Posted on 01/22/2006 4:45:41 PM PST by Lorianne
One thing that boys love is MOVEMENT!!! beyond all they need to move. They also love it when I use a timer--as in "Okay you are on a 1-minute Quickwrite--tell me everything you remember about this story." and then when the time is up, I'm jumping up and down yelling "NO NO! don't finish the word! you are done!!" They love the energy and the strict time limits. We do 2 minute discussions, 30 seconds to pick a partner..1 minute work sheets... read like the character..stand up when you hear a subordinate clause.. man the list just goes on and on... so many cool things that can be done with reading. And these guys are improving every day in their ability to read. The history and science teachers have told me that they are reading better in their classes too.
My biggest compliment I've ever gotten came last week when one of my boys said "I wish you were our teacher for all our classes. This is the only class I don't watch the clock in."
I just think that we can't expect women (in general) to create an educational environment that will work best for boys ... because we're not male. If boys are experiencing hardship in school - as it appears they are, from a variety of standpoints - it has to be their fathers who say, "You're not going to do this to my son," and then take whatever action is necessary for his son's benefit.
But unfortunately, too many boys, especially the most needy, don't have fathers.
I still have a useful point in there somewhere :)
Otherwise, school will get no easier and his mad rock skills will help him out greatly when he works at 7-11.
its why they used to have all male schools....
If this kid's English teacher had a clue, she would work with him on writing lyrics and use that as a springboard to formal writing. But I noticed that his classes have **40** kids in them! That is a crime right there.
Ping
What a terrific bunch of techniques! I'm going to see what I can use with my Sunday School class - 5th grade, 12 boys, 2 girls. Unfortunately, we're packed into a conference room like sardines (12 boys in swivel chairs ...), but I'm sure there are some things I can try without too much leaping.
Maybe if he would play the bagpipe instead!
We're too close together at the table to rotate! But maybe I can have a "2-minute swivel" as a prize for paying particularly close attention to the subject.
I like that.
Its not our fault.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1562620/posts?page=143#143
similar discussion, similar article! both are great reads
Yeah, all those fellows will be waiting in line to see a movie about two goat-ropers buggering each other.
Me, too, and this was in the early 60s when teachers were still mostly quite good, especially the older ones, and the kids behaved, generally.
From work with personality typologies over several years, and also from my own scores on these same typologies, I can say without hesitation, that this kid is a "Perceiver" in the Keirsey Temperament classification, rather than a "Judger" (Keirsey's terminology for these two qualities is a bit odd).
We Perceivers are creative but not organized. Our abodes are usually untidy, we lose things, we forget things. I don't know why it is, but I simply CANNOT very often make lists of things to do or note future obligations in a datebook. Mr. Adler (a strong Judger) makes constant lists and actually does what he enters on each list and crosses each item off. For Judgers, that sort of activity comes naturally.
Many Percievers marry Judgers. The Judgers provide the organization, and the Perceivers provide the spontaniety in the relationship. Mr. Adler writes the checks to pay the bills and does the taxes, for instance. I design and decorate the house inside and out and the garden. Basically, all of the ideas for the fun things we do come from me.
I have to work very hard for the degree of organization that I do manage to achieve, and I will never, ever be as organized as a Judger. As a youngster, I would have benefitted from some training in organizational skills, but my parents were both Judgers and assumed that everybody just knew how to stay organized. Well, everybody doesn't, and I require CREATIVE ways to stay organized, or I won't have the motivation to follow through. I expect this kid needs something like this from somebody who understands what Perceivers are like.
We can take years to achieve some good techniques for personal organization that will work for us. I'm sure some Perceivers never do.
As for me, I have just retired after 25 years of college teaching, and I have never been happier, because I now have so many wonderful projects like painting, decorating, being on FR as much as I like, and reading the books I have bought over the years but not gotten to. I am positively revelling in the freedom I have now, and yes, I am trying to organize the house better, but creatively!
Rather than a sex difference, there are differences amongst all children. Some learn best by hearing things, some by reading, and yet a third group, who learn in a combination of hearing things said and reading. Rote learning works and for some inexplicable reason, it and memorization have been thrown out the window. Reintroducing these things, as well as some very old Normal School methods, would be very good for all children.
As to what has happened...teaching methods keep changing and that's the major part of the problem.
Wow, I really admire you.
My computer desk is mayhem, I have 55 different papers on 55 different subjects on it. I can be drawn in by a good book, I relish the sunrise and sunset. I have the best enjoyment of watching puppy dogs lol ! One of life's best pleasures is to create something with one's hands and realize, even though no one else may care, you did something. And that's the deepest I've ever talked about this of FR lol. Bless ya' :)
Jeff
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