Curriculum should be covered by all subjects for all grade
levels. I really loved the examples in the chapters that we read this week for
class, particularly the Brooklyn Bridge example. I loved how that teacher incorporated
the basic topic into all the disciplines such as math, science, reading,
writing, poetry, communication, ect.
I am planning on teaching high school science. I am thinking
that this model would be hard to achieve in most high schools since it would
require a lot of teamwork and communication among most of the teachers in the
school. However, I think that it is worth the extra effort because it gets the
students involved and connects their classes to keep them interested. I was
never a big fan of English and language arts classes in school. If there was
some topic that connected my English/lit class to any of the sciences I would
have been much more likely to pay attention and maybe even start to like the
class.
I am thinking that this sort of model could easily become a
school wide program. I think I may suggest it to my group when we do our build our
own charter school assignment. Teachers could voluntarily submit topic proposals
to the principal who picks the top few that are well developed. Then the
teachers and students could vote on the topic for the year or semester. In
every class this topic could be touched on throughout the year or semester. In lit
classes they could read a book or two on the subject while in science and math
classes they could do projects or experiments. In history class they could
learn about the subject and how it came about. I think if a program like this
could be thoroughly prepared and executed well that it is an excellent way for
the students to get engaged and involved.
I had a wonderful professor at the University of Hawaii that really worked on combining literature and sciences. He was not an "active" teacher, he stood in front of the class with his eyelids almost totally closed and would drone on and on. But what made him an excellent teacher was his accesability. He loved to talk to students after class and he had a library (seriously with stacks and everything) in his office. If we went in and said we wanted to know about kimber tubes, he would pull out a book and open it to the right page and say "here read". Anyhoo, for our class we had to pick a scientific book to read and report on (I choose, Voyage of the Beagle). We would write up draft after draft of our papers and they would come back covered in red ink. He wanted perfection, not just in Scientific presentation but in grammar and spelling. I think the reason he was so successful was because he would just work with us till we got it right. We all loved him, and to this day when writing a paper I still think of what Ralph would think, and smile.
ReplyDeleteCreativity and careful thought is what i gather from this blog as well as the comment. Don't get discouraged, if you present your idea and don't get support at first. Stay connected as i know you will to your students and their forward progress. Your ideas and attitude is great!
ReplyDeleteHi Leslie, I agree that in order to have project based curriculum that whole school needs to be involved. Some ideas for incorporating the humanities into a math or science based projects is to look at what the larger impact of the project is, and how does it relate to the social word. For example if the project is related to pollution; there are social implications, there is a lot of media (news, documentaries, books, magazines) surrounding the issue, and a whole lot of science involved. Maybe students could make a short documentary on how pollution affects their city. The film would need to include scientific evidence, quoted sources, imagery, historical background, future implications for science and humanity. That’s just a brainstorm, but I think that so many cool projects can be done that include science, math, humanities,art and even language.
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