Sunday, October 18, 2009

Week3 Reading Chapter 1-3

There were three main ideas that caught my attention in the first three chapters of our reading for this week.

At the end chapter 2, the book speaks of laughing because all the questions you ask yourself seem to be hopeless. I have lived by this philosophy for a while. You either laugh or cry, and sometimes I do both. Laughing lifts your spirits and sometimes you reach a solution due to your new found attitude. Also, in the last paragraph of chapter two the word “perfect” is mentioned about what type of day a person has when they are asked. I like this outlook. Most people really don’t even listen to your answer, so going into a long explanation about how bad of a day you are having will simply do no good. The word perfect works on many levels. I know I say “well this is just perfect” in a bad sort of attitude.

Secondly, I have some issues with the third chapter in our reading. I like the overall idea of giving an A so students can be freely creative without the worry of grades. I think there is a place for activities like this in the classroom, but I know my administration would not approve of giving an A grade to every student in the class just because (for their entire grade). Now, (as some of our previous professors have done) single automatic A assignments could be placed within the curriculum to encourage creativity and originality. I am thinking of the students I currently have in class, and I know I would have a few that would definitely abuse this privilege. I have students who don’t like art at all but need a fine art elective to graduate. Many of my students are juniors and seniors and they just want to make it through. So, how do I motivate these students to actually participate fully in an automatic A assignment?

Finally, I really enjoyed the entry about the student who thought of himself as a 68 out of 70 students, but then changed his thinking when he received an A. That is a great example of how teachers can have a positive (or negative) impact on the lives of their students. It also shows just how much a student can change or accomplish with the right kind of attitude.

All in all I do like the ideas of the book. I am not sure they are as profound as I thought they would be. I had the book played up in my mind based on others opinions of it, and so far I haven’t found anything that just knocked my out of my seat. Hopefully, there will be one of those moments to come.

1 comment:

  1. Perfect. I like that response too, for the reasons you list.

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