Student Choice

John Wooden posted the following note on the Bruin's bulletin board on the values of the choices we make:

There is a choice you have to make, 

In everything you do.

So keep in mind that in the end, 

The choice you make makes you. 

The world of today's adolescent is wrought with choices, some good and some not so good. Definitely more choices than most of us grew up with.  But, with these choices comes the consequences of the path chosen. 

One of the most valuble skills we can provide for our students is the ability to see the effects of choice. 

How to measure the causal relationships of choices made. And, how to create a balance between choices made for safisfaction today and choices made in preparation for tomorrow. 

One of the most troubling trends I have noticed in recent years is the lack of understanding of the ramifications of what is done today and how it will effect the future.  Whether students have simply grown up in a society that values immediate gratification or if they have simply lost hope in a sense of the future, high school students today have great difficulty in dealing with any issue that requires them to see beyond today and most definitely if they must see beyond tomorrow. 

Students need to develop the steps necessary to set goals, develop plans, create paths for success, recognize obstacles, adapt to change and actualize success.     

The "I want it now", attitude of the 80's and 90's will not suffice in a world where the only constant is change.  Students need now, more than ever a sense of future and the path necessary to get there.  No longer can the path be culminated in an end but must be toward development of skills for change.  No longer can the students of today depend on a career path that may not be there a decade from now. Technology has changed the game and continues to do so with each new device, program or operating system.  

The choices students make today will serve them only if they understand that the greatest ability is in the ability to see ahead of the curve and look to a future where change is the norm and the skillsets for success are the ability to think critically, communicate effectively and work collaboratively.  

        

Study Card Rings

There are a tremendous amount of great sites online for creating online study aids
(see - quizlet.com), but nothing beats creating and working through your own set of study cards.   Whether it is a full stack of 3 x 5 cards wrapped in a rubber band, or one inch strips cut from 3 x 5 cards and hole punched on a snap key ring.  The actual pocess of creating hand written study cards is a study staple for most students.


I demonstrate this process to my chemistry students when they need to learn the cations and anions that will be used in naming and creating inonic formulas.  To assist students in learning the ions, I create three sets of twenty ions that students are responsible for knowing.  On one side of card stock I have the names of the ions neatly organized in a four card by five card grid created on an excel spreadsheet.  On the opposite side I have the ion formulas with their ionic charge.  On this side I do not put grid lines.  When students cut them out, they only use the name grid lines and that way the lines do not need to match up (for some students this is a distraction if there are random lines on their cards).

I take part of a class period for the students to cut out and punch the cards and place them on a snap ring that I provide for them. It is worth the class time to have students complete the task.  This garauntees every student has the complete set and leaves the student with the idea that they are of some importance since you gave up class time to make the ring card sets.

I have divided the ion sets on three separate color cards and quiz the students on each set separately.  I find that ionic naming, writng balanced chemical equations and stoichiometry all go more quickly and smoother when the students know these ions from memory.


I then suggest that students can create their own study sets in any of their classes by cutting the
3 x 5 cards into one inch strips or they can by the pre-made blank sets at most bookstores or teacher supply stores.

Half the job, is having the correct tools.

What Can We Do In Two Hours?

This, information was shared at a symposium I attended back in 2007.  I am sure some of the numbers have changed with the further growth of social networking, touch pads and smartphones.

We have about 150,000 hours of living to expend between the ages of 1 and 18.

We sleep about 50,000 hours of that time.  We dream about two hours of the eight that we sleep each night. Sleeping and dreaming appear to be positively related to development and maintenance of long term memories.

We spend about 65,000 hours of our 100,000 waking hours involved in solitary activities, and in direct relationships with family and friends, and these play a major role in the maintenance of personal memories.

We spend about 35,000 of our waking hours with our larger culture in formal and informal metaphoric/symbolic activities --- about 12,000 hours in school, and twice as much with various forms of mass media: computers, television, films, music, sports and non-school print media.  Mass media and school thus play major roles in the development of cultural memories.

Thus, in an average developmental day between the ages of 1 and 18, a young person sleeps 8 hours, spends 10 hours with family/friends/self, 4 (probably more) with mass media, leaving only 2 hours for school.

Our society has an incredible expectation for those two hours.  

The You Tube video "A Vision of Students Today" is an eye opener, when it comes to understanding the mindset of the students we teach each day.