Engineering Leading the Way

Project Lead the Way does some good

In this article, some Midwest schools are getting help from Project Lead the Way (PLTW). Lead the Way is a non-profit that seeks to implement science, technology, and engineering programs in high schools and middle schools across the country in order to fill the huge shortages in qualified engineers that are graduating from college. The hope for these programs is to implement engineering and other courses to educate students in various fields such as civil, biomedical, and aeronautics engineering. In Milwaukee, at some high schools last year, PLTW was implemented and throughout various studies conducted found it to help. They saw an increase in attendance by keeping students' attention and getting them involved in the learning process. This "new" way of educating students is not entirely original. Projects have always been around, but the way we are doing them now has evolved to include so much student input that they tend to learn more by themselves in groups than when a teacher is in front of them lecturing. PLTW offers many courses that provide hands-on activities throughout the class that encourage students to engage themselves, understand the design process, and be creative at an entirely new level. Millions of dollars in grants are available to institute this type of learning. As I have seen in many instances, the new STEM education and ideas such as PLTW are extremely helpful in bringing students back into the classroom. They are so distracted these days, that we are constantly forced to find new things to do with them in order to maintain some control. In my class, I have been able to put in several projects that I have developed or modified from other teachers and the students have generally taken to them very well. For the most part, they have been engaged 80 to 90% of class time and have acted out of line only a few times. This is great compared to how it was when I started last year and was trying to take control of an out of wack classroom midway through the year. But, as I see the students we have move further away from the traditional education most of us experienced, it becomes increasingly more important to evolve teaching styles and classroom environments. I have learned very quickly that if you do not set expectations initially, the classroom will fall apart. However, with this new career-oriented material, expectations are placed on the students to be engaged and learn through doing, not by listening. This is such a great benefit and it makes it easier for the teacher to be a facilitator and not the instructor 100% of the time. As a technology teacher, I am all for programs that make strong connections between disciplines and academia, but it must become a standard across the country. One state, or even a few states, cannot be on board and leave the rest behind. In the time of individualism and selfworth being the most important aspect of our society, we must realize that doing education on your own hurts. When we have 50 states collaborating on the nation's educational system and offering input from significant minds and knowledge, we can move forward. As studies show now, we are behind in the supply of engineers and high on demand. Students can be very successful by being exceptional problem solvers and that is what engineers essentially offer companies and industries.

Students taking responsibility

Giving Students Responsibility

Teaching Students Responsibility

Both of these articles can help us as teachers evolve into effective educators who place responsibility of education on the students. I always tell my students that they can learn from a book or they can learn in my lab doing hands on projects that promote leadership, ethics, learning, responsibility, and higher-level critical thinking skills they may not necessarily get in other classrooms. However, the buck has gone too far in the wrong direction of allowing students to not be responsible for the education or their actions. National and state laws now dictate that a failing student is the responsibility of the school, the administration, and even worse, the teacher. The last time I checked, I was not the student, nor did I raise them, if they cannot do well in my class after everything I have done to make it interesting, accommodate their needs, and even assist them, then something needs to be done with the student. Students in special programs such as ESOL or Special Ed or have BIPs or IEPs now know they cannot fail. Even if they are the biggest butt in the world all year long, don't do a darn thing in the class, and cause disruptions every day, they are promoted. This sense of, "I can do whatever and still pass through" has to stop. We are entitling children, CHILDREN to run our classrooms. We do not become teachers to be promoters or passers of the weak and insufficient. Instead, we are supposed to be raising up the next generation that will take over some day after we are too old to do so and bring in a revolution of change or progress. Instead these students now know they will be passed even if they have not accomplished basics so teachers don't have to deal with them another year, or we don't want it to look bad on our Adequate Yearly Progress reports. Rules, laws, and lack of understanding and support for education has tied our hands as educators to make it the responsibility of the student to learn. It was a privilege to be in a nice classroom, with nice books and a great teacher back a few years ago. Now its demanded. When did we become so insignificant? Yes, there are students who have no parental involvement and have basically raised themselves. But they are at school from age 5 or 6 to 18. That is more than half of their known life spent in a scholastic setting where we as educators can make a significant difference only if we try to get it through their heads at an early age they have a responsibility to themselves and to everyone around them to do something better than their parents did or are doing. We teach these kids it is okay to fail because someone will give you a pass. There are so many government programs that support individuals that fail for free its ridiculous. The attitude of acceptance for failure must change and we need to set a standard high that it is not okay to fail. The U.S. is falling behind in education because of our acceptance of failure and it is only worsening.

Falling College Graduation Rates

Graduation Rates

While we are battling dropout rates and student achievement in middle and high schools across the country, colleges are beginning to have outrageous dropout rates that reach in to the 40 and 50% range. As of right now, colleges are awarded aid based on enrollment. In the article, David Leonhardt states that colleges are packing in classes for freshman with 60 and 70 or more students in a lecture hall and making it cheaper to run these classes. However, as these students progress, the class sizes begin to dwindle as concentrations offer specific classes, which are much more expensive than freshman seminars. The colleges therefore prefer less classes offered and there is no consequence for colleges who have so many dropouts at the sophomore and junior level. Legislation is trying to be pushed through that would force colleges to tie financial aid and other monies to their graduation rates rather than enrollment. Many of the students are not prepared to take college classes because of their secondary education, but it does not simply mean they should drop out. Our work force is being pushed to be better educated than previous generations but yet the educational system is defeating students who are not able to pay or simply become frustrated and quit. Still, more issues remain in the need for improving the drop out rate. The article suggests many students do not apply to the best schools they could get into. An all A student, 1200+ SAT score, does not apply to a notable school, instead they apply to the state college or technical school that does not fully challenge them. Additionally, it has become the norm to not graduate with a Bachelor's in 4 years. Students now take 5, 6, or 7 years to complete 120 credit hours. This lack of oversight and pressure to reach the finish line produces students who take 1 or 2 classes a semester and sometimes fail them and keep taking classes that are not pertinent to their education. I remember from my undergraduate degree that several students in my business classes were professional students. They had accumulated enough hours to have 3 or 4 bachelor's degrees, maybe even a master's degree, but did not want to move on in life so they stay just because. This only increases the laziness of our generation and produces people who are not able to fully take care of themselves and must rely on others, usually parents, to live, which was not a goal of this country only 10 to 15 years ago. We must continue to encourage our students every day to look at the long term and stop looking to the next minute, hour, or day. Tomorrow is never guaranteed but if we don't make the most out of today and prepare for tomorrow or next week or next year, our shortsightedness can kills us. Students must regain the focus of obtaining goals like going to college AND graduating and continuing on to do amazing things in life. If we want this next generation to be game changers, they must take responsibility and focus on finishing the race of high school, college, and life.

Only 100 People in America

If there were only 100 people in America

This article discusses the relevancy of a book written by David Smith that is being used to help children understand the concept of the world. In the book, the number of people living in America is reduced to 100 and 1 person equals 1 million people in the real world. Not only does this book help students truly see the magnitude of having 5 billion people living on the planet earth, it also makes connections in math, languages, social studies, and science. I believe that the use of materials that utilize cross-disciplinary material is essential when dealing with today's student. Gone are the days even when I was in high school 6 years ago of students being able to sit in a classroom and listen to a lecture and learn from it. We simply have to evolve as educators to meet the needs of the ever diversifying student population. At my school we have a high percentage of Hispanics that is somewhat uncommon amongst some of the other schools in the county. This leads to issues with language, almost all of them are in some type of ESOL class, and with their cultural background. There are two different types of Hispanic students at my school, 1 is extremely respectful of the teachers and does everything that is right and the other that knows how school operates in Mexico and the lack of quality teachers so they live for the moment and do not care about being a good student or citizen. Now this may seem like profiling or being racist, but it is something I deal with every day. So to deal with these things, I must alter lesson plans and become very rigourous in my discipline procedures that are normally somewhat relaxed in order to keep students from going bonkers in the class. On top of this, David Smith highlights the impressive, yet disparaging facts of the highly uneven distribution of wealth, the cultural mix in the population, and the dominant religion. This book can allow teachers to bring the world into their classroom and get students to think of more than just themselves in the learning process.