Erica Jacobs is the Education columnist for the DC Examiner, and has taught high school and college for 33 years. She has been around the education block! Email her at ejacob1@gmu.edu.

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Showing entries for Category: college-decisi

The Educational Pendulum: We've Done it all Before

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April 18, 7:17 AM

by Erica Jacobs, Education Examiner

In my 33 years as a teacher, trends have come and gone.

First you were supposed to touch students on the shoulder to make contact and keep their interest. Then you weren't supposed to touch the students at all.
Memory work, and homework were the means of conveying information, and then we were supposed to use multi-media methods to teach to all parts of students' brains, "the whole student." Now many schools are opting to return to the traditional methods.
A teacher-centered classroom was the norm, and now group work and cooperative projects are the norm. Yet some schools are returning to the teacher-centered model which works so well in Asia.
Administration of the schools was, at first, school-based, then central office administration became the norm, and now we are some hybrid of the two.

    So it should have been no surprise to me this past week when some young teachers who hadn't been at Oakton for very many years suggested that the school explore the possibilities of interdisciplinary courses--even beyond the two English/social studies ones in place.

    Not too many years ago, I fought very hard to keep the many interdisciplinary courses in place at Oakton: 4 English/social studies combinations, and a few years earlier, a combination of English, technology, and math. The administration hated me for my stand on English/Social Studies, and over the course of several years have dismantled all but 2 of these hard-to-schedule courses. What could I say to these teacher newbies who were so eager to develop a great idea?

    At first I reacted in a very cynical way: nothing will ever come of these ideas. They'll be shot down before implementation. But then I realized that good policies sometimes take a few waves of innovators before they're put in place for good. Some very dedicated women failed in fighting for women's suffrage before the last group managed to win the right to vote.

    So, go for it, Oakton teachers! I'll be cheering you on from the sidelines. I hope you have a longer-lasting effect on the curriculum than I did.
Topics: college decisi

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Word of the Day

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April 17, 4:56 PM

palaver-- talk meant to charm or beguileJames Joyce is a wonderful vocabulary builder. In order not to suffer the ignominy of not being true to my word, I give you palaver as your word of the day. Lily, in the great story "The Dead," says... Read More
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April 17, 7:46 AM

My students have been agonizing over college applications and decisions since Day 1 of this school year. In early fall, they simply want to figure out how to answer the essay questions. We work on essays in writing workshops, and they... Read More
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