Vocational Students

Is it OK to for states to steer some students toward vocational degrees and away from college?

110 total responses

• Yes
• 71% (79)

• No
• 28% (31)

Educational Polls Where I got the above information

This really surprised me.  Maybe it's the wording of the question... "Steer students toward" vs. "Accept that students want."  No all students are interested in "traditional" college degrees and for some students, especially in the economy we've seen the last several years, learning a trade could help lay a foundation for their future.  I graduated vo-tech and high school in 2007 and accumulated some scholarship money that I applied toward attending Ohio Tech. College.  I wanted to learn a trade that I could always fall back on and I got my certifications in collision and non-structural MIG welding.  I learned other skills too, like airbrushing and pin-striping.  Think of all the different trades out there!  Not only do people need to fill those jobs but knowing those skills can help you in your own life!  I can woodwork- I don't need to buy cabinets, I can make my own.  I can change my own oil or fix my car if it's in a wreck, I can change my own tires (this could go on..).  I know how to sew (some people don't consider that a trade, but I do).  There's people out there, I know because I've met my fair share, that think vo-tech is a waste of time... That kills me- and so does the connotations attached to 'vo-tech kids' because I was involved in SkillsUSA and National Technical Honor Society, organizations which helped me pay for Ohio Tech.  I graduated OTC 12/08 and had a job lined up in a shop before I moved back home.  I worked there just shy of a year before I was ready to go back to school.
Everybody has a different path in mind, and for students (especially) who don't know what they want to do, a vocational program could help them learn important life skills while they figure out what path is right for them.

Drama in classrooms

"A third general function stems from the fact that dramatic work unfolds in time: it is about living through experience" (52). I don't know how many times I've had it pounded into my head that a person's culture is the sum of their experiences. I think using kinestheic learning for students could be an opprotunity to use drama for interpretation and reflection. I know somethings I've learned throughout life, I've had to learn by doing (simply impossible to learn by reading or watching, for example: welding). But with drama, I think a teacher will always run into the problem of students not wanting to act in front of one another.  Or, futher, you know that classmate who hates public speaking or presenting to the class? To them, this would be like running naked through the quad. I understand the value in using drama in classrooms for multiple purposes but as educators, we'll have to be sensitive to some students' fears- what is pushing them, and what is pushing them too far?

Our Class Requirements

The picture below is of a SRU student named Josh, who I know because he is the President of Pro-Life SRU (which I'm a member of).  Josh posted this on Facebook and I wanted to share it because I had just been having a similar conversation with someone (regarding scheduling and some of the classes we have to take).  As a Secondary-Ed English major I have to take a few classes I'm really not looking forward to taking, and I think I could get so much greater value from taking a class that I WANT to take.  For example, instead of taking intro to music/dance/theater, I'd rather take Civil Liberties (from the Pol.Sci. department).  Instead of taking one of the required communications classes (because I've taken public speaking and intercultural communications), I'd rather take Intro. to Russian or Women in Politics.  We've all found ourselves in this position?  Why is the system the way it is?  There's better uses for our time and our money, and those so-called "filler" classes should be something we want to take for personal enrichment.  If the only reason we're required to take them is to make us more 'well-rounded' by taking courses out of our major, shouldn't we have more choice?

Lit Circles

I felt like... When I was reading this article (Wiki Lit. Circles--- by E. Edmonson) and thinking about an online literature circle, I kept thinking "discussion board" in the back on my head.  I don't think that's engaging, and that's what we're trying to accomplish, right?  Turning your desks in a circle, in class, and being able to actively engage one another makes a huge difference!  The responses are immediate and you can agree, disagree, and conversate face-to-face (even non verbals help in a setting like this).  I just feel like you take so much more away from a 'live' literature circle than a virtual one.  Reading this, you can't tell my tone of voice, my inflection, my pauses for thought... I think if a teacher is trying to find ways to incorporate different mediums into their curriculum, there are much more effective places to put it (prime example would be some of the tools we've shared in class, and their different uses).  Even something as simple as a student can't verbally complete a thought (maybe they don't have the right word, but they have the right idea) and another student or teacher can jump in and help... that's another example of immediate feedback- that's valuable, it shows support.

Shakespeare

I'm sure like most or all of you, I had to read Shakespeare in high school.  I hated it.  I didn't understand it and the teacher had us read the parts (which was a terrible, monotone, stumbling mess).  What could have made this better?  Possible ideas:

• watch a video (get to hear character voice inflections, tone, etc.)
• discuss the language and why it was used, not just analyze what it means
• explain why we're reading it, for reasons beyond it's "classic" or "timeless"

In Brit Lit I we just finished King Lear.  Okay, it's not much different than the ones I read in high school, I thought.  Then I get to HDEL later in the day and Dr. Pitard discusses the actual meanings of thee and thou, who used them, and why they were used.  Turns out, they were used to show class rank, and you may use thee or thou to talk to a person/people who were below you.  He gave us the example of Richard III (?) hitting on the widow at the funeral of her husband, who he murdered.  The entire conversation she refers to him with the th- words (like the king is below her) until the end of the conversation, where he realized he's "got her" because it changes to you/your (like he's an equal).  That's interesting!  Things like that would have made the story a lot more intriguing instead of just thinking it was funny language.

 

Ian Mckellen and Annette Benning in Richard III 1995

Shafer

I really liked Shafer's idea about interviewing literary figures and I think that could be incredibly versitile.  Both authors could be interviewed and characters (static and protagonist) because it would show different angles of the material- even static characters could give insight from an on-looker point-of-view.  I think incorporating what they learned from this exercise with a video project, they could  shoot the story, etc., as is, but shoot scenes from a different point-of-view than they read.  (Imagine how differnt The Outsiders would be from Bob Sheldon's P.O.V.)  I was trying to think if I ever did a project like this in school, but nothing came to mind.  I think the idea makes a great project but I'd be concered with the time and class size- I can't see myself trying to accomplish this with a big class, but maybe a smaller, AP class or club?  A way around that may be to have them story board, because that can be done in class or at home- which I still think would be very valuable to the main idea behind the project- understanding view points, angles, lighting, etc.