Copyright Law

I will refrain from linking the videos we watched in class regarding copyright law, suffice it to say that they were horrendous, painful to watch.

I understand that copyright is and important thing, and that people deserve to make money from the work they do, but I find it hard to take it seriously. I generally rest easy in the fact that good people, who do not have malicious intent to do not face punishment for copyright violation.

If the laws were less confusing, it would be easier to be mindful of them. For example, you can show your class a video of a program you taped from television, but only if it's less than a month old. Now come on, if it's a good video, and the class learns from it, why can't I show it again next year? The truth is, I will.

I have no intention of stealing anyone's work, or distributing materials that I know I should not, but I do intend to continue with the "teacher's policy" of beg, borrow, and steal (but cite). I think the TEACH Act does a decent job of placing protections for teacher's to use material if they are just trying to help kids learn. Overall, I'm not to concerned, but if I have doubts about the legality of my use, I will reference the TEACH Act.

Assessment

Most people are familiar with the same old routine that takes place in too many math classrooms. You lecture on a section, students do worksheets on the section, students turn in homework from the problems at the end of the section, you repeat for all the sections in the chapter, at the end of the chapter you give the chapter test that came with the book, and deal out grades which are more or less a bell curve. This unitary instruction works well for some students, but for most it is miserably deficient- in fact it is the reason why so many people openly say "I hate math." The effective math classroom needs to incorporate a variety of differentiated learning activities, and a variety of assessments. High quality assessment occurs at all phases of learning- exploration, concept development, and concept application. It is also valid and fair. This means that the assessment provides a true picture of student mastery, and students are not punished for cultural or linguistic differences, or other qualities which have no impact on mastery.

Student Video Projects

Students in this video are working in small groups to produce an educational video regarding environmental health. The teachers are collaborating across contents, and the technology facilitates authenticity for the students. Students have an opportunity to apply their newly acquired powers of persuasion to interesting extensions of health class. The opportunity to take charge of their learning and explore the world while creating something personal and meaningful is wonderful. I am very impressed by this lesson, especially the cross-content collaboration. I would like to see more of this in secondary education. I think students should be encouraged to turn in lab reports in English class, or write about the history of mathematics.

Learning Styles

In this video Daniel Willingham "debunks" the theory of learning styles. First of all, this video is incredibly annoying to watch. First, Daniel's narration is so quiet that I had to lean with my head next to my speakers with the volume all the way up just to understand, and his voice is so boring that I could hardly pay attention. Daniel should hire someone with a sense of inflection to read his narrated scripts. Secondly, seeing Daniel sitting in front of a stack of library books, with enormous bags under his eyes was severely distracting. That part should definitely be cut out, and the video should focus on "making meaning" of the content.

That said, the conclusion of the video is certainly correct: Good teaching is good teaching. Whether you believe in learning styles or not, as teachers and learners we intuitively know that people learn differently. We have all had the experience of struggling with a concept until suddenly, someone presents us with something that allows us to approach the material in a different way, and, EUREKA! we've got it! We also see this in our students, as in the example of the structure of the atom being analogous to the structure of the solar system. SO in the end, learning styles or lack there of is nothing but psycho-babble. Good teaching is good teaching, and we need to differentiate instruction such that students can approach content from various angles, and construct understanding from an authentic experience.

My portfolio has some examples of differentiated instruction, including think-tac-toe, and 20 points assignments which I have created, and will work well for diverse learners and mixed ability classrooms.