I’m no better than a high school drop out

About 1/3 of the 95% of children who attend school (5% and growing are engaging in home education) drop out in America.  In large cities like those I grew up in: Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and New York the drop out rate is about 50%.  Often teachers blame parents and parents blame teachers and that just pisses me off because it doesn’t deal with the real issue which is that public schools are just not designed to meet the needs of students.  You often find that those who graduated put themselves on a pedestal.  If they could do it, anyone can.  I am not on a pedestal.  I thought about dropping out often.  I graduated from high school and then college pissed off when I became old enough to realize it was a big waste of my time.  

During all my days in secondary school I wondered what the heck I was doing.  The classes were boring.  The teachers were boring. The kids weren’t nice to each other.  I thought, "people tell us these are the best years of our lives." I thought they were extremely boring and oppressive.  I was literally nearly bored to death and I did indeed think of suicide during those years wondering...”Wait. This is the best? Is that all there is???”

Sure, I finished school. Most of my friends did not. However, just because my body finished school does not mean my mind hadn’t dropped out. Few even knew I was even there.  I didn't attend any of those things people attend like prom or homecoming. One of the great things about the 80s was erasable ink.  I found (maybe stole) a hall pass.  I'd go around to classes helping others escape, delivering the pass with their name to get out of class.  The reality is in high school it was the drop outs that I had more in common with and I spent most of my time.

Here are the things I have in common with drop outs.  
81% wanted better teachers  
81% said there should be more opportunities for “real-world” learning so that students can see the connection
75 % wanted smaller classes with more individualized instruction  
70% simply lack interest in gaining an education most often because the generic course curriculum offered to public high school students, whereby a number of students simply become bored.
70% said the teachers and content did not motivate or inspired them to work
50% said more should be done to help students who had difficulty learning.
50% of students said they dropped out because they were bored and disengaged from high school.
50% of students dropped out because they said classes weren’t interesting.
45% said their elementary schools didn’t adequately prepare them  

I was lucky not to have these things in common
(These factors are often not in the control of students.)
33% said they had to get a job and make money. (I was fortunate to only need a part-time job in high school.)
25% said they became a parent (I was “lucky” not to be one. My best friends were pregnant in high school.)
24% said they had to care for a family member. (I had a sick family member, but that didn’t take me from school.)

If you want to read some reports on drop outs yourself visit these links
http://www.civicenterprises.net/pdfs/thesilentepidemic3-06.pdf
http://www.cec.sped.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=9279
http://www.all4ed.org/files/GraduationRates_FactSheet.pdf
http://www.solutionsforamerica.org/healthyfam/dropout_prevention.html
http://www.womensforum.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3082:why-teens-drop-out-of-high-school&catid=14:education&Itemid=44


There’s a lot we can do to combat this problem.  This is one purpose of The Innovative Educator. 

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Resources and Ideas Shared on Unplugged Mom Radio Show

"Teachers are often just as oppressed as students are in

school environments as a result of test prep mania."

-Lisa Nielsen

I had the pleasure of being a guest on Laurette Lynn’s Unplugged Mom radio show which you can listen to below.  We had a great conversation where we discussed learning vs. schooling and how I am working to bring open source learning and child-lead learning principles into the school environment.  We also talked about how today's technology, internet and social networking can be useful in learning more and enriching our educational experiences for both children and parents!  We touched on internet apprenticeships, community learning, active parenting and more!  Lots of great info.  Many thanks to Laurette Lynn for inviting me to be on her show!


My interview starts at 19:00.  Following the interview you can see links to all the blog posts, people, videos, and ideas I mentioned.  You can click  “Contact Me” and find ways to connect to discuss the ideas further as well.

Listen to internet radio with The Unplugged Mom on Blog Talk Radio

Blog posts I mentioned

• Student Driven Learning = Passion-Based Classrooms
• Is your school like a prison?
• Banned in School
• 21st Century Educators Don’t Say, Hand It In. They Say Publish It
• Using Skype to Bring Learning to Life
• Fix Boring Schools, Not Bored Kids
• Profile of a Passion-Driven Student
• Differentiate Instruction w/Passions!
• Build Your Personal Learning Network
• Don't be illTwitterate or aTextual
• The 9 Step Plan to Combating illTWITTERacy
• Empower Parents with $$$ to Reform Ed  
• The Answer to Teacher Retention: Find Passion (Not Data) Driven Schools

Topics I discussed

• Unschooling and Home Education (42)
• Facebook for learning (25)
• Developing a Personal Learning Network (22)
• Passion driven learning (22)
• Social networking with youth (18)
• Combatting illTWITTERacy (16)
• Online learning and Open Ed Resources  (14)
• Education reform (15)
• ADHD Cure (11)
• Promising learning practices at schools (18)
• Publishing student work (7)
• Differentiating instruction (6)
• Cell phones in Education (66)

Websites I mentioned

• http://InnovateMyClass.org/featured - See how young people are using technology for learning.
• http://InnovationFieldTrips.org - See how schools are incorporating innovative practices into learning.

Video I mentioned

• Help with bowdrill set - Child solicits help from others to make his bowdrill set work.  

Learning thought leaders I mentioned

• Penelope Trunk- Advice at the intersection of work, life, and family.
• Will Richardson - Learning with the Read/Write web
• Supplementing My Kids’ Education with Skype - note: My details of his use of Skype with his kids were a little fuzzy (I read this 4 years ago!), but the sentiment is right on.            
• Kate Fridkis - Grown unschooler and writer who declares, “Superman is not worth the Wait.”
• David Warlick - Learning in the new information landscape.
• Marc Prensky - Learning designer and creator of the “partnering with students” pedagogy.  

Learning thought leaders whose ideas I shared but whose names I didn’t mention

• Angela Maiers - Passion driven learning
• Alan November - Child-centered learning. Watch his TED Talk on the topic!

My Free Parenting Booklet
 

My Book
 

You have read this article DIY Learning / home education / unschooling with the title . You can bookmark this page URL https://benncam.blogspot.com/2011/04/resources-and-ideas-shared-on-unplugged.html. Thanks!

Student Driven Learning = Passion-Based Classrooms

I often speak and write about differentiating instruction. Unfortunately, when I go into schools I see very little differentiation occurring.  This is the case even schools who have bought "magic bullet" programs like Renzulli Learning who tout themselves as a "Differentiation Engine."  I have visited about a dozen schools using such programs but without a solid foundation in what differentiation means.  Instead, they have all their students working within the learning management system on the same thing!


When I dig a little deeper about why this is happening teachers confide that they can't possibly create 32 different lessons for each of their students.  When I hear this, I realize they're not getting something very important.  The students own the learning.  When we give up control and empower the students to learn the way they want with the tools they want, the results are terrific and the students are partners with their teacher in designing learning methods, tools, and environments that are best for them.  


Josh Stumpenhorst recently celebrated the results of this method of teaching in his blog in a post called, "Student-Driven Learning." In the post he shares the ways empowered students learned the literacy standards they were mandated to meet.  Here's what he did.

"I was going to give complete control of the learning in my Language Arts to the students. Starting three days ago, that is exactly what I did. First, we went over our district mandated standards that we had to “hit” between now and the end of the year. Then, I shared with my students various projects and activities I had used in years past that were related to the specific standards. Then it was all on them."

You can read about his initial motivation for a student driven classroom, how to “give it up”, an initial class update, and updates titled “It’s About the Learning”, “Learning Should be Viral”, “One on One is the Best”, “Sub Plans” and "I Am Done!" about his experiences from the classroom as related to his decision to hand over the learning decisions to his students.


To read about how other teachers are doing this work, read these posts.

• One Great Way to Differentiate Instruction – See how Deven Black designed a lesson that enabled students to tap into their strengths, interests, and learning styles.
• Who Owns the Learning and Assessment?  - Read how digital ethnographer Michael Wesch uses learning goals and a wiki for his students to design their learning. 
• When students own the learning –See what happened when Keith Ferrell relinquished control and gave students a choice in how they would meet learning goals.
• Real Life Learning - Shelley Wright is a high school educator in Moose Jaw, SK. On her blog she shares, “I love learning more than anything else.” This post features the video of what happens when school becomes real life.
• Skype in the classroom – Educators everywhere are bringing education to life with Skype.
  See how Melanie Holtsman is using Skype in the Classroom or take a look at this video to see how Carl Anderson is using Skype to connect with virtual guest speakers.
• Principal Hands Over Control During a Trip to The Zoo - See how handing over control to a nine-year old made Principal Patrick Larkns trip to the zoo a much more enjoyable day.  

You have read this article differentiated instruction / passion based learning / passion driven learning / real life learning / student centered learning with the title . You can bookmark this page URL https://benncam.blogspot.com/2011/04/student-driven-learning-passion-based.html. Thanks!