Teaching in An Ideal Classroom

Week #3, Chapter Two, Mary Kay Ward - Roles:  Creative Connector and Literary Luminator

As I was reading chapter two of "Boys and Girls Learn Differently", so much of what was discussed jumped out at me especially since I am in the classroom all day with boys and girls.  One of the connections I had was discussed on page 50 with regard to learning differences and the intelligneces; specifically muscial intelligence.  I teach in a middle school environment that does not allow the use of ipods during the school day unless it is for instruction use (code of conduct).  I am required to supervise an 8th grade study hall every day and am asked on a daily basis by my students if they can listen to their ipods during study hall to help them concentrate on homework, projects and/or reading.   After making a connection with the following statement "Could this be why music can be such a powerful influence in so many aspects of classroom learning, from memorizing to expressing emotion, from concentrating to boosting self-esteem?", I really have to stop and think that having ipods available for listening to can help many students who struggle to sit still for 40 plus minutes  (especially at the end of the day) would be a great tool beause "music is a whole brain activity, involving both hemispheres at once."

Another issuse that I am compelled to talk about  violence.  Yes I agree that our schools may be the safest places for our children to be because as educators, we have no idea what threatening or violent experiences our students have encountered from the time they go home into the afternoon and return for the next school day.  Often times these experiences are brought in school  and manifest themselves in the hallways, classrooms and cafeterias. I thought it very interesting that the U.S. Dept. of Justice found that it can predict as early as first grade which males will be the future offenders.

On page 66 and 67, Michael Gurian writes about the different between the school environment and the work environment.  The school environment is predominately females while the work environment is predominately male oriented.  Because of the dominance of males in the work environmnet, females are often left out whereas in the school environment, many boys are left out due to the teaching and learning style of the females 's brain,

Important ideas in this chapter:

On pages 54, 55, and 56 the listings of the "Advantages for Boys, Challenges for Girs" and "Advantages for Girls, Challenges for Boys" were interesting to read and learn the differences.  I strongly agree that in some school settings, "the good old boy club" still exists among administrators and male teachers which allows for advantages that females are priviledged to.

On page 59,  the second paragraph states that "the ultimate standard for a classroom ought not to be parity in loudness, agressive hands-up, or dominance."  I do agree with Michael Gurian's statement that as teachers it would be better to find a clear sense of who each student is and help them find a way to express themselves that is best suited for that particular student.  I also agree that we are overdiagnosing our students with ADD/ADHD because we have not been trained properly in how to teach both boys and gitrls.

On page 46, under the ten nuances of learning, I found  "The Likelihood of Boredom"  to be quite true in a classroom setting.  Boys do get bored faster than girls and this can lead to classroom disruptions and behavior problems and shutting down all together to the learning process.  It is important to engage boys on a level that keeps them interested.