ADHD Misdiagnoses

This summer two studies were published illustrating that a diagnosis of ADHD is more common among students who are the youngest in their respective grade.  Both North Carolina State and Michigan State Universities found that immature students are often misdiagnosed with ADHD.  In Michigan, students born before the kindergarten enrollment cutoff date of December 1st were more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than those born after December 2nd who had to wait a year to enroll.  By the time students reach fifth grade, the youngest in the class are more likely to be prescribed stimulants than their older classmates.

There are no blood tests or neurological screenings for ADHD, diagnoses are based on observations, commonly those made by teachers.  These teachers may be basing their judgement on students who act more mature because they are up to a year older than the student in question.

It is unfair to be so quick to label students who fail to align with the ideal of the perfect student (which doesn't exist anyway).

Digital Stories

I was surprised to read this weekend in my hometown paper that a teacher at my former middle school had her students create digital stories for elementary schoolers.  What a great use of technology! The eighth graders were excited to use the technology to animate their stories and make them come to life, and the first graders were thrilled to read a story that was interactive.
This project, done by a teacher I remember as always being happy to experiment with technology, shows what the future can look like.  It is difficult to get students to read and write in an age when playing video games and surfing the internet are much more entertaining.  Making reading and writing digital helps to grab the attention of more students.

Google Docs

I was first introduced to Google Docs three years ago after my computer crashed during finals taking my English paper with it.  I now use docs to back-up everything I do, but I've been thinking lately about how I could have used it in high school.

When I was in high school my school's idea of being technologically advanced involved getting new computers (not good computers, but new) every year, and having two laptop carts stocked with thirty laptops for classes to use.  The only thing these laptops were ever used for in my experience was typing documents in class. Personally I hated this practice, it meant I had to spend the last five minutes of class saving my document to a flash drive to complete at home, or sending it to myself.

With google docs this wouldn't have been a problem.  I could have typed my document in google docs and accessed it on any computer later on. This advantage (probably the most simple of everything google docs has to offer) is also great for students who do not have access to computers at home.  There is no longer any fear of losing a flash drive, no hassle of e-mailing documents, everything is online with easy access.  Students can start a document at school and finish it later at the library.

Docs also makes editing easier.  I used to have a parent read through all of my papers in high school, but students today can simply share the document with a friend (someone familiar with the assignment) to have them check it over for completeness. Or the teacher could review the paper before the deadline to make sure the student is on the right track. In fact, the student could turn the document in online to avoid fear of forgetting deadlines or losing hard copies.

There are so many more ways that google docs can improve the paper (and presentation) writing process.

The Calculator Issue

I recently ran into a family friend at church that I haven’t seen in years.  Like all long lost acquaintances, she asked me where I was in my schooling.  Upon hearing that I would be a teacher in two short years, she proceeded to lecture me on the importance of making students to mental math, something she feels her granddaughter doesn’t do enough of.  “She’s always reaching for her calculator,” she told me. 

Like usual, I nodded, smiled, and changed the subject.

I understand the importance of doing some math in your head.  Obviously, basic math skills are important, but if I have a tool I want to use it.  I have terrible memories of struggling through “no calculator” portions of AP Calculus tests (and I can’t think of a real life scenario when manually finding a derivative would be necessary).

I like the logic of my college stats professor, who told us that there was never a time when he was solving a real-life problem where he would not have the opportunity to use as many resources as he could find.

If we want progress in education, why don’t we allow students to use every opportunity available?

Would Technology Help?

I have a student in a class I work in that is a frequent behavior problem.  "Dave" constantly disrupts during group time; he can't keep his body still and his mouth is always running.  But Dave does pay attention, he can always repeat the directions to the teacher when asked, even though throughout the lesson he is usually half upside-down.  Dave is obviously bored, but he needs the information being taught in the lesson.  It is not the content that Jack finds uninteresting, it is the medium.  Technology would be an asset to Dave, but the school uses very little.  I can foresee this attention problem plaguing Dave throughout the rest of his schooling.

Not the Solution

It seems like every time I turn around someone is promoting the “solution” to the current educational situation in Michigan and throughout the country.  Many of these solutions have become common in today’s schools (high stakes testing, the Michigan Merit Curriculum), and all of them seem to share the same goal of making teachers and/or students miserable. 

My favorite proposed change is the extended school day.  A longer day is being hailed as the perfect solution, the one change that will make students learn more, teachers teach better, and America an educational powerhouse.

My question is: if we can’t teach sufficiently in the amount of time we already have, how is adding hours going to help at all?  Will the students who are already so worn out by the end of the day suddenly going to find the strength to focus for another hour or two?  Will teachers who are burnt out by lunch find the patience in that extra hour? What is going to go into that hour, more reading and math?

I recently worked in an inner-city first grade classroom.  The school day started at 8 and ended at 3:30.  Breakfast was served at 7:30; the bus ride for most of the students took an hour each way.  So six-year-olds were starting their days at 6:30 and were lucky to get home by 4:30, a ten-hour day in which they were expected to learn, pay attention, and stay out of trouble.   As you can imagine most students failed in each of these goals; by the end of the day the room was chaotic, students were paying little attention to what the teacher said, and the teacher had little energy left to make the day interesting.

More time might be the answer to the “problem” so many see with education in America today.  But adding that time to the end or the beginning of the school day will only serve to create more headaches for teachers, and decreased motivation for students.

Digital Books

A few weeks ago my grandma was reading a book recommended to her by my mom, while she loved the story, she could not get past the weight of the hardcover book.  The physical act of holding the book was taking away from her enjoyment of the story.

After listening to her complain for several days, my grandpa went out and bought her an iPad.  After the shock of being thrown into the 21st century wore off, my grandma began to explore her new toy (well, she watched as people around her showed her what she could do if she could remember the series of steps they went through).  While she doesn't use 90% of the functions on the machine, it provides her with the one thing the ink on paper book does not--a lightweight library.

When I saw my grandma a few weeks ago she was carrying her iPad, eager to show it off, and to have me help her buy her some more books (she has yet to read most of them, but she loves collecting).  Before I could touch the machine she began showing me what she could do.  As I looked at her face and listened to the giddiness in her voice (a month after the purchase), I was thinking that she looked exactly like students 70 years younger than her would look like in the same situation.

Looking at the iPad as simply a device for reading electronic text (which it is definitely not), it is easy to see its benefits to the classroom.  The shiny screen alone is enough to draw in even the most reluctant reader.  The same can be seen already in classrooms that use programs like Starfall.  These students have grown up surrounded by technology, so it is only natural for them to view digital reading as a natural activity.

For those of us raised on traditional ink and paper books it may be hard (and frightening) to imagine the future of books as digital.  But for students who cannot fathom a world without computers, it is unfair to expect them not to read digital text.  If my 78-year-old grandma can move to digital books, the classroom can as well.