Response to Glasser

greenspun.com : LUSENET : MEd Cohort III : One Thread

Coercion in the classroom happens. But students won't learn unless it makes sense to them. So I'm going to try to include my students in some decision in the classroom. For example, when courses change at the end of Semester I, my new classes will come up with the classroom rules - what will provide guidelines to ensure that everyone has a safe, comforatble environment conducive to learning ( - quality environments)? The change will be student input. By being more of a lead-manager, I hope they will do more quality work. They will work on problem solving. Glasser believes low quality work and problems, such as truancy and drop-out rates, would be eliminated if we swith from boss-manager to lead-manager.

We teachers need to develop the patience to let students do quality work - allow more time to do quality work. Too many students have to move on to new material without a good understanding of what's been covered. This happens in my field - English, especially grammar. If a student doesn't understand what a verb is, how can this student identify the direct object of a verb? But the structure of the school as it is now does not allow me to have separate slower and faster sections in the same classroom, especially when I teach six classes a day, seeing 130 to 160 students a day. I like his ideas, but how to make some to them work is difficult for me to envision.

Another idea from his book that sticks out in my mind is how we live our loves seeking fulfillment of one of the five basic needs: survival, love, power, fun, and freedom. Students feel "powerful" and have a sense of being part of a team (and work harder for that team) in extracurricular activites. What do cuts in these programs do to students?

His plan also includes no or little homework, self-evaluation, cooperative group work, natural consequences for behavior, and humor used to de-escalate disruptive situations. The Quality Scjhool seems pretty idealistic to me. Will it work for all students? The home environment palys a factor - are there family discussions taking place, for example. It seems easier to implement pices of the whole.

We

-- Anonymous, January 26, 1999


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