Yes and no. I am more excited (and nervous) to see what the future of education holds. If anything, this has inspired me to be more passionate about my teaching and my students. It has encouraged me to reevaluate what I do. I am ready to take risks for the benefit of my students. I truly feel that this is something that should be a required read in all schools... a challenge to reevaluate how the school and district is working and to ask the questions: What do we need to do so we can we do better? How can we do it? Technology isn't going away. The things students need to know and be able to do will continue to evolve. Education has to evolve with it in order to meet the needs of our students.
Standardized testing is the easy way out. We need to stop trying to make things "easy" and focus on making them "effective."
I don’t understand how this book cannot make an impact on education for those who read it. We need to come into present day and look to the future for students. This video “Did You Know 2014” (http://youtu.be/XrJjfDUzD7M) is on youtube, was shared with us during secondary categorical meetings. It is definite proof we need to adjust the way we teach students. The world is changing so quickly, we need to teach students how to learn and be life-long learners. Jerrie
I think this book opened my eyes to what is possible and what is already happening around the country. It’s easy to look around and see the rural schools and have the mindset that change won’t happen (unless it’s forced). However, reading this book has helped me realize that change happens when professionals who are invested in the outcomes start innovating or pushing for change – in other words, change is possible. At the end of the day, it’s easy to see what’s wrong, but it’s important to see what is good and how even small changes can positively impact the education of our students.
I think that schools and their teaching staff all over the country are doing their best to positively impact students. They are doing this with a mix of teaching and delivery methods and often without much encouragement from the outside world. Since Lichtman didn't seem to get off the I-70 corridor in Colorado and Kansas I wish he would have stopped in at some of the small, rural school along the way and seen some of the positive things that are happening there. Education has been in the news a lot lately in my work state and in my home state.....one has severe money woes and the other is tackling the testing issue. It will be interesting to see what happens
Yes, I feel it has made me look at education differently. I feel it has helped me understand the direction my district has taken. I had doubts at the beginning of this year with some of the decisions with teaching staff. I now see how those people from the community can and have helped students. I feel my district is ahead of other places around with innovation and new ideas with making the change to a different type of school. It would be great for some of the staff here to read this book and incorporate these ideas into the elementary building not just secondary. There is definitely going to be many changes in the schools in Kansas with the budget cuts and reduction in staff.
It did give me insight on what some schools out there are doing and how innovation is working for them. I love reading about those classrooms that are different and being successful. There are so many books out there that negative towards the education system and this one has a positive light on it. I think it get teachers and district leaders thinking on how education needs to be changed for the good of the students. I can see some of the innovation changes being easier to implement at the higher levels. My impression is that he tended towards the upper levels and not really any elementary levels. What would innovation look like at that level? Is it possible at that level. I see it being difficult at the elementary level as the students are more dependent on the teachers and those teachers are teaching the foundations of reading and math and problem solving. I would be interested in knowing what Grant thinks about innovation in a K-2 setting. I think a change has to start at the teacher preparation level. Get the fresh blooded teachers thinking differently so they can bring those ideas to the school districts they will be in. If they start a change and show proficiency in their classrooms then it can ripple out into other classrooms. I will be interesting to see how education will change in the next 5-10 years. I think teachers and districts will have to become more creative in their teaching/innovation if the state funding keeps getting cut.
This was a challenging book for me to read. It was difficult for me to get into at first. It did make me start to think differently about the future of education. I think the direction he sees education going is definitely going to take some time to get there, maybe not even fully in my teaching career. There is something to be said about tradition, its not always as ineffective as we often think it is. As much as traditional education is not working there is a part of it that is still very effective due simply to human nature. I am a progressive thinker when it comes to innovation in education and the classroom so this book definitely gave me ideas and insight into the direction that education is going. However, there is caution in everything, some of what we do as teachers is effective- if its not broke don't fix it! As educators we need to keep in mind how our students learn. Some of the programs in schools across the country listed in this book are not for every student. Everyone learns differently and schools that truly understand that will provide/offer programs that will educate everyone. That is the true future of education!
Yes, it definitely made me think differently about the future of education. I can see how technology is changing the way young minds think (and a few of us old ones too!) and know that all of the traditional methods of teaching won't reach these kids. With that being said...I still believe in some consistency of the basic content of early learning. This book has opened my eyes and caused a lot of self-refleciton on my part. I love to be pushed to think in different ways and to practice a new technique...but I am also one that can easily slide back into what is comfortable/easy when it all gets overwhelming.
I found this book invigorating. LIchman had me from the statement that change is not hard, it's uncomfortable (paraphrased). I especially appreciated the examples of innovations successfully implemented and the conditions that made that success possible. I've been aware watching my own young children that the ways they learn, and the younger ages they need to learn to filter information will be much different from my own experiences. I've been concerned too that the increasing pressure to learn more and more skills at a younger age, is "robbing" them of some of the learning opportunities for exploring and creativity. What I want for my own children is not that they learn to be efficient assembly line workers. I'd hope they'd have the sort of careers where they can use their minds for more.
This book really helped me open my eyes better to education in terms of the traditions that I was taught when I was a student and now that I'm teaching today or that I see being taught today, it's still the same. I feel the only difference is the technology that we have now as well as the social media that comes with it. There are all kinds of vast new opportunities out there for jobs that were not around 21 years ago. Some of the students today are ready to embrace these new job opportunities or careers while some students are still being left behind due to social-economic status and poverty. These are the students we need to keep an eye on and pay special attention to so they can have the same opportunities the other students that are successful can have. This book has prompted me to get out of my comfort zone and think outside the box so I can promote better teaching for my students as well as have more urgency for them to be better prepared for life outside of school. Yes we still need to teach the skills that they need for taking standardized tests but that is not what some students need in order to be prepared for young adulthood. I will be coming back to this book often so I can come up with ideas to be an effective teacher for my students, we are all in this together.
This book certainly introduced different ways that schools are trying to break out of the mold of "assembly line" teaching. Teaching young people to think outside of the box is what is going to make their lives fit in to the tech world that they will be entering in the job market. What I think is sad, though, is all these young people who are being taught to use technology and taught to think in alternate ways are not going to go into the teaching field because of lack of wealth in that field, plus all these kids that have been forced to take test after test and seeing the stress that teachers go through don't want to go through that themselves. I really thought in my own personal life that my daughter would become a teacher, but she is adamant that there is no way she will have stress like she has seen me have when it comes to testing and the outcome required! I think teachers have a duty to teach students differently in this modern world, because they are our future, but if the adults in their lives don't give opportunities to expand and explore and create, we are holding back potential in students and they won't have an opportunity to compete in a global market. The only way schools can do that is change their way of thinking and get out of the assembly line mode and have more open and creative classrooms. Don't get me wrong, I love having students seated and quiet, but sometimes that just isn't productive and it was worth the risk of letting them lay on the floor or sit in their chair backward or stand or whatever, because of the different learning styles of each individual student. This book was nice in that fact that it showed that other teachers are trying different things and that it's ok to not always conform to the norm because the outcome is good for the young people in their education.
I felt like this book made me take a look at myself and how I deal with change and how to help be a leader and help them get through change and embrace it. We are all scared of change no matter how big or small it is but we need to face the facts it will come no matter how hard we try and ignore it. With budgets being cut more and more and no money to be found to replace what we have already lost we have to be ready for change. As teachers are job is to teach students so shouldn’t we be teaching by example? Shouldn’t we be teaching our students how to be leaders and grab the bull by the horns and embrace change and that the world never stays the same it is ever changing? Are job is to prepare our students for the future!
Yes it did change some thinking for me. I have had a lot of the same thoughts as the author. I think that change is a good thing as long as we are willing to get outside of our silo or box that is surrounding us and go with it. The students we are teaching are in a different world then what most of us lived, we have to meet them at their world. Don't get me wrong there are things that I defiantly don't think is right but it is a technological world these kids are in, if we don't teach them in the world they are in now then the real world is going to be a challenge and even a possible failure. I think that is defiantly challenging to teach this group of kids and kids coming up as many only know ipads, ipods and laptops therefore interactive learning is a must and I am not saying no paper/pencil activities however I am saying keep in mind where these kids have came from and where they are going.
This book was a challenge for me...I'm not sure why. It was hard for me to find the time that I needed to get the reading done. Yes, I definitely think that reading the book makes me think about and look at the future of education differently. There were so many good points about innovation and change. The book showed what is possible and what is already happening in different schools around the nation. I thought it was so interesting that sometimes it was the schools with all of the odds against them that were doing amazing, innovative things. Those school are really preparing students for the future. I would like to think that the rest of us are also preparing students for the future, but I'm not sure that we are doing it in the same ways. The students that we are teaching are growing up in a world that is so different from what we grew up in. I hope that as educators in SW Kansas, we can figure out the best ways to prepare our students to be happy, healthy, life-long learners. I think that it would be a good idea for other teachers to also read this book so that they could see what was possible.
Reading books like this are SUPER inspirational, motivational, and make me excited for the field I work in! I get done reading a chapter and think, “You know what??? Maybe the future of education isn’t as bleak after all!” But then, after a few days, a couple weeks, whatever, I get caught up in the day-to-day and go back to my old frame of mind. I know that’s probably a really crappy attitude to have, but with everything going on in education right now, it’s just hard to find anything positive to really hold on to. Lately, the negatives just tend to overshadow everything else, you know???
Yes and no. I am more excited (and nervous) to see what the future of education holds. If anything, this has inspired me to be more passionate about my teaching and my students. It has encouraged me to reevaluate what I do. I am ready to take risks for the benefit of my students. I truly feel that this is something that should be a required read in all schools... a challenge to reevaluate how the school and district is working and to ask the questions: What do we need to do so we can we do better? How can we do it? Technology isn't going away. The things students need to know and be able to do will continue to evolve. Education has to evolve with it in order to meet the needs of our students.
ReplyDeleteStandardized testing is the easy way out. We need to stop trying to make things "easy" and focus on making them "effective."
I don’t understand how this book cannot make an impact on education for those who read it. We need to come into present day and look to the future for students. This video “Did You Know 2014” (http://youtu.be/XrJjfDUzD7M) is on youtube, was shared with us during secondary categorical meetings. It is definite proof we need to adjust the way we teach students. The world is changing so quickly, we need to teach students how to learn and be life-long learners.
ReplyDeleteJerrie
I think this book opened my eyes to what is possible and what is already happening around the country. It’s easy to look around and see the rural schools and have the mindset that change won’t happen (unless it’s forced). However, reading this book has helped me realize that change happens when professionals who are invested in the outcomes start innovating or pushing for change – in other words, change is possible. At the end of the day, it’s easy to see what’s wrong, but it’s important to see what is good and how even small changes can positively impact the education of our students.
ReplyDeleteI think that schools and their teaching staff all over the country are doing their best to positively impact students. They are doing this with a mix of teaching and delivery methods and often without much encouragement from the outside world. Since Lichtman didn't seem to get off the I-70 corridor in Colorado and Kansas I wish he would have stopped in at some of the small, rural school along the way and seen some of the positive things that are happening there. Education has been in the news a lot lately in my work state and in my home state.....one has severe money woes and the other is tackling the testing issue. It will be interesting to see what happens
ReplyDeleteYes, I feel it has made me look at education differently. I feel it has helped me understand the direction my district has taken. I had doubts at the beginning of this year with some of the decisions with teaching staff. I now see how those people from the community can and have helped students. I feel my district is ahead of other places around with innovation and new ideas with making the change to a different type of school. It would be great for some of the staff here to read this book and incorporate these ideas into the elementary building not just secondary. There is definitely going to be many changes in the schools in Kansas with the budget cuts and reduction in staff.
ReplyDeleteIt did give me insight on what some schools out there are doing and how innovation is working for them. I love reading about those classrooms that are different and being successful. There are so many books out there that negative towards the education system and this one has a positive light on it. I think it get teachers and district leaders thinking on how education needs to be changed for the good of the students. I can see some of the innovation changes being easier to implement at the higher levels. My impression is that he tended towards the upper levels and not really any elementary levels. What would innovation look like at that level? Is it possible at that level. I see it being difficult at the elementary level as the students are more dependent on the teachers and those teachers are teaching the foundations of reading and math and problem solving. I would be interested in knowing what Grant thinks about innovation in a K-2 setting. I think a change has to start at the teacher preparation level. Get the fresh blooded teachers thinking differently so they can bring those ideas to the school districts they will be in. If they start a change and show proficiency in their classrooms then it can ripple out into other classrooms. I will be interesting to see how education will change in the next 5-10 years. I think teachers and districts will have to become more creative in their teaching/innovation if the state funding keeps getting cut.
ReplyDeleteThis was a challenging book for me to read. It was difficult for me to get into at first. It did make me start to think differently about the future of education. I think the direction he sees education going is definitely going to take some time to get there, maybe not even fully in my teaching career. There is something to be said about tradition, its not always as ineffective as we often think it is. As much as traditional education is not working there is a part of it that is still very effective due simply to human nature. I am a progressive thinker when it comes to innovation in education and the classroom so this book definitely gave me ideas and insight into the direction that education is going. However, there is caution in everything, some of what we do as teachers is effective- if its not broke don't fix it! As educators we need to keep in mind how our students learn. Some of the programs in schools across the country listed in this book are not for every student. Everyone learns differently and schools that truly understand that will provide/offer programs that will educate everyone. That is the true future of education!
ReplyDeleteYes, it definitely made me think differently about the future of education. I can see how technology is changing the way young minds think (and a few of us old ones too!) and know that all of the traditional methods of teaching won't reach these kids. With that being said...I still believe in some consistency of the basic content of early learning. This book has opened my eyes and caused a lot of self-refleciton on my part. I love to be pushed to think in different ways and to practice a new technique...but I am also one that can easily slide back into what is comfortable/easy when it all gets overwhelming.
ReplyDeleteI found this book invigorating. LIchman had me from the statement that change is not hard, it's uncomfortable (paraphrased). I especially appreciated the examples of innovations successfully implemented and the conditions that made that success possible. I've been aware watching my own young children that the ways they learn, and the younger ages they need to learn to filter information will be much different from my own experiences. I've been concerned too that the increasing pressure to learn more and more skills at a younger age, is "robbing" them of some of the learning opportunities for exploring and creativity. What I want for my own children is not that they learn to be efficient assembly line workers. I'd hope they'd have the sort of careers where they can use their minds for more.
ReplyDeleteThis book really helped me open my eyes better to education in terms of the traditions that I was taught when I was a student and now that I'm teaching today or that I see being taught today, it's still the same. I feel the only difference is the technology that we have now as well as the social media that comes with it. There are all kinds of vast new opportunities out there for jobs that were not around 21 years ago. Some of the students today are ready to embrace these new job opportunities or careers while some students are still being left behind due to social-economic status and poverty. These are the students we need to keep an eye on and pay special attention to so they can have the same opportunities the other students that are successful can have. This book has prompted me to get out of my comfort zone and think outside the box so I can promote better teaching for my students as well as have more urgency for them to be better prepared for life outside of school. Yes we still need to teach the skills that they need for taking standardized tests but that is not what some students need in order to be prepared for young adulthood. I will be coming back to this book often so I can come up with ideas to be an effective teacher for my students, we are all in this together.
ReplyDeleteThis book certainly introduced different ways that schools are trying to break out of the mold of "assembly line" teaching. Teaching young people to think outside of the box is what is going to make their lives fit in to the tech world that they will be entering in the job market. What I think is sad, though, is all these young people who are being taught to use technology and taught to think in alternate ways are not going to go into the teaching field because of lack of wealth in that field, plus all these kids that have been forced to take test after test and seeing the stress that teachers go through don't want to go through that themselves. I really thought in my own personal life that my daughter would become a teacher, but she is adamant that there is no way she will have stress like she has seen me have when it comes to testing and the outcome required!
ReplyDeleteI think teachers have a duty to teach students differently in this modern world, because they are our future, but if the adults in their lives don't give opportunities to expand and explore and create, we are holding back potential in students and they won't have an opportunity to compete in a global market. The only way schools can do that is change their way of thinking and get out of the assembly line mode and have more open and creative classrooms. Don't get me wrong, I love having students seated and quiet, but sometimes that just isn't productive and it was worth the risk of letting them lay on the floor or sit in their chair backward or stand or whatever, because of the different learning styles of each individual student.
This book was nice in that fact that it showed that other teachers are trying different things and that it's ok to not always conform to the norm because the outcome is good for the young people in their education.
I felt like this book made me take a look at myself and how I deal with change and how to help be a leader and help them get through change and embrace it. We are all scared of change no matter how big or small it is but we need to face the facts it will come no matter how hard we try and ignore it. With budgets being cut more and more and no money to be found to replace what we have already lost we have to be ready for change. As teachers are job is to teach students so shouldn’t we be teaching by example? Shouldn’t we be teaching our students how to be leaders and grab the bull by the horns and embrace change and that the world never stays the same it is ever changing? Are job is to prepare our students for the future!
ReplyDeleteYes it did change some thinking for me. I have had a lot of the same thoughts as the author. I think that change is a good thing as long as we are willing to get outside of our silo or box that is surrounding us and go with it. The students we are teaching are in a different world then what most of us lived, we have to meet them at their world. Don't get me wrong there are things that I defiantly don't think is right but it is a technological world these kids are in, if we don't teach them in the world they are in now then the real world is going to be a challenge and even a possible failure. I think that is defiantly challenging to teach this group of kids and kids coming up as many only know ipads, ipods and laptops therefore interactive learning is a must and I am not saying no paper/pencil activities however I am saying keep in mind where these kids have came from and where they are going.
ReplyDeleteThis book was a challenge for me...I'm not sure why. It was hard for me to find the time that I needed to get the reading done. Yes, I definitely think that reading the book makes me think about and look at the future of education differently. There were so many good points about innovation and change. The book showed what is possible and what is already happening in different schools around the nation. I thought it was so interesting that sometimes it was the schools with all of the odds against them that were doing amazing, innovative things. Those school are really preparing students for the future. I would like to think that the rest of us are also preparing students for the future, but I'm not sure that we are doing it in the same ways. The students that we are teaching are growing up in a world that is so different from what we grew up in. I hope that as educators in SW Kansas, we can figure out the best ways to prepare our students to be happy, healthy, life-long learners. I think that it would be a good idea for other teachers to also read this book so that they could see what was possible.
ReplyDeleteReading books like this are SUPER inspirational, motivational, and make me excited for the field I work in! I get done reading a chapter and think, “You know what??? Maybe the future of education isn’t as bleak after all!” But then, after a few days, a couple weeks, whatever, I get caught up in the day-to-day and go back to my old frame of mind. I know that’s probably a really crappy attitude to have, but with everything going on in education right now, it’s just hard to find anything positive to really hold on to. Lately, the negatives just tend to overshadow everything else, you know???
ReplyDelete