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April 2008
I was recently asked by a parent, “What exactly do you do?”
Well, I am a teacher; the way my husband is a musician. It is more than what I do – it is who I am. It is my passion. My husband hears music in his head, sits down at an instrument, primarily piano, guitar or drums, to bring out the music in his head. I know a lot of “stuff”. I have facts from all the seminars, graduate and undergraduate, all the research papers*, and years of travel around the world. I have a strong academic background. I am an avid reader. I am good with languages. I am good with math. But my gift is not in having a lot of knowledge in my head…it is in my ability and desire to pass on my passion for learning. My definition of a teacher is…someone who has a body of knowledge, has the perspective of where that body of knowledge fits into the world as a whole and the passion to convey that knowledge to others.
But the other crucial ingredient is understanding where each student fits into the bigger perspective. What knowledge do they already possess in the realms of history, grammar, math and science? And out of these realms, have they “done” it, or do they know it? Have they “done” chemical equations, or can they balance an equation involving gases, figure out the molarity and apply the ideal gas law to solve for a variable? Have they “done” the metric system, or can they fluently convert between units? Do they understand that the Biological classification system, the Periodic Table of the Elements, knowledge of the individual states in the US and countries of the world are the beginning of knowledge and not the end?
What books have they read? Out of what they have read, what have they internalized? This is the difference between “I’ve read that” and “Let’s talk about the political intrigue between Louis XIII and Richelieu in The Three Musketeers”. “I’ve already read Huckleberry Finn”, vs “Can you tell the difference between the Missouri vs the South-Western dialect?” How open are they to learning more? Do they just want to say, “I’ve done that already,” or are they willing to go into the intricacies? What are their intrinsic strengths and how do you use their strengths to help them build up their weaknesses? The issues facing students do not deal with the ages and grades of the students or the ratio of girls to boys in a class, but with the qualitative issue of learning.
One of my day students came to me wanting to do a research paper on the Mexican War: 1846-1848. (Yes, the correct verb, wanted, was used.) How do you do a research paper? You read…dozens of books, dozens of journal articles, become enmeshed in the topic, focus in on one aspect and draw your own conclusions. But, you have to know how to read a book, retain information, take notes, write paragraphs, use proper grammar and punctuation. And then just do that 50-100 times.
Or, you can just go to google and type in Sparknotes and see what someone else has done. NOOOOO!
The most important thing I do is tell my students, “You have a brain. It is the most amazing tool you will ever have. Here is how to use it…” It’s not as quick as going to Sparknotes, but it is more than a thousand times more useful and while you might not get an ‘A’ right away or get the highest scores on “the tests” immediately, once you learn how to use the brain you were given, you will never be satisfied to “just get by” or say “I’ve already done ___________” again. And the best part is that once you regularly use your brain, you will regularly get A’s and the highest scores on “the tests”.
Then, there is math…why do you learn math, anyway. Anatomy of a Word Problem…
to be continued.
*Gorbachev: Perestroika vs Glasnost; Red Bread:Stalin and Collectivization; Ronald Reagan, The Prince; The Feasibility and Desirability of SDI: Strategic Defense Initiative; Prescriptions on International Terrorism: A Letter to the President; Henry Kissinger and Shuttle Diplomacy; Binary and the IP Address; Polish: a Grammatical Structure; Mitterand, Chirac, et la Cohabitation; Le PCF: du déclin à la chute; Maurius et la Jeunesse; The Great Men in War and Peace; The Inimitable Puck.
May 2007
I have spent this past year homeschooling 7th and 8th graders (Reading Comprehension, Analytical Writing, Pre-Algebra, Intro to Chemistry, American History, French)*, tutoring students 5th grade through 11th grade in a variety of subjects (English Grammar, English Composition, Vocabulary, Literature and Essay Writing, Social Studies, Physical Science, Life Science, American History, World History, Mathematics, Pre-Algebra, Algebra I, ISEE Prep, SAT Prep). In addition, I have taught math seminars to 3rd through 8th graders and writing seminars to 3rd graders through adults. I have several seminars which started in February and, because we are all still learning and enjoying them, are still going on. It has been an incredible year of learning for me as well.
I have a wide variety of students. Public School. Private School. Charter School. My Homeschool. Other Homeschool programs. Some love to learn. Some don’t mind learning, but would prefer if they could just get it in a pill every morning. Regardless, everyone learns a lot.
I have had the great fortune to be able to implement a vast array of techniques on a daily basis in my homeschool program. Clearly, homeschooling is not for everyone, but it is incredible how much material you can cover thoroughly when everyone is focused and on the same page. It is also a legitimate option to help students get on track academically so they can return to large classrooms with the skills they need to succeed academically.
Most important, however, is having a solid foundation in the basic skills of reading comprehension, analytical writing and mathematics. These are the basis for all further learning: History, Political Science, Statistics, Chemistry, Physics, Finance, Accounting, Business Administration, Computer Programming. They all go back to reading, writing and arithmetic. This is why these are the central focus of the standardized tests. It is crucial to do these well, in order to continue on and do well.
My assumption in the seminars is not that students have not been exposed to a wide variety of skills and subjects. I know that they have. I consistently hear, “I’ve read that before.” “I’ve done that before.” “I already studied that last year.” “I’m working on quadratic equations now.” To which I respond, “Great…tell me about the themes in that book…write an essay on that doctrine…graph this equation…” The difficulty comes in that wide gap between learning a subject and internalizing it enough to apply it. That is the difference between learning and knowledge.
See the list of Week-long summer seminars, or call 310-621-2706 for more information.
*For anyone interested, I have attached a Microsoft Word document .doc containing the 2006-07 Homeschool Curriculum.
Note: I am in the process of updating my Books Read this year.
June 2006
I have developed a curriculum based on the questions: What do kids really need to learn? What skills will help them succeed? By succeed, I don't mean get straight A's. (I'm certainly not against good grades, but I don't believe that is always an accurate measure of a student's knowledge or future success in life.) They need to learn how to think, how to analyze, how to organize those thoughts and convey them in written form. They need to learn how to take notes, what to write down, where to write it down, and how to write it down.
I have designed seminars to teach these skills: critical reading, grammar and vocabulary, critical writing, applied mathematics. These are the skills that are tested on the standardized tests. They are important skills for all students to know, not because they are on the standardized tests, but because these are the skills essential to do well in life. Standardized tests, in their ideal form, are designed to measure what you have learned vs. what you have not learned, or what you have been exposed to but have not internalized. If students learn the skills those tests are designed to measure, students will succeed on the test, and more importantly, in life when they have to apply them in real-world situations.
Why do we enroll our children in school? So they can get into a better school. So they can get into a good college. So they can succeed in life. So they can find employment which they find financially and emotionally rewarding. So they can financially and emotionally support themselves and someday their own families.
If they learn what they are supposed to learn, they will get into good schools. They will succeed in life. If they have skills that are needed and wanted by companies - the ability to read, write and think critically, the ability to reason mathematically, strong computer skills, general knowledge of foreign languages, cultures and other societies, a strong sense of themselves, their strengths and weaknesses, and most importantly a strong work ethic, they will find ample employment opportunities.
Learning is fun and should be fun. Children should be able to laugh and play and have a good time. They need to be able to do both. But there is a point in life, where they have to learn when to play and when it is time to work.
Last year I read The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman. Friedman has been foreign affairs writer for the New York Times since 1995. He has won the Pulitzer Prize three times for his reporting in the New York Times and has written several well-written, well-organized, thought-provoking books. The World is Flat is all of the above (well-written, well-organized, thought-provoking.) His main premise is the following: Christopher Columbus traveled from Spain to the new world throughout the 1490s to discover that the world was indeed round, literally. Thomas Friedman traveled from America to India in 2004 to discover that the world was flat, figuratively. The world has become so economically interdependent that countries, companies, processes are no longer distinct. Manufacturing occurs in China, sales and support occurs in India, while the parent companies are based in the US. Americans are no longer competing with the best Americans for jobs, they are competing with the best the world has to offer.
This is not a xenophobic, fear the foreigners, stop outsourcing manufacturing to China, stop sending support desks to India message. On the contrary, he believes all of the above are positive extensions of capitalism. Americans need not fear the inevitable changes. What they need to do is adapt to those changes. Which means educating our youth so that they can become a vibrant part of a "flat" world - which means again reinforcing the basics: reading, writing, arithmetic.
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