change the start and end locations.
My goal with these was to develop the skill of seeing discrete, reusable steps, and how they mirror each other between problems. Learning loops and conditionals without ever writing coding, for example. Seeing the need for variables as storage, etc...
On that note I've been giving a lot of thought lately on how to develop curriculum which does a better job of teaching coding skills without necessarily needing code. Design thinking, but at a smaller scale, and later translatable to beginner level problem solving. Where kids get hung up is they often don't have a toolkit for this type of thinking, and building that up, while still making it interesting, is a challenge.
In China there are plenty of anti-vaxxers as well as a large number who would balk at anything implying being gay is biologically normal. They can't really form groups for this sort of thing, obviously, so you don't hear about it as much.
I'm currently in a transition period, seeing if changing course from my present occupation is possible. I did the same in my 20s and 30s without difficulty, though it gets harder as you age. If I can good, but if I can't, then it's still ok. Make the best of what's available and enjoy what you have.
Life is a long series of decisions and then you're dead. What you do doesn't really matter, even if the pressing weight of it right now says otherwise. Make life choices that won't pigeonhole you and be open to opportunities you may not expect.
As a longtime teacher, I don't think there are any solutions that can effectively reform existing educational institutions. I also don't think there are any solutions which can affect change which won't leave some group(s) disadvantaged.
One thing I'd like to see is a return to schools and districts which are allowed to operate with more autonomy and with budgets not tied to a local tax base, or federal money tied to test scores. I'd also like to see ways teachers and administrators can effectively remove repeat offenders from classes. Teachers are unable to create effective learning environments when they have no way maintain order, which seems to be the case in many schools. Let poor parenting blowback on the parents and maybe you'll get parents to take some responsibility.
All that said, I don't know if it'll change much. The culture in America doesn't respect the value of education, nor educators in the way it used to. Teach in Asia, Africa and even Europe and you'll see a palpable difference in the way people view education. As a teacher you're able to improve your craft as opposed to surviving day to day.
Cultivate wisdom so that you can live a good life and die without regrets is better to me than following your heart.
Do you mind me asking what you did after you left teaching?
- Is your list too long?
- Should you even make a list?
- Is the stress based on your own, possibly unhealthy, expectations.
Then they get to CS where anything code based requires them to tackle a novel situation and to actually think things through logically, and they panic. They're not used to breaking down larger problems into sensible parts or taking those and creating new solutions. Basically, they don't understand how to iterate on their design and slowly suss out an answer. I usually spend the first months teaching Python and showing them the process of problem solving with code, walking through my thinking each time and how I'd use my resources to find what I need.
The only subject which comes close is math, and it's far more obvious what methods to apply and the steps are better defined.
Now anyone can weigh in on anything that is presented online. You are no longer debating amongst your "clan" but amongst all clans, many of which won't really understand where you're coming from and will invariably disagree.