Studio WISE…a mosaic of literacy, history, and creativity

Ok, I know that there are exceptions to any rule, but I want to give you food for thought based on research and my personal experiences. Some research shows that girls and boys flourish when they are taught in single-gendered schools. I attended an all-girl college, so I have some experience with getting to attend classes without having distractions from guys. (Read into that what you may.) Think about that.

Here I want to suggest some ways to help students, mainly boys, be more successful. Nothing you read will be rocket science, but maybe it will spark an interest in you to try a suggestion or two for an extended period of time to see the results.

On the whole, processing time for boys is longer, so they like to shift gears, so to speak, during activities. An alarm clock or cell phone alarm is a great tool to use as a reminder to change pace with students. Guys generally like movement and spacial stimulants, along with manipulatives… more than girls do. Boys typically need more motor-development. However, there are girls that enjoy these, too.

All students can benefit from flowcharts, diagrams, abstracts, and problem-solving activities, though boys perhaps more than girls. Girls are typically better readers and writers and learn verbal skills earlier, but, again, there are exceptions to this.

Many boys like competition and games during class. All-boy reading groups with opportunities to hold a nerf ball or clay ball while reading will prove successful with many. (All girl math groups are successful.)

Allowing students to work in pairs, drink water, have space to move, and more light in classrooms will help with learning, as well. Turning off the television, stepping away from the computer, and getting more active will stimulate the brain to encourage retention of material. Reducing the amount of sugar and caffeine intake will also help students with focus. (I have a teacher friend who took his son off all foods with dye in them and saw a world of difference in his son’s focus in class. )

On a side note, students, well actually many of us, have become de-sensitized to violence from all the television and movies we watch that show it over and over. Anything we can do to try to combat that will help, not only the students, but the world. We need to reboot as we look for ways to reach our young people, but as we do so, we need to realize that not all we used in the past should be ignored. Common sense and a good support system go a long way.

“People perish for lack of knowledge” is perhaps taken out of context from the Bible, but I think it fits ably here in this situation for this day. Once a teacher, always a teacher, so I have looked at this situation before our nation, that of teaching patriotism or not, as an educator, a parent, a grand parent, and a citizen of the best nation on the Earth. I conclude that teaching patriotism again is a must if we are to combat much of what is happening in the nation and around us.

Critical thinking is a buzz word for anyone in education today. We gear much of what we do in the classroom to encourage students to think, think, think in a critical way. We offer resources from different perspectives, we encourage discussion, and we write persuasive essays based on facts. Well, where have we missed it? Facts seem to be confused with feelings now. History seems confused with hatred of our forefathers rather than looking at these individuals as fallen human beings who made the best decisions with what they had at the time.

I recall so many times over my years of teaching my asking students to look at different characters, settings for the story being read, and theme while they were reading. Wanting them to base their answers to discussion questions on more than their opinions, I asked for thought to be put into the characters in context of their situation and settings (time period, place, etc). When I think about teaching patriotism, I think about the same thing. Stay with me.

Why are we allowing cherry-picking of information rather than taking history as a whole? Have textbooks and documents become so watered-down that students really have not been taught truth? Are colleges and universities purposefully gaslighting and censoring accurate information to fit a narrative that the USA was a failed experiment?

What is wrong with teaching our children that it is ok, and even admirable, to love our country, our flag, and our national anthem? People gave up lives around the world to come here to begin a new nation that I personally believe was based on Christian principles (based on research of documents and biographies ). No, they were not perfect people. No, I don’t understand why native Americans were pushed from their land. No, I don’t agree with slavery.

BUT, I do know that 1776 is a special date for America and that we live under a Constitution that has proven effective until, it seems, now. What has been the catalyst for this change? Have we as parents and educators not taught our children to love our land? Have we become so conditioned to political correctness that we are willing to accept the status quo when it comes to teaching true history?

I was always told that just because I didn’t believe something didn’t mean it wasn’t true. Well, I believe closing our ears, eyes, and minds to facts doesn’t change the fact that certain events happened and that certain people lived and died to form a more “perfect union.”

When determining whether to teach, or even talk about, patriotism today, my suggestion is to start at the beginning of our nation, even before it became a nation, and read, read , read every factual document we can find to remind us what is true. Think on those things. Look at individuals, study the settings and timelines in context, research major wars and the factual reasons for those wars. Take notes. Become a fanatic about history. Learn. Relearn.

Granted, if our forefathers had today’s perspective in the 18th century, they perhaps would’ve made some different decisions, but they did not have that. They were products of their times, just as we are. Remember the old adage, “Those who fail to remember history are bound to repeat it.” I think that is where we are today. On every hand, it seems that our historical foundation is being erased brick by brick or we might say “statue by statue,” and the Constitution is being treated like a college essay written for a moment only to be forgotten.

Start now. Determine to learn and share our history. Our children deserve the truth. Maybe you are called to write a textbook that is accurate, based on truth. Maybe you are considering homeschooling your children. Perhaps you have thought about starting a book club based on historical novels and documents. Whatever it is, do it. Start. We do not need to perish for lack of knowledge. In case you wonder where I stand, yes, patriotism needs to be taught by those who love our nation and those who have no agenda or narrative other than “training up a child in the way he should go.”

May God bless the USA.

I am concerned for our students and teachers during this stressful time of Covid 19. As an educator, I know how students lose some gains just from summer break. Now that many have been home learning for ten months, I can’t imagine the level of concern from the educators, parents, and children right now. No matter how hard most districts try to make the experience equitable, it just isn’t in my opinion. Students, regardless of race and ethnicity, come from different homes where resources are either abundant or limited. Wifi is easier to get in some areas than in others. Parents and children cannot help if they live out in the boondocks where using a cell phone is difficult, much less a computer that sometimes must be shared by multiple children.

This blog isn’t meant to depress you or to shed light on what I think would make it better, but it is meant to shed light on some ways that teachers, parents, and children can accelerate the learning…to learn more at a quicker rate…if the gains are going to happen. A year is a long time even with the onsite, at home, hybrid methods that are being used. Teachers that I know are working harder that ever. Most parents want to help, but sometimes have no idea how, or they have jobs that they need if they are going to have the money to provide for their families.

What I suggest here is research-based and tried by me and many other educators. Try as many strategies as you can and as often as you can to help your students and/or children recapture any learning that has been lost. Together we can do this.

Write, write, write.

Build self-confidence.

Take notes with a pen and paper, not with the computer.

Connect the learning with what is already known.

Read about a topic. Write about it. Watch or create a video about it. Listen to a podcast about it.

Say aloud the info you are learning. Read it. Write it. Say it.

Discuss it.

Role-play an event from history.

Make up a game to review the information.

Exercise since exercising improves memory.

Hydrate. Drink lots of water.

Get rest.

Teach the information to someone else like a sibling.

Take lots of field trips. If you can’t physically go places, the internet has virtual trips.

Cook. Have students do fractions by using recipes.

Have students measure rooms to see how much flooring would be needed. Use real life activities.

Keep a journal.

More to come…

Ok, I am not a scientist, but I am an educator with forty years of experience. I have seen thousands of children from all walks of life succeed and some struggle. That being said, I want to go on record proclaiming that keeping schools closed at this point in the COVID crisis is doing harm to all children, but more so to the children that are already behind and have spent their lives trying to catch up. Those children come from all backgrounds, especially from poor communities .

I watch the government right now making decisions that benefit no one, at least no one I know, and ignoring our children and teachers. Why should a union decide when a school is opened? What happened to making decisions based on science? Let’s look at the schools that have opened and their success. Yes, occasionally, there have been times schools have had to close again for a little while or have had pockets of students and teachers quarantine, but on the whole, success has prevailed.

The Bible says “people perish for lack of knowledge.” Almost an entire year has passed. Many children have committed suicide. Some children are living in horrific home environments. Some children are hungry. This does not make sense based on what “science” is really saying. What is the real reason that many of our children, our future, are still at home? Most of these children are trying, along with the educators and parents, to make the best of this awful situation, but I think it is a travesty that we are using children as pawns in a game that I, frankly, am sick of playing.

Open the schools. All the schools.