An old school school

[MadHound]

The chief technology officer of eBay sends his children to a nine-classroom school here. So do employees of Silicon Valley giants like Google, Apple, Yahoo and Hewlett-Packard.

But the school’s chief teaching tools are anything but high-tech: pens and paper, knitting needles and, occasionally, mud. Not a computer to be found. No screens at all. They are not allowed in the classroom, and the school even frowns on their use at home."
<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/technology/at-waldorf-school-in-silicon-valley-technology-can-wait.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp>

As a teacher I find this idea refreshing and spot on. I've spent time in classes where every student had a computer, and guess what, they were paying more attention to the computer than actual learning. And far too many teachers are trying to figure out ways to incorporate computers into their lesson plans how to actually teach kids. Computers are a big distraction in the K-8 classroom as far as I'm concerned.

A suitable compromise on this is to have a computer lab, where the computers are separate and removed the classroom. That way if a teacher feels a particular need to implement a digital lesson plan, they can, without the distraction of computers in the classroom itself.

Right now I'm teaching in a school that has that sort of arrangement, a computer lab but no computers in the actual classroom, and it works out wonderfully well.

[AverageJoe90]

1. I read the article, and some of these schools sound like fun. =) nt

My favorite part?

"On a recent Tuesday, Andie Eagle and her fifth-grade classmates refreshed their knitting skills, crisscrossing wooden needles around balls of yarn, making fabric swatches. It’s an activity the school says helps develop problem-solving, patterning, math skills and coordination. The long-term goal: make socks.

Down the hall, a teacher drilled third-graders on multiplication by asking them to pretend to turn their bodies into lightning bolts. She asked them a math problem — four times five — and, in unison, they shouted “20” and zapped their fingers at the number on the blackboard. A roomful of human calculators.

In second grade, students standing in a circle learned language skills by repeating verses after the teacher, while simultaneously playing catch with bean bags. It’s an exercise aimed at synchronizing body and brain. Here, as in other classes, the day can start with a recitation or verse about God that reflects a nondenominational emphasis on the divine.

Andie’s teacher, Cathy Waheed, who is a former computer engineer, tries to make learning both irresistible and highly tactile. Last year she taught fractions by having the children cut up food — apples, quesadillas, cake — into quarters, halves and sixteenths.

“For three weeks, we ate our way through fractions,” she said. “When I made enough fractional pieces of cake to feed everyone, do you think I had their attention?”"

[roody]

5. I am going to do the catch the bag game with my

group of 10 English language learners Monday. Thanks for posting!

[JCMach1]

2. All tools depend on how they are used... Aristotle never even had a blackboard...

Computers can be awesome... to me, knitting sounds like a colossal waste of time. For some who is NOT a kinesthetic learner for Math (which I was not) this would have driven me mad!

[MadHound]

4. Computers can be useful,

But most school districts are simply throwing them into the classroom with no forethought or real plan.

[JCMach1]

6. Exactly... and there is no training and curriculum for 'new' literacy...

[mia]

3. I understand where this kid is coming from. People absorbed in their gadgets

rather than relating to others is a common occurance lately.

The students say they can become frustrated when their parents and relatives get so wrapped up in phones and other devices. Aurad Kamkar, 11, said he recently went to visit cousins and found himself sitting around with five of them playing with their gadgets, not paying attention to him or each other. He started waving his arms at them: “I said: ‘Hello guys, I’m here.’ ”