Inquiry in Teaching

While teaching, I have learned a lot concerning inquiry teaching in science versus traditional teaching methods. When I was in elementary school, most concepts were told to me instead of me having a chance to learn for myself. By doing this, it made me have to memorize concepts instead of really understanding them. The problem with that was that my memory did not always serve me well years later. I desire for my students to truly understand what we try to accomplish in class instead of me telling them what to know or learn. I had a student the other day who I was helping with a problem and she finally came to the correct answer by guessing. I told her it was correct but asked her to explain to me how she knew it was the correct answer. She said, "I have it correct, what else do you want?" I wanted her to understand how she came to that answer instead of just guessing it was the correct answer. "It is about the process more than the product," as one of my teachers used to say. When students have a chance to construct their own knowledge, it becomes more memorable. With inquiry-based teaching, children have a chance to question and explore for themselves. They get to learn by hands-on methods rather than a teacher telling them what to remember. Concerning the little girl with her math homework, she remembered what her teacher said to do concerning estimating, but she did not know at all what it meant. She had no idea why her answer was right or wrong. Teachers need to do more experimenting and building a child's natural curiousity to learn to get students engaged about what teachers are trying to instill in their mind.

Please just be fair...

Lately, I have been observing in a local middle school in a math class. For the three periods I am there, there are three different kinds of classes: grade-level, advanced, and inclusion. After many debates with my friends and family, I have not come to a decision yet on what I think about splitting children up according to their achievement. One day stands out in particular when I was observing the math teacher and she was teaching her students about area. For example, for the grade-level class, she taught them about the area for a square, rectangle, and triangle and did a sufficient amount of practice problems. For the advanced class, she did all of the above and added area for irregular shapes and included an extra worksheet for more practice. For the inclusion class, the teacher talked about the area of a square, and barely was introduced to the area of a rectangle. They completed one practice problem in class. Which class even had the opportunity to learn more? I believe some of the students are being left out on part of their education just because they were put in a specific class. Some of the students in the inclusion class are just there for support for the students with disabilities. Are they receiving a fair education? I do not like to put it this way, but it seems like the smart students are getting smarter and the other students are staying the same or falling back. I just do not believe it is fair. After helping many of the inclusion students, they understand math problems just the same as the students in the grade-level or advanced classes. Also, these students are branded as being dumber because of what class they are in. I believe it is just horrible. I do not know if it would work, but if all classes were mixed, then I believe the inclusion students would learn so much more from the students around them. This is a hopeful situation but I am not sure how it would play out. I just do not think the way they have the classes split up is fair to some students.

Broccoli and Reading

After being around children for a while, I have noticed that it has become a chore instead of a pleasure for some children to do their reading homework. Who ever told them that reading was not fun? Who ever told them that it was not cool? I do not know the answers to these questions but I think someone needs to stop spreading rumors. The same feeling some children get when they see broccoli is the same facial expression they get when their teacher asks them to read 20 minutes a night. 20 minutes... that is all! With my students, I really do hope to instill a love for reading. When I am talking about children not wanting to read, I am not talking about all children. I know one little girl who would rather read all afternoon than do anything else. Every so often she will pop up and tell me about a wonderful part in her book or the occasional outburst of laughter will tickle all who are near. I believe she is a wonderful example for her fellow students, and she definitely gets noticed. I remember when I was doing my five days of pre-teaching and I was placed in this fifth grade classroom for reading. Every day the students would have quiet time where they would read to themselves. While they were doing so, the teacher was catching up on her planning for the rest of the day. Even though the teacher expressed how much she absolutely loved to read, her actions do not say so. What I believe would have been better to do was read along with her students and show them your love for reading rather than just telling them. Actions speak louder than words don't they? Anyway, I really believe that it is the responsibility of the teachers to show their students that being able to read and discovering so many things from books is the bomb! Teachers need to be an example and show their love for reading rather than just tell about it.