Shift Happens

Post your thoughts and feelings on how this information impacts how we need to educate students to prepare them for this new globalized world

The Game Has Changed

Chapter 1

The Game Has Changed

"It is the learners who will inherit the future; the "so-called learned'" who think they "know it all" will find themselves frustrated by a world that has passed them by."

After reading Chapter One from the text please respond to the following reflections and reactions.

Reflections:

What is the role of schools today and how are the roles of teachers changing?

Reactions:

What are your feelings about the topics presented in this chapter?

What are some practical applications for what you're learning?

What do you want to remember about this chapter?

Click on comments to leave your response

Article Review

After reading the excerpt from Leo Buscaglia's book Living, Loving, Learning below please reflect on your thoughts and feelings.

The following questions were created to be thought provoking: (you do not have to answer them all but they may aid you in your responses/reflections)

1) What were some of the AHA's (ideas that stood out to you) that you encountered?

2) How can you utilize this information in your classroom to improve student learning?

3) Do you feel/think that this excerpt from the 1970's is still true today? Where have we improved in education since this article was written? Where have we slipped?

4) What do agree with? What points do you question?

5) Please comment on one other course members comments

**Click on comments to read and leave your personal ideas**

YOU MEAN A RABBIT CAN BE TAUGHT TO FLY?
As an individual you must not be satisfied with just becoming like everybody else.
By Leo Buscaglia, Ph.D.
Busscaglia: "I teach seminars in graduate school. It's amazing how people have learned to parrot by then."
A rabbit, bird, fish, squirrel, duck and so on, all decided to start a school. The rabbit insisted that running had to be in the curriculum. The bird insisted that flying be in the curriculum. The fish insisted that swimming be in the curriculum. The squirrel insisted that perpendicular trees climbing be in the curriculum.
All the other animals wanted their specialty to be in the curriculum, too, so they put everything in and then made the glorious mistake of insisting that all the animals take all of the courses. The rabbit was magnificent in running; nobody could run like the rabbit. But they insisted that it was good intellectual and emotional discipline to teach the rabbit flying. So they insisted that the rabbit learned to fly and they put her on this branch and said, "Fly, rabbit!" And the poor old thing jumped off, broke her leg and fractured her skull. She became brain-damaged and then she couldn't run very well, either.
The same way with the bird -- she could fly like a freak all over the place, do loops and loops, and she was making an A. But they insisted that this bird burrow holes in the ground like a gopher. Of course she broke her wings and everything else, and then she couldn't fly.
We know this is wrong, yet nobody does anything about it. You may be a genius. You may be one of the greatest writers in the world, but you can't get into a university unless you can pass trigonometry. For what? Look at the list of drop outs: William Faulkner, John F. Kennedy, Thomas Edison. They couldn't face school. "I don't want to learn perpendicular tree climbing. I'm never going to climb perpendicularly. I'm a bird. I can fly to the top of the tree without having to do that."
"Never mind, it's good discipline."
As an individual, you must not be satisfied with just becoming like everybody else. You must think for yourself. For example, art supervisors. I can remember when they used to come to my classroom in elementary school, and I'm sure you can remember it, too. You were given a paper, and the teacher would put up the drawing in front of you and you were really excited. It was going to be art time. You had all the crayolas in front of you, and you folded your hands and you waited. And soon the art teacher would come running in, because she had been to fourteen other classrooms that day teaching art. She ran in, and she'd huff and puff and she'd say, "Good morning girls and boys. Today we are going to draw a tree." And all the kids would say, "Goody, we're going to draw a tree!" And then she'd get up there with a green crayola and she'd draw this great big green thing. And then she put a brown base on it and a few blades of grass. And she'd say, "There is a tree." And all the kids would look at it and they'd say, "That isn't a tree. That's a lollipop." But she said that was a tree, and then she's pass out these papers and say, "Now, draw a tree." She didn't really say, "Draw a tree" -- she said, "Draw my tree." And the sooner you found out that's what she meant and could reproduce this lollipop and hand it to her, the sooner you would get an A.
But here was little Janie who knew that wasn't a tree, because she'd seen a tree such as this art teacher had never experienced! So she got magenta, and orange, and blue, and purple, and green, and she scribbled all over her page and happily brought it up and gave it to the teacher. She looked at it and said, "Oh my God...."
How long does it take somebody to realize that what they're really saying is, "To pass, I want you to reproduce my tree." And so it goes through the first grade, second, third and right on into seminars in graduate school. I teach seminars in graduate school. It's amazing how people have learned to parrot by then. Think? Don't be ridiculous. They can give you the facts, verbatim, just as you've given it to them. And you can't blame those students, because that's what they've been taught. You say to them, "Be creative," and they're fearful. And so what happens to our uniqueness; what happens to our tree? All this beautiful uniqueness has gone right down the drain. Everybody is like everybody else, and everybody is happy. R.D. Laing says, "we are satisfied when we've made people like ourselves out of our children.
Excerpted from the book, LIVING, LOVING & LEARNING by Leo Buscaglia

first time blogger

Excited to begin this class. I am a first time blogger so looking forward to this new experience also.

My name is Donna.
I work for the Wauwatosa School District as a substitute teacher.
Over the last 20 years I have held a variety of postitions including,
daily sub, long-term sub, tutor, homebound teacher and special ed. aide.
Most of my work has been at the middle school level.

Hobbies that bring me joy are reading, traveling and playing/coaching soccer. Also, I don't know that my faith would be considered a hobby, however, my involvement with my church also brings much joy to my life.

Considering taking a motorycycle riding class in spring ( my husband rides and would like to buy another one if I learn how :)

Introductions--Super Teaching

Please introduce yourself to the rest of the class by answering the following questions:

1) Your Name

2) School/City

3) Grade level and subject that you teach

4) What hobbies do you have that create laughter and joy in your life

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