Today we watched Stand and Deliver in class. I found this movie very interesting and inspirations. One teacher who taught at a poorer school Garfield High was able to convince other teachers that he would be able to teacher students Calculus. Many of these students were considered illiterate and barely passed regular class. Mr. Escalante, however believed in them and thought they could pass the test if they worked very hard. Through his determination and the students in his class they were able to.
This movie showed me that students are able to do a lot more than we give them credit for and with the correct pushing they are able to go far beyond what we think they are capable of. Who knew that these students would be able to pass the AP Calculus exam. They had to work extra in the summer and on weekends but they were able to. I think this shows that children today sometimes take the easy way out and don't fully apply themselves. Teachers also may just get tired of continually hounding students for how to do something so they just end up telling them the answer.
I found an article that asked students if they feel that they are being challenged in school. This article reported that many students do not feel like they are being challenged in school and that the work is too easy. I think this should tell teachers that we need to higher our expectations of what students can accomplish, because when they put their mind to it they can accomplish a lot more than we think.
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education/report/2012/07/10/11913/do-schools-challenge-our-students/
I agree that both the students and teachers push for the highest potential in students who are behind. I think it is so terrible that these kids had to retake the test because the testing place thought they cheated. Just because they weren't expected to do well, and then proved everyone wrong, it doesn't mean they cheated! I've seen this movie before and after the students retake the test they still receive really high scores. It is sad that testing causes these kinds of issues (students get in trouble for falling far behind and not performing well on tests... then when they work really hard and get some of the highest scores, people think they cheat).
ReplyDeleteI really like this article that you found on pushing students harder. I found the actual statistics in it insightful into how students themselves see their work. It is challenging for teachers I would assume to make a class that fits everyone's level of education; however, I think that giving students more challenging work would give both advanced students and regular students more opportunities for learning and success. The real world is full of challenges that these students will face at one point; there is no use babying them in school and not preparing them for what they will face outside the classroom.
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