Another day of work. Another 7 hours of what I hope to eventually be “10,000”. Malcolm Gladwell makes the argument in his book Outliers that it takes about 10,000 hours to “perfect” anything. Though I’ll never really be a perfect teacher, I hope to try to improve as the years progress (to try to improve upon my mistakes and flaws). I’m only really at 1,000 hours with this first semester over in addition to my student teaching.
Here’s an example of some student work on the Wild Wild West that I found quite interesting (especially since I only really gave them 20 minutes to do the comic strip).
I taught my students today about the Wild Wild West, where people literally packed up their bags and headed westward to try to achieve the American dream. They had nothing, and tried to acquire wealth the hard way, through a good work ethic.
I went ahead, and told the students that the easiest way to achieve the American dream today is through education. With education going the way it today (through standardized testing, common core, and national standards), I told the students education doesn’t HAVE to be their method to success. However, if they’re not going to try in school, they should be passionate about something, have some goals, and have a way by which to realistically achieve those goals. Just saying you’re going to be a rapper or basketball player isn’t going to do the trick. You always need a fall back plan.
Macklemore does raise good points in their song about 10,000 hours, and their road to success. “No child left behind IS the American scheme”, and returning education back to states and local districts would improve the quality of schools in this country. Instead, we’re heading towards federal standards with “Race to the Top” and what will eventually be horrendous test scores on the SBAC. You really don’t get much out of K-12 schooling other than a high school diploma, but it presents itself as a stepping stone for kids that have no idea what they want to do in life (especially at their age).
I will not be a statistic
Just let me be
No child left behind, that’s the American scheme
I make my living off of words
And do what I love for work
And got around 980 on my SATs
Take that system, what did you expect?
Generation of kids choosing love over a desk
Put those hours in and look at what you get
Nothing that you can hold, but everything that it is
Ten thousand
