For several years, I enjoyed being a museum educator. I led tours. I taught classes and workshops. I created flyers and brochures.
My favorite part of teaching in museums, though, was being allowed to develop programs and teaching guides. I love doing the research, distilling the information, and putting everything together into a nice, neat, little package! It’s so much fun to be able to hold something you poured so much of yourself into, especially when it combines so many of your natural talents and passions.
My career as a museum educator ended much sooner than it should have, and I’ve had a hard time dealing with that. I’ve felt completely lost trying to figure out where to go next. Part of the problem is that I have this unusual diverse background that needed to be put into something marketable to other fields. How do you explain to a potential employer that you’re great because you create and teach educational programming?
Earlier this year, I made the decision to pursue a graduate degree in instructional design. I’d jump at the chance to be developing learning units in various media. One of my concerns, though, has been a wish for some sort of background in technical writing, in the ability o create process documents and user manual-type projects.
Last week, I was pulling together some articles on various writing topics, one of which was a guide to technical writing. It was quite the eye-opening read. I had once been told that because of my rather vast experience creating curriculum and resource guides I should be looking for work as a technical writer. I didn’t believe them. How could what I had done as a museum educator be considered technical writing?
I was wrong. They are, in fact, completely within the scope of technical writing. I’ve been sitting here worrying about gaining technical writing experience, and I’ve been sitting on nine years of it all along. Somehow, along the way, I’ve developed technical writing skils. I’m in shock!
Wouldn’t you know? I’m now headed off to work on a project of process/training documents for my current job because I’ve become the accidental trainer!
Posted by Rebecca as Reflective teaching at 8:27 AM EDT
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I spent the past shcool year grading for a local high school, and one of their major concerns was teaching the students not to plagiarize from their sources. When I was in school, we were told to cite every single wuote and paraphrase. Somehow, that bit of wisdom has not been passed on to younger generations.
In an age where file sharing and internet research abound, somehow we’re failing students by not introducing them to the concept of plagiarism. Those who figure it out when they’re hit with a copyright infringement complaint then get themselves into further trouble by misapplying what they’ve learned.
It doesn’t help when we have opposite forces at work in this country: those who want to see their work derived from, and those who are afraid their meal ticket will vanish or want to make money off the derviative works (let’s face it, that’s what this debate largely comes down to). Thank goodness for organizations like Creative COmmons, right?
Somehow, I’ve fallen off-track. The point is that students need to be taught how to credit properly when they borrow someone else’s words to make their point. They need to understand that this is both respectful to the original source, and it gives them a way to find what they used should they need to. In a sense, it’s not entirely unlike creating a link back to an original article in a web post.
Posted by Rebecca as Responsibility at 8:19 AM EDT
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I think a study needs to be started here in Washington about the correlation between the Integrated Math program and the low scores on the math section of Washington’s graduation exam. Nearly half the sophomores in the state failed it. That’s just unacceptable.
Many of them are our students, students we have worked hard to help understand the concepts necessary to pass the WASL. We see them two to four hours a week, there’s only so much we can do.
What I honestly believe is at the root of the problem is the Integrated Math program that seems to be in place in areas of Washington. This program seems to be frustrating local students no end, and after a week or so of trying to help these students with their homework, it wasn’t hard to see why.
The program combines algebra, trigonometry, and geometry into one three-level class. The students practice exclusively on real-world problems. While that might be all well and good, it never actually gets around to teaching the skills necessary to complete these problems. To make matters worse, the problems in the textbooks are worded in such a way that experienced math teachers are having to look at the answer and then work backwards to figure out the approach the writer wanted.
Call me crazy, but math isn’t hard, and we should be doing everything in our power to make it more accessible to them. This, I suspect, isn’t working.
Posted by Rebecca as Teaching methods at 7:59 AM EDT
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I am constantly on students’ cases to not use Wikipedia as a primary source (or as their only source). They whine and throw around very outdated (and wild) statistics about how Wikipedia is vetted.
No wiki with unrestrained access can be vetted.
My students will cry in the fall, though. Wiki’s own creator has now said that Wikipedia is little more useful than a printed encyclopedia and should be used in a similar manner, not as the basis for citing in a paper, but for uncovering good primary sources.
I can’t help but cheer!
Posted by Rebecca as Responsibility at 7:55 AM EDT
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Part of what has turned my attentions toward instructional design as a replacement for my life as a museum educator is the thrill of being able to develop curriculum again! I’ve always loved developing educational programming and then watching it be carried out! Since I feel it is such a strong part of who I am as a teacher, and because it’s alot of the driving force behind this decision to go into instructional design, I think my teaching philosophy should have a section dedicated to it.
My curriculum development philosophy and practice supports:
- hands-on/practical lesson components
- opportunities for review
- addressing multiple learning modalities
- students finding a way to ocnnect with information in a way that makes it relevant for them
This has a lot in common with my teaching philosophy, but I love creating teachable moments so I guess that’s to be expected!
Posted by Rebecca as Reflective teaching at 8:23 AM EDT
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I was reading this article on the value of knowledge in narrative form last week, and didn’t feel particularly surprised.
For centuries, the passing of knowledge occurred through oral traditions. Members of a culture were designated as knowledge repositories and learned all the knowledge available to pass on, and in turn passed it on to others. they were respected for this ability.
In time, written language was developed and these stories that had been passed were recorded. We now often refer to them as mythology or folklore. Knowledge was embedded in stories, and people were expected to listen carefully and interpret the meaning from the context of the story.
Of course it makes sense for knowledge to be passed in a narrative format. Much of what we know of ancient cultures was passed on this way.
Posted by Rebecca as Knowledge Management, Teaching methods, Information Architecture at 7:52 AM EDT
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In preparation for applying to grad school, I’ve been thinking over who I am as a teacher. So far, I’ve come up with the following, all of which really demonstrate my career in informal education.
My teaching philosophy and practice supports:
- Peer teaching
- Self-directed learning
- Questioning as a method of instruction, review, and acquiring knowledge
- Hands-on activities (I demonstrate once, you do it once supervised, you do it unsurpervised and ask questions as necessary)
I’ll add more to th list as I think of them. Next up, my practice and philosophy on curriculum development!
Posted by Rebecca as Reflective teaching at 8:05 AM EDT
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Okay…maybe that’s going a bit far, but calculators are something one of my fellow math teachers and I wrestle with constantly. We’re both old school (impressive given that he’s old enough to be my father), and we both believe students will get much farther if they can actually do math rather than rely a calculator. When students ask for a calculator, we’ll both tell them no unless they’re working with big, unusual numbers.
My favorite are the kids who ask for a calculator to work with fractions. I always look at them and ask them how they’re going to get the answer back in fraction form and make it clear that the only answer I’ll accept is the fraction, not the equivalent decimal. They grumble, but they get the work done.
I came across a link I’m going to have to share with Jim, though. After a very funny conversation between the two of us and two students, he must read this post! Basically, a student was working on long division homework, but he couldn’t remember the process. Jim started to go over it with him, and the student I was working with piped up, “I have an easy way to do long division.”
“Oh?” I asked.
He grinned, “Yeah, it’s called the TI-83.” Jim and I both moaned and started into why students shouldn’t rely on calculators.
There’s always the point the article makes- calculators are helpful to those who understand the basic math concetps and know what to enter when, but another problem we’re discovering is that different companies program caluclators differently. You not only have to know what to enter when, but you also have to know what to expect so you can evaluate the usability of the answer you receive.
Calculators are not the easy way out of math. They’re a tool to help you with more difficult math tasks!
Posted by Rebecca as Responsibility at 7:57 AM EDT
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I remember when I was in elementary school, we had this program where fifth graders mentored second graders. It was a very big deal for both groups. Sadly, by the time I reached fifth grade, thr program was stopped. It would be another four years before I found myself in the position of mentoring younger students as the middle shcools in my combined middle-high school would start seeking me out for tutoring and advice.
I’ve long held that peer tutoring is one of the best teaching methods around. Sometimes, we as adults are just not able to get back to our kid roots and present material on their level. It’s nice when someone they can relate to turns around and helps fill in the gaps we struggle to fill.
One of the reasons I love my current job is because there is so much accidental peer learning going on. It doesn’t matter what level the kids are, they love to help each other understand, to share what they know. It’s so heart-warming to watch.
Some of my favorite moments, though, come when a high school student ends up sitting with a five or six year old. I’ve watched an enrichment student help a low-level math student through the tricky ways is counting money. (In his free time, this particular student teaches his five year old brother math at home, and dreams of one day being teacher.) Just the other day, I watched a life skills student help a new beginning reading student figure out how to shop at the little store we have in the center. (It was absolutely adorable to watch, and I never realized how tall that particular student was until he stood beside this tiny, tiny five-year-old girl, but she loved the attention, and he was having a great time helping her shop.)
I always try to have a little peer teaching going on in my own teaching. I think it adds so much to the learning experience for all of us!
Posted by Rebecca as Components of Learning, Teaching methods at 10:46 AM EDT
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