Tag: parents
Learning to Ride a Bicycle
by on Dec.07, 2009, under Uncategorized
When it is not raining, my husband and I try to walk in the park for exercise. It always makes me smile when I see a parent trying to teach their child how to ride a bicycle. I usually see this in the spring and the summer or right after Christmas. The fun part for me is to see the different techniques that parents use to teach their children. It seems that the most important part, no matter how different the techniques, is that the child trusts the adult.
It made me realize that when teaching my students, I need to get them to trust me. If I don’t have this trust, I’m not sure they will ever be ready to learn independently. I know that I teach my students content but I also know that there is no way that I can teach them everything they need to know in one year. They need to learn how to learn so they can continue to learn when they are no longer with me. Just like teaching a child to ride a bike, just because they learn to balance and move forward without falling, they still need to learn other things.
I remember for a long time my father would push me on the bicycle and I would pedal as fast as I could. But once he let go, my bicycle would wobble and then I would fall. I look back now and realize that I was learning on a bicycle that was too big for me. When I would start to wobble, I couldn’t put my feet down to catch myself. I know when I fell a lot, I didn’t even want to get on that bicycle. I think my parents thought I would never learn to ride a bicycle! Do I do that when I teach my students? Do I have them on levels too high that when they falter, they can’t catch themselves? When they keep falling, they are afraid to try again.
After I had been riding a bicycle for a few years, my cousin who lived in the city came to visit me for a week. She really wanted to learn how to ride a bicycle so I agree to teach her. I decided that I was not going to teach her the way people taught me. I thought about how I wished someone had taught me and showed her these things so I wasn’t surprised how easily she learned in one day. I brought her to a hill and let her sit on the bike with me as I rode down the hill. She was able to feel how it should feel if she was alone. Now of course, she was able to put her feet down on the ground while sitting on the bike which really helped. I had her glide down the hill without pedaling so she could learn how to balance. We only focused on one skill at a time and when she was able to balance on the bike easily, we added pedaling. By the end of the day she was riding the bicycle as easily as me. I was surprised when I searched the internet for this topic and someone actually wrote about this as an alternative method so I will share it with you: Learning to Ride a Bicycle.
That is how I like to teach new skills to my students. I think about the end result that I want my students to achieve and then break it down into smaller steps for them to succeed at. When I model the skill for them a few times, it is like taking them on a ride with me so they know how it feels, how it looks like, and how to get to the end point. Then I find a way for them to “coast down the hill” for a taste of success. This may call for a lot of encouraging, and prompting but eventually they get there. Once they learn how to do one step on their own successfully, it is time to move to the next step.
I think learning new skills are a lot like learning how to ride a bicycle. This is also a great way to share this with the students and hope they can be successful.
Original image: ‘IMG_3836.JPG’
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8566600@N07/1367360621 by: eyeliam
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Keep Unblocking Social Networking Sites
by on Dec.02, 2009, under Uncategorized
In Why Facebook is Unblocked at ISB from The Thinking Stick, Jeff Utecht shares an email from his department sent to a parent who was concerned about Facebook being unblocked at his school. Near the end of the email, it states,
“These sites have emerged as social areas that form a major significant part of many of our student’s lives. This socialization is near as important to this generation as face to face time with their friends and they maintain friendships beyond ISB to include international students from schools around the world. At this point we feel that by simply blocking these sites, we as a school would be missing an opportunity to educate students about how to use them appropriately…If students cannot manage their time on computers productively at school, then they would certainly not be able to at home. Blocking access has not proven to be effective in teaching students to use a tool effectively and wisely.”
I think part of the desire to block is fear of the unknown. When rock and roll first hit the scene, parents around the world were horrified and wanted this new type of music banned and hidden from their children. I’m sure that when the first automobile hit the roads, there was fear of how this newfangled thing would affect our lives. I believe as more and more parents become comfortable with social networking sites, they will less stressed about their children using them. Of course, as a parent, I would require that my child becomes my “friend” and I would have the password to my child’s account. If for any reason this password gets changed or if I’m blocked, I would delete the account and keep my child from using this until he/she matured more. But that is just what I would do.
I also understand the need to protect our children but by acting out of fear and ignorance is not the best way to protect our children. When we teach our children to read, there is a chance that they will read some inappropriate materials. So in our desire to protect, do we just not let our children learn to read or do we let them learn to read but only material we hand pick for them? When our children learn to drive, there is a chance that they may drive to an inappropriate place. There is a chance that they may get in an accident, get car jacked, or even pick up a hitchhiker. Do we not teach our children to drive, or only let them go places if we are with them?
When I was growing up, my parents did not allow me to date until my senior year of high school. I did not have a lot of social skills when dealing with the opposite sex. My only date happened to be my prom date and it wasn’t the highlight of my dating career. When I went on to college (800 miles away from my parents), I went boy crazy. I went out with some horrible boys as well as some nice boys. The problem was that I didn’t have any guidance from my parents to help me figure out which ones were which. At one point, I had a boy who became very possessive and started to stalk me but I didn’t know how to deal with it and I wish I had dated more when I was at home with my parents. Eventually my friends were the ones I turned to and they helped me get out of a bad situation. By the time I had children, I knew that I wanted them to have some social experiences while they lived at home and I could help guide them. I didn’t want them to make the same mistakes that I did.
I think it is so important to teach our students to become independent and learn the skills necessary to be become this way. Yet, we need to teach them how to use these skills wisely. We need to introduce them to the negatives as well as the positives. We need to teach them how to handle the tough situations they may find themselves. If we can help them while they are in a safe atmosphere, they will be able to transfer this knowledge when they are on their own. Let’s face it, these students are going to get on social networking sites whether we like it or not, so shouldn’t we give them some information on how to use it appropriately?
How do you feel about this? Do you think students should have access to social networking sites at school and why?
Original image: ‘chapter 8 – community building through social networking’
http://www.flickr.com/photos/80994469@N00/2584489931 by: David King
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Kick a Ginger Day Horror
by on Nov.30, 2009, under Uncategorized
After reading Kick a Ginger Day: One Mom’s Horrifying Account and seeing news accounts on TV, I was also horrified. For some reason I couldn’t get it off my mind. Of course, this leads to a discussion of sorts with my husband over breakfast which really is more of a rant.
Apparently a group on Facebook who was inspired by a South Park episode encouraged kids to beat up others who had red hair and freckles. At one school a 12 year old boy was surrounded by a group of 15 others (some were even his classmates) like a pack of wild animals and attacked him. They took him down and kicked him repeatedly.
This is just more evidence on how what our children watch can influence them. There is so much violence and profanity on television now that I think our children are desensitized to it. They think it is so cool to do these kinds of things. Even worse, many of these shows are showing that the “bad guy” gets away with it.
I have watched an episode of South Park once and swore that I would never watch that again. But apparently enough people watch this so they get advertising and continue to broadcast. I was horrified with the disrespect these characters use to interact with others. How can parents allow their children to watch this garbage?
At first I thought that this type of stuff should be banned from the airwaves! Of course my husband disagreed (amazing that we got married since we don’t agree on a lot of things but I guess after 30 years of togetherness, I should be glad we agreed on the important things!). He felt that censorship is “big brother-ish.” When I calmed down, I had to agree but something needs to be done. Parents need to monitor what their children are watching. If people don’t watch certain programs, their ratings go down, advertisers won’t pay for advertising and these programs will go away.
What happened to those great family shows? They don’t seem to make them anymore. I remember my children watching Little House on the Prairie, Eight is Enough, Our House, and Touched By An Angel. Those were great wholesome shows that a family could watch together and even talk about. Even now I tend to watch the Hallmark channel a lot because those shows just make me feel good about the world and others.
I watch a lot of TV shows now that my children are grown up but I don’t think I would have watched these shows with them. There is so much violence and blood in shows like CSI, Law and Order SVU, NCIS, and other shows like this. I didn’t let my children see those horror movies that “everyone else” got to see. I didn’t let them watch TV shows that “everyone else” got to watch. Maybe I was a fuddy-duddy (do they still use that phrase?) but I felt it was my responsibility as a parent to set these limits.
I hope some of these parents with young children will start to wake up and realize that they have a responsibility. It is time to say no to these movies and shows. It’s time to tell our children no. They do not need to watch these shows and encourage their continuing influence. They do not need to do what “everyone else” does because, let’s face it, not “everyone else” really does it!
Okay, I will get off my soapbox now. I just got so upset with this story and it all boiled over. Now, tell me what do you think? Do you let your children watch these types of things? If so, convince me why I shouldn’t feel this way. I’m not sure you can but I’ll keep an open mind.
Original image: ‘Little Redheaded Boy at the Atlanta Zoo’
http://www.flickr.com/photos/93229003@N00/3431837959 by: Steven List
