--------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 265 EDUCATOR Ref: DBM00003 Date: 07/16/96 From: DALE HILL Time: 11:40pm \/To: ALL (Read 2 times) Subj: Lions, Saint Bernards and Foxes This is an interesting exercise to help people understand some of their own natural biases when working with other people. I participated in this exercise as a trainer preparing for a training situation where I would evaluate 30-35 students. It was useful to see how I valued certain behaviors more than others, which in turn helped me evaluate my students more fairly throughout their training. Time required: 30-60 mins (depends on how much time you use to process the results) Materials needed: Plain bond paper (15-20 Sheets) Markers Pens/Pencils Tape Preparation required: 1. Make three signs on bond paper, one each reading "LIONS" SAINT BERNARDS" and "FOXES". Use markers and make the letters large and easy to 2. Position the signs around the room to provide space for small group activity to take place without interfering with another group. (we did ours outside on a patio area and each group took a different corner of the patio) 3. Pre-position bond paper (at least 3 sheets) and pens/pencils in each area. The exercise: Gather your "class" (trainers, students, etc) in a central location, set the stage by explaining how we can categorize human behavior into 3 simple categories--those identified by the signs around the room. We have Lions, Saint Bernards and Foxes. Ask your students to identify various behaviors associated with each label -- no doubt you'll have a variety of answer pretty quick such as: "foxes are cunning" "lions are strong, fierce" "saint bernards are lovable" etc. Listen to just enough to make sure they are on the right wave length and then suggest that they move to the sign that *they* feel best describes the way they behave. [depending on the nature of your group, you could specify ...how you interact with students, how you interact with your subordinates, your family etc.]. Lots of milling around will take place as they move to their areas. Once they've sorted out how they see themselves, ask them to take 5 minutes to list (as a group, using brainstorming techniques) all the qualities, attributes of their chosen group. They should have a recorder write these on the bond paper provided. [you can tell them they need a recorder, or simply observe how each group handles it and process that as part of the exercise]. After the 5 mins is up, collect the lists and set them aside. Next have each group rotate around the room, lions go to the saint bernard area, saint bernard go to the fox. Again, give them a 5 min limit and have them list what they perceive are the attributes of the group they are now at [lions list their perceptions of saint bernards -- ie. their soft, too "touchy feely", avoid conflict etc]. The records should note that this list is observations of saint bernards made by lions. After the 5 mins has expired, turn in sheets and rotate one last time...repeat the exercise. Processing the results: Call everyone back together and make throw out some overhead questions to find out how they liked the exercise --- expect a wide variety of responses, take mental note of those that really enjoyed it and those that didn't, you may be able to tie that to their "type" as you process the exercise. First read the attributes that each group wrote about themselves--generally you can expect positive or complimentary terms used to describe the characteristics they see in themselves. Next, simply go through the remaining sheets reading what the lions thought of saint bernards and foxes, what foxes thought of lions and saint bernards and what saint bernards thought of lions and foxes. As you read these lists you should see some trends develop on how each group views those in another group -- characteristics that a fox listed as complimentary to themselves, creative for example, may be viewed as "sneaky" by a lion and so forth. Take note of who identifies with various comments as you can work off of those as you go. The point behind the exercise is to show how we tend to appreciate or value behavior similar to our own and put less stock in those behaviors that don't neatly match up with our way of seeing things. As a teacher/trainer in an evaluation role, it's important to know if we have a bias toward the dominant lion or the more quiet saint bernard. Is the student constantly speaking out of turn or are they taking initiative? Are they "soft and over sensitive" or do they exhibit "strong human relations skills"? Are they resourceful and creative or are they sneaky and can't be trusted, always working outside established rules? How we view them depends a lot on our own orientation. If you use this with students, it can be processed in a way to show them how they interact with their peers in group situations, whether it be in small work groups in the class or in student leadership positions in the school. It could be tied to how they interact with family members, co-workers or significant others. Reinforcement: Throughout your class/training situation, you can point out examples of "lion" behavior or "fox" behavior and show how another may have handled the situation. Again, depending on the class you have you will use more or less guided questioning to help identify the behaviors you want to highlight. In my particular situation, when we did the final evaluation of our students, we had to review our top five performers to see if as a saint bernard for example, did I pick all saint bernards as my top performers? or was I able to look at and evaluate each students strengths on their own merits. This is a surpisingly simple exercise but was a lot of fun and somewhat of an eye opener for the trainers. I'm sure there are lots of variations of this out there and would love to hear of your experiences with it. If you do choose to use it, please let me know how it went! Dale dhill@badlands.nodak.edu captain.scarlet@spectrumbbs.com --- DB A3000sl/005017 * Origin: The SPECTRUM BBS (1:2808/1) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 265 EDUCATOR Ref: DBM00004 Date: 07/16/96 From: DALE HILL Time: 11:54pm \/To: ALL (Read 2 times) Subj: Tinker toys and Lego's I have to rate tinker toys and lego's as some of the best toys every made, I hate to think of the hours I've spent sprawled out on the floor building things with my children as they've grown up. I was pleasantly surprise when one of the classroom exercises in my lesson plan called for tinker toys and lego's! I was teaching a block of instruction on leadership and small group activity, the exercise was simple: bring in a box of tinker toys or lego's for each group of 6-8 students, give them 20 minutes to construct a tower, the group with the highest tower "wins" -- what they win is up to you and dependent on the age of the class; my college juniors wanted cookies! ;) Anyway, the real key behind this exercise is to watch how they attack the problem--who emerges as a group leader, do they go through a planning stage, how do the ideas come in, do they approach the task in an orderly manner, is everyone participating, if not-is anyone attending to the "non-participants", are there domineering personalities and if so what is their impact on the success of the group, who is handling the maintenance behaviors in the group, etc. This can be used as a lead in to a lesson that covers these types of issues, or it can be used after the lesson is taught to see if the students comprehended the material and can apply it. The neat thing about it is the students are so focused on the "fun" associated with playing with toys, that they don't consciously focus on some of the group leadership ideas -- this allows the instructor to make some very valuable observations. Processing this one is fairly straight foward, you can use a variety of questions to have the students identify strengths, weaknesses, recommended improvement areas associated with how they approached the task. I find this is a fun one to break up lecture/discussion on leadership and group dynamics. Dale dhill@badlands.nodak.edu captain.scarlet@spectrumbbs.com --- DB A3000sl/005017 * Origin: The SPECTRUM BBS (1:2808/1) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 265 EDUCATOR Ref: DBM00005 Date: 07/17/96 From: SHEILA KING Time: 10:06am \/To: RON MCDERMOTT (Read 3 times) Subj: 'PUTER-TECH CURRICULM -> SK>I must say that I am shocked to here such an argument against -> SK>programming (why teach it as who really needs it nowadays) coming -> SK>from both you and Ron McDermott. -> I'm not sure I said exactly that? My thinking was more -> along the lines of interest and future programming trends -> (I think we're going to have programs writing programs -> for the most part, with an object-oriented wysiwyg bent). Sorry, I'm not meaning to put words in your mouth. While I agree that programming in the future will probably look quite different, I wasn't recommending teaching programming with the idea that "learning how to program" was the end product. Rather I saw the process and the exposure to math topics and problem solving as the outcome and the gain. I don't know that I'd even teach, maybe, writing lines of code. How about just having them play with the turtle and learn how to create designs? The problem solving in such a thing can be quite complex, and it is an integration of art and math (geometry), and it appeals to some of the other learning styles (for instance, kinesthetic learners can be taught to act out as the turtle accoring to commands, which could help them relate to the visual representation on the screen). -> I grant that there are some aspects of logo which would be -> beneficial; I find it hard to say the same about -> programming in basic, pascal, etc, FOR THE AVERAGE STUDENT. OK, I can agree with that. I know that some students would be completely disinterested in traditional "programming", and I don't really see it as a required topic for all students. -> Now maybe if we're talking programming Web pages with things -> like animation and REALSOUND, we could get something going! I'm surprised that you even equate that with "programming". Nowadays more and more software is coming out, and also Web page "templates", such that it is not really necessary to know HTML in order to create a Web page. Hmm, maybe Leona will comment on this? I thought she was going to take a course in Web page creation this summer. Have you gotten around to that yet, Leona? ;-) Sheila --- PCBoard (R) v15.22/M 10 * Origin: Castle of the Four Winds...subjective reality? (1:218/804) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 265 EDUCATOR Ref: DBM00006 Date: 07/17/96 From: SHEILA KING Time: 10:17am \/To: LEONA PAYNE (Read 3 times) Subj: Girl Can't Escape Sexism -> Alert the class to gender bias. I do this ALL the time. The most notable example that comes to mind is an announcement that ran in our school's daily bulletin (announcements to be read out in homeroom) either this past year or the year before. It requested that those interested in being a Stat Girl for some sport team (I don't recall which) report to a meeting at such and such time and place. This REALLY galled me. I told the class it was sexist and that why couldn't a boy be a Stat PERSON also? The kids laughed and told me that it was always the girls who did that Stat duties. They don't even realize when it is POINTED OUT to them how perverted that point of view is. What's really bad is that the girls accept this as the status quo and don't think they need to do anything to change it. A few years ago (maybe five?) one of our teachers (a nun) commented to me that a girl at our school would never run for ASB president, and even if she did, the student body would never elect a girl for that position. Secretary or Treasurer, sure. Maybe even Vice Pres, but not President. I recall at that time feeling that she was correct. I am happy to report, though, that since that time we have had one girl ASB President (two years ago). So, in the entire history of our school (founded in 1950) we have had _one_ girl ASB President. But it is a reflection on the subtle discrimination that goes on that (1) in general, girls simply don't decide to run for that position (again this year, we had only male candidates), and (2) even if a girl should run, they would be at a severe disadvantage of being elected simply by virtue of their gender. I think that many of us are so comfortable with the way things have always been, that we don't even notice this type of thing when it occurs. Sheila --- PCBoard (R) v15.22/M 10 * Origin: Castle of the Four Winds...subjective reality? (1:218/804) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 265 EDUCATOR Ref: DBM00007 Date: 07/17/96 From: SHEILA KING Time: 10:24am \/To: CHARLES BEAMS (Read 3 times) Subj: Educational comparisons Interesting article about rigorous testing, Charles. I know I couldn't possibly answer any of those biology questions today, myself. While you show large percentages of students in foreign nations passing these exams, I do recall from a previous article that you had posted that the percentage passing rate on these exams was rather low (something like 30%?). I was shocked at how low they students were allowed to score and still be considered passing. I wonder at the point of having a rigorous exam and then making the passing rate so low. It almost sends the message that "we don't really expect you to know all of this stuff". The reason I mention it, is because we are seeing something similar in the AP Calculus exam that has been a trend for a few years, and I find it disturbing. Sheila --- PCBoard (R) v15.22/M 10 * Origin: Castle of the Four Winds...subjective reality? (1:218/804) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 265 EDUCATOR Ref: DBM00008 Date: 07/17/96 From: MATT SMITH Time: 08:59pm \/To: SHEILA KING (Read 3 times) Subj: Re: Businesses Want Standards SK> -> Business needs to understand that regardless of the education of SK> the SK> -> incoming employee, constant training, empowering employees in SK> -> decision-making processes, and building trust are items that need SK> to SK> -> be developed at all levels of any businesses (including SK> education). SK> -> Until educators and parents feel that they have a say in what goes SK> -> on, not much changes. SK> SK> Well said. If businesses think they are going to get ready-made SK> employees from the schools that require no maintenance, they are SK> deluding themselves. I agree with you that businesses cannot expect to get HS grads who are a "one-size-fits-all" new hire when different jobs need different skills. But businesses can realistically expect (hope?) that the HS grad will be capable of reading at grade level, spelling, and doing junior-high prealgebra. And if businesses don't get that kind of HS grad after reforms, don't expect political support for reform from businesses and managers. --- Simplex BBS (v1.07.00Beta [DOS]) * Origin: NighthawkBBS, Burlington NC 910-228-7002 HST Dual (1:3644/6) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 265 EDUCATOR Ref: DBM00009 Date: 07/17/96 From: MATT SMITH Time: 09:08pm \/To: CHARLES BEAMS (Read 3 times) Subj: Re: Illegal Immigrants CB> You can't blame the states for feeling frustrated. The federal CB> government has not controlled illegal immigration, and the states CB> have CB> been stuck with paying for the services illegal immigrants use. But CB> denying their children an education is no way to solve the problem. CB> As the 1982 Supreme Court decision put it, punishing the children of CB> illegal aliens for the wrongdoing of their parents is grossly CB> unfair--it CB> "does not comport with the fundamental conceptions of justice." "Punishing" the children of criminals is routinely _accepted_ by our courts. Children of imprisoned criminals are "punished" by a decrease in family living standards, by ridicule by classmates teasing them about daddy being a jailbird, etc. But no court has held imprisoning criminals unconstitutional or grossly unfair just because the criminals' children suffer when daddy goes to jail! CB> Supporters of the amendment admit there are problems, but they say CB> that CB> the biggest problem is the cost of educating the children of illegal CB> aliens. However, the cost of not educating these children is even CB> greater. Even if they never become citizens, they are likely to CB> remain If so, it is only because of lax enforcement of the immigration laws. If Daddy and Mommy are deported, the children of the illegal immigrants are not likely to remain. CB> The 1982 Supreme Court decision talks about the price children CB> themselves will pay if they are denied an education: "The inability CB> to CB> read and write will handicap the individual deprived of basic CB> education So will the prisoner's children be handicapped by lost educational opportunities when daddy's less able to pay for college, less able to participate in their kid's education, etc. --- Simplex BBS (v1.07.00Beta [DOS]) * Origin: NighthawkBBS, Burlington NC 910-228-7002 HST Dual (1:3644/6) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 265 EDUCATOR Ref: DBM00010 Date: 07/17/96 From: DAL JENCSO Time: 11:37pm \/To: SHEILA KING (Read 3 times) Subj: Single Sex Classes SK> question. He asked the rest of us (all women...about 4 or 5 o SK> saw any benefit to single sex math classes for girls or if we SK> this "research" that teachers tend to favor boys more than gi SK> classroom by calling on them more often and praising them mor I think there may be some real advantages to presenting math to females in a different manner, but it has nothing to do with this nonsense. Has to do with timely instruction utilizing teaching methods that are favorable to females. I will try to find some references, but am not interested in debate. * RM 1.31 3319 * --- Platinum Xpress/Win/Wildcat5! v2.0GC * Origin: Hafa Adai Exchange Lexington Park MD 301-863-5089 (1:2612/10) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 265 EDUCATOR Ref: DBM00011 Date: 07/17/96 From: GEORGE NORD Time: 09:30pm \/To: ALL (Read 2 times) Subj: Teachers needed Schools in California will be reducing class size in the primary grades. This has produced a great need for teachers. My school district is amoung many looking for credentialed teachers to fill vacancies. Class sizes will be 20..pretty nice. If you are out of state and want to move to sunny Calif., it may be worth looking into. The county I work in is in the San Joaquin Valley. To get information on credentialing call the Tulare County office of Education (209) 73306300. If you are interested in applying in the district I work in please inquire vie e-mail at george.nord@dinuba.com and I will give you further directions. We are a small one school district between Visalia and Fresno. Salary for beginning teachers at BA +30 is about $26,000. It is a good working situation in a rural setting. Escape the city...teach in Traver, California !! Snail Mail..Traver Jesd. PO Box 69 Traver, California 93673 --- QScan/PCB v1.17b / 01-0154 * Origin: MicroLink BBS * Dinuba, CA 209-591-8753 (1:214/80) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 265 EDUCATOR Ref: DBT00000 Date: 07/22/96 From: MATT SMITH Time: 08:28pm \/To: RON MCDERMOTT (Read 3 times) Subj: Re: ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS RM> MS>If so, it is only because of lax enforcement of the immigration RM> laws. RM> MS>If Daddy and Mommy are deported, the children of the illegal RM> MS>immigrants are not likely to remain. RM> RM> It might be germaine at this point to mention that children RM> born here are US citizens, and I imagine that there are a RM> great many children of illegal aliens who are, in fact, US RM> citizens..... What you said is very true. But I stand by what I said. If the illegal-alien parents are deported, they'll take their kids home with them...and out of being a drain on the taxpayers here. From age 0-18, kids cost society far more than they contribute in America, because they do not work much and pay little taxes while society pays high costs for them (schools, AFDC, etc.). If the U.S.-citizen kid of those deported illegal parents comes back to America at 18, at least taxpayers here won't have had to pay for his schooling or welfare benefits. --- Simplex BBS (v1.07.00Beta [DOS]) * Origin: NighthawkBBS, Burlington NC 910-228-7002 HST Dual (1:3644/6)