Anonymous wrote:The Economist had a supplement on education last month. It reported that multiple studies have that the traditional methods of teaching (i.e., textbooks, workbooks, hand writing not typing, direct instruction, no screens in the classroom, and regular hand written homework) are more effective for all regular students - possibly excepting only the special needs students.

One specific type of activity I have found is very effective is used by quill.org. The program gives students two or three sentences and asks them to combine the sentences using transition words. The program gives immediate, individual feedback to the student. It almost replicates having a human tutor. I can teach grammar, and reinforce paying attention to mechanics like capitalization and punctuation, to many students at once using this program, because of the individualized, immediate feedback.

It IS possible to use "screens" for effective instruction IMO.

Here's an example of what I mean:

Patrick Henry opposed new British taxes.
He gave a speech.
The speech was powerful.
The speech was to inspire the colonists.

Directions:
Combine the sentences into one sentence.

https://www.quill.org/connect?_gl=1*10yyae8*_gcl_au*MTc0NDgzOTY2OC4xNzIyNzE1MjMy*_ga*MTIzNDc2MDg3OS4xNzIyNzE1MjMy*_ga_C0FB3VEGYR*MTcyMjcxNTIzMS4xLjEuMTcyMjcxNTI4My44LjAuMA..#/play/lesson/-KnoWhUWhtxvet4_bi4r

Same Economist issue also reported that Finland dropped visibly in recent PISA scores after introducing/increasing screens in the classroom. In multiple countries now, more screens in the classroom has led to lower academic achievement.

Local schools, public and private, should drop all the educational fads and go back to the old-fashioned traditional teaching approach -- because it is the one actually works to teach the children.

The Economist had a supplement on education last month. It reported that multiple studies have that the traditional methods of teaching (i.e., textbooks, workbooks, hand writing not typing, direct instruction, no screens in the classroom, and regular hand written homework) are more effective for all regular students - possibly excepting only the special needs students.

Children, data, money

Tragedy of the commons

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pretty much all schools rely on screens now, and I think that has been driven by both the reliance on screens in our culture and the shift to technology based assessments. It was a profound shift as soon as the SOLs went online.

Only us dinosaur teachers of 20+ years remember how effective non-tech-based teaching could be. It’s going to be very difficult to transition away from tech at this point, unfortunately.

But it's possible. Please don't give up.

Expensive private schools - that were the first to adopt tech - have transitioned away from it because they see the results of not using tech. My niece recently graduated from high school in Cupertino (around the corner from Apple!) and she had textbooks because parents in the Silicon Valley also see that tech in schools is harmful.

I could buy my own textbooks and workbooks and the principal would go bananas if she saw my kids using them. Principals have been taught that textbooks = BAD. The exact same text on a computer screen = ENGAGING!

I'm an old elementary school teacher. I started teaching in 1992. At that time students in Grades 3-6 still had proper math, science and social studies textbooks. We mostly did away with Reading/Language arts textbooks in the 90s and students were more likely to be reading trade books.

In my opinion, schools moved away from using textbooks for the content areas because fewer and fewer students could read at grade level. To read a typical 6th grade science textbook and answer the questions at the end of the chapter (a common HW assignment in the 1990s) students had to be reading at at least a 4th or 5th grade reading level. When 1/3 of your students can't really read the text, you can't assign it as independent work. Teachers needed to come up with accommodations for the students who couldn't read the text.

Now with the textbooks all online, students can click and have the text read out loud to them. However, they have lost that valuable reading practice of actually having to read the text. Reading chapter 6 and answering questionis 1-10 at the end of the chapter may never have been a very engaging assignment, but I was an ESOL teacher and I would sit and help my ESOL students read the text, read the questions at the end, and locate the answer in the text. It was actually a valuable practice and helped expose them to a lot of science and social studies vocabulary and knowledge they may not have picked up in the class. Nowadays students miss a LOT of that. They do watch some videos and pretend to listen to the read aloud text, but it just isn't the same thing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After touring my child's new FCPS elementary school earlier this summer, I was shocked to learn just how much screens are used (and actual textbooks are not) for learning. The admin who gave me the tour said it's much more engaging that way (meaning students are engaging more with each other and in the lesson rather than "buried in their own textbooks" but this doesn't ring true to me. There is research that shows kids don't absorb content as well when learning from screens as opposed to books, too. I am not 100% anti-screens, I get the world we live in, but any parents or teachers have thoughts/feedback about this?

Screens > books, period.

Books are old fashioned, heavy and expensive. They're also frequently out-of-date.

Why on Earth would you advocate for text books. Are you stupid? Or just old?

This is a joke, right? Chemistry and biology aren't changing so fast that a textbook is useless. Algebra hasn't changed in more than 300 hundred years. Laptops are heavy too. And expensive. Software is very expensive and often not based in the science of learning.

Anonymous wrote:After touring my child's new FCPS elementary school earlier this summer, I was shocked to learn just how much screens are used (and actual textbooks are not) for learning. The admin who gave me the tour said it's much more engaging that way (meaning students are engaging more with each other and in the lesson rather than "buried in their own textbooks" but this doesn't ring true to me. There is research that shows kids don't absorb content as well when learning from screens as opposed to books, too. I am not 100% anti-screens, I get the world we live in, but any parents or teachers have thoughts/feedback about this?

Screens > books, period.

Books are old fashioned, heavy and expensive. They're also frequently out-of-date.

Why on Earth would you advocate for text books. Are you stupid? Or just old?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My ES kid said they are allowed to play with Chromebooks after they finish worksheets. Then I see the worksheet and it's all wrong. She just rushed through it so she can play with the Chromebook.

This happened to us too. my ES son was rushing through work in class, doing bare minimum, to play around on the laptop ; kids around him too. We tried sending books, having talks about finishing work, trying your best etc, but it was not enough to overcome the environment and pull to play random games. We left.

The NBER study on laptops given to kids in Peru found that a major result of the study was that kids put less effort into their schoolwork.

Fun detail I remember from the Romanian free laptop study: children assigned free laptops were less likely to major in computer science vs. non-recipients. IMHO that the laptopers had weaker math skills was probably a significant contributer.

Uruguay's study -- with the familiar academic declines everyone else had -- tried to offer a slight ray of hope because their free laptop recipients were less likely to major in music and the arts, and hypothesized children were looking up salaries on the internet. I think it more likely that doing art or music practice at home got crowded out by gaming.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My ES kid said they are allowed to play with Chromebooks after they finish worksheets. Then I see the worksheet and it's all wrong. She just rushed through it so she can play with the Chromebook.

This happened to us too. my ES son was rushing through work in class, doing bare minimum, to play around on the laptop ; kids around him too. We tried sending books, having talks about finishing work, trying your best etc, but it was not enough to overcome the environment and pull to play random games. We left.

The NBER study on laptops given to kids in Peru found that a major result of the study was that kids put less effort into their schoolwork.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My ES kid said they are allowed to play with Chromebooks after they finish worksheets. Then I see the worksheet and it's all wrong. She just rushed through it so she can play with the Chromebook.

This happened to us too. my ES son was rushing through work in class, doing bare minimum, to play around on the laptop ; kids around him too. We tried sending books, having talks about finishing work, trying your best etc, but it was not enough to overcome the environment and pull to play random games. We left.

Where did you go?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is such a twilight zone about this. The public school families I know IRL are just as concerned about screen use as OP and PP, and most would go private if they could find an affordable non-religious option. Yet posters on here are like “I have a $3m HHI and prefer public schools”

I know people who have switched but say that post-covid, the privates also rely on tech too much and don't do textbooks.

The only ones I know who have low screens are Montessori or Catholic, but I would love to hear about other options!

I’m the high school teacher who posted above.

I work in a Catholic school, and we (as a school) have decided to limit technology use. Students still carry their laptops, but they only come out for activities that require them. For example, I’ll allow the use for online database searching but not for other things (paragraph / essay writing, reading text selections).

We get positive feedback from the students, who say they are more alert in class when technology is put away. (I have one or two who are allowed to keep laptops out due to accommodations.)

Could you share where you teach? Do all of the area’s Catholic schools take the same approach re screens?

Anonymous wrote:My ES kid said they are allowed to play with Chromebooks after they finish worksheets. Then I see the worksheet and it's all wrong. She just rushed through it so she can play with the Chromebook.

This happened to us too. my ES son was rushing through work in class, doing bare minimum, to play around on the laptop ; kids around him too. We tried sending books, having talks about finishing work, trying your best etc, but it was not enough to overcome the environment and pull to play random games. We left.

Anonymous wrote:It’s because teachers don’t know how or can’t teach anymore. Either their classroom is bananas with behavioral problems so teacher checks out and lets them play dumb education games or the teacher never really learned how to teach without relying on technology as a crutch.

We know how to discipline, but our hands are tied. Teachers aren’t allowed to discipline, either because admin won’t support it or parents fight back. I’ve gotten in major trouble for simply telling students to put their phones away.

I’ve been teaching 20 years. It’s harder now than when it started.

Yes, teachers check out. It’s self preservation. When you are set up to fail like so many teachers are now, you don’t have a lot of options.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s because teachers don’t know how or can’t teach anymore. Either their classroom is bananas with behavioral problems so teacher checks out and lets them play dumb education games or the teacher never really learned how to teach without relying on technology as a crutch.

One of the ways my principal rates me annually is my use of technology. I BS a lot of it because I know less technology is better, but I can’t not use the frequent required technology based projects and assessments that the team will look at in our weekly data meetings. If I didn’t need the paycheck and retirement, I might fight it more, but my previous efforts to do so led to insane criticism from admin and a lot of extra evaluations.

If you want teachers to use less technology, make your complaints known to the district and school board. We are cogs in their wheels.

I believe you. It’s too bad.