50skatekid's Blog

the mission of grades 1-3

Matthew Winkler — Mon, 16 May 2011 19:46:05 +0000

While reading The Case Against Homework, this quote grabbed me.
“I have elementary school children coming in who are highly stressed and miserable,” says pediatrician Rochelle Feldman. “They feel like failures at the beginning of school. One of the most important things you need to do for kids is establish school as a great place to be, that learning is fun and they can be successful these. That is actually the main task of the first three grades. So you’re taking a tremendous risk with issues of self-esteem and self-confidence if you make it drudgery instead of fun.” The book is fairly one-sided, but the evidence support a policy of individualized, developmentally appropriate education.

Journey Into Dyslexia – documentary

Matthew Winkler — Sat, 14 May 2011 18:05:39 +0000

I just returned from the Kildonan School where I watched a screening of the HBO documentary Journey-Into-Dyslexia: Great Minds Think Differently, by Academy Award-winning filmmakers Alan and Susan Raymond. It profiles a number of successful dyslexic people – artists, inventors, students, and entrepreneurs – who have faced a world stacked against them and risen to that challenge. They’ve all learned to see their dyslexia as a positive aspect of their identity. The film also examines the neurological basis of dyslexia, common to 10% of Americans, yet 35% of entrepreneurs.

Trailer

Click here to order the DVD .

Ansel Adams

Matthew Winkler — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 17:38:22 +0000

“Each day was a severe test for me, sitting in a dreadful classroom while the sun and fog played outside. Most of the information received meant absolutely nothing to me. For example, I was chastised for not being able to remember what states border Nebraska and what are the states of the Gulf Coast. It was simply a matter of memorizing the names, nothing about the process of memorizing or any reason to memorize. Education without either meaning or excitement is impossible… To the dismay of my mother I was escorted home and remained under house arrest for a week until my patient father concluded that my entry into yet another school would be useless. Instead, I was to study at home under his guidance.”
See how this 95 year-old old story proceeds at The Writer’s Almanac.

50Skateistan kids

Matthew Winkler — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 18:48:41 +0000

CNN profiled a great story about kids in Afghanistan, who are learning through skateboarding. ”Skateistan’s real aim isn’t skateboarding. That is simply the hook…” to get them connected to education.

math

Matthew Winkler — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 14:17:58 +0000

This week, Logan brought home from school a glossy, full color certificate. He earned the highest grade in math class on the recent unit test! What a confirmation of his new attitude toward academics. About a week ago, he ran out of credit with the school cafeteria. He and I studied the district calendar and counted the school days in December. I wrote out an equation to multiply by the price of a school lunch. He snatched the pen from my hand and calculated it himself, handing it back so I could write the check. Later that night, he showed me his latest Lego creation: a complex spacecraft with geometric wings and escape pods. ”You know what kind of person is good at math and made Lego things like this when he was thirteen?” I ask him. ”Engineer?” Logan replies. I nod, knowing that career path would never have seemed possible to the kid he used to be.

50dragonkid: the author of Eragon

Matthew Winkler — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 16:44:42 +0000

Yesterday’s Writer’s Almanac highlighted the birthday of Christopher Paolani. I always knew he was young, but here’s a clip from this origin story. Sometimes these crazy road trips pay off!

The first draft took him a year, and revising the first draft took a second year. His family decided to self-publish the book, entitled Eragon, and when it first came out in 2002 they toured the country to promote it. During one year, they showed up at 135 events, book fairs, bookstores, libraries, schools, places where the teenage Paolini would stand behind a table in a medieval costume… If he sold 40 books in the course of eight hours, it felt like a good day. The whole experience was really stressful, since his family was risking all their financial future to promote the book, and the book was not selling… But then the stepson of novelist Carl Hiaasen read the book, loved it, and showed it to Hiaasen, who sent in on to his publishers. Soon, Paolini had huge offers from major U.S. and UK publishers.

Progress Report

Matthew Winkler — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 18:39:48 +0000

Yesterday, we met with Logan’s teachers at his new school. He’s thirty days into the seventh grade, carrying As and Bs in all his classes but one! We discussed his IEP in light of recent observations and specialized testing. His scores are solidly average, with some strengths (creativity, expression), and some weaknesses (reading speed, spelling). A big improvement in sixteen months! These results were topped off by a crackerjack review by the school psychologist, detailing his enthusiasm for learning, engagement with teachers and peers, and overall positive attitude. It worked! 50skatekid worked! The academic nosedive is a distant memory, and Logan is now holding steady at a comfortable cruising altitude!

It Worked

Matthew Winkler — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 01:27:32 +0000

Logan is eight days into seventh grade at an all-American middle school in farm country, upstate New York. Last week Logan said, “I never thought I’d actually be excited to go to school. It’s kind of cool. I’ve never had a locker before.” After soccer practice, he attacks his homework. He makes short work of an English worksheet, pokes holes in the assigned reading, whips off a response paragraph. Fifteen months ago, it would have taken anguished hours to complete.

The crazy idea worked: Logan’s attitude toward school has completely reversed! How long will it last?

School of One

Matthew Winkler — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 18:30:38 +0000

It has been almost a year since Logan and I set off on our epic journey, and three months since our return. During our trip, everyone asked “What happens next year?” and our answer changed over time. Logan joked, “50skatekid tours the world!” but we seriously considered on-line schooling, where the teacher/student ratio stays 1:1 and the heavy lifting of the teaching workload is done by a pro, remotely. But we decided that after a year of isolation from his peers, Logan stands to learn more (good and bad) from navigating the mysterious galaxy of pre-teen society than from any academic subject. So, in a few weeks, he’ll enroll in seventh grade at the local public school, where he’ll keep pace with his peers, socially and scholastically, while getting support in his weak areas.

In my educational fantasies, however, he attends a futuristic school with equal socialization but greater customization, wherein each student pursues a personalized curriculum, tuned to his interests, ability level, and learning style – instead of marching through standard courses in groups of twenty-four under a rigid bell schedule. According to an article by Ta-Nehisi Coates (“The Littlest Schoolhouse”), my dream is coming true. Starting with math education, the “school of one” system uses personality surveys and computer testing to determine learning styles and isolate areas of weakness, and then computer software produces a tailored lesson plan, which the teacher vets, adjusts and executes. “The result is that one student might learn to add fractions at a dry-erase board with a small group, while … another student learns about factoring through a game on his laptop.” It tries to “move from the classroom as the locus of instruction delivery, to the student as the focus of instructional attainment” says Joel Klien, chancellor of New York City’s schools. Hopefully, this program will spread to other schools and other subjects.

Skateboarding Student is Home

Matthew Winkler — Sat, 29 May 2010 13:57:51 +0000

Ray Duckler wrote an article about 50skatekid in the Concord Monitor on Tuesday. Like his earlier article, he does a great job of capturing the essence of our journey. I have one correction to make (in italics) concerning this passage: “”You’ve got a place to sleep, food, travel to all fifty states, and your sixth-grade education,” Winkler said.