[Edu-sig] CP4E

[Jordan Johnson]

On Sunday, April 10, 2005, at 09:41  AM, Kirby Urner wrote:
> I think the school/curriculum I'm envisioning would have to be 
> considered
> pioneering and to some degree esoteric i.e. not all schools would 
> follow
> suit.  There'd be a lot of hanging back to see what kinds of results 
> we got.
> But in our school, there'd be a lot of "programming-like" activities
> starting quite young.

I'm with you on that; I'm just trying to reconcile it with my own 
experience in a useful way.  It also sounds like your students are 
similar in background to mine, with the significant difference that 
mine are in 11th grade and have been through a lot more of the system 
(with all the baggage that implies).

A question I wrestle with a lot is how to allow my classes to grow 
according to the students' needs, interests, and abilities, while still 
maintaining some rigor.  My school gives me a LOT of leeway in 
curriculum design, subject to the basic stipulation that I demonstrate 
that there are well-specified objectives being met by the students.  
This also means that they need projects that the students can 
accomplish independently and, I would add, that they can do *well*.  It 
does require constant reminding to check work, proofread, and read the 
instructions thoroughly on any task or tutorial.

I'm not making any argument that this can't be done, mind you; I'm 
convinced that it can.  For now my feeling is that the problem I'm up 
against is more that I don't have the experience--and with it, the bag 
of tricks--to make it all happen yet.

> Although this may sound like a top-down experiment being *imposed* by 
> some
> fanatical adult, in my actual experience it's the opposite.  I'm 
> already
> meeting the kids who want this kind of experience, and are getting it 
> with
> or without any help from their schools (mostly without).

Yes, this is the goal I have in mind, and this is what I see from most 
(about 60 out of 90) of my students.  I can point these students in any 
of a number of directions, and they consistently both produce good work 
and tell me that they want to learn more of it.

The puzzle I see is how to provide the best experience the low end of 
my group: both those who find computers fascinating but whose reading 
frustrations get in the way, and those who come in expressing that they 
want nothing to do with computers, reading, or solving problems.

Thanks for your thoughts.

jmj

--
Find out just what any people will quietly submit to, and you have the
exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them.
		-- Frederick Douglass