Sea Fore Tea Too

Pondering Paige

Paige Baggett is an assistant professor at USA in the education department. This Blog, entitled "Pondering MOTIVATION: Incentives? Cash Rewards for Learning?" presents a news report on the idea of paying children (anywhere from 1st grade to high school) for passing a standardized test. All to help the school look good through achieving high test scores. Students in the Ohio school mentioned can get up to $100 on one test. However, many of the faculty are only able to work part time, including the principal, and the school cannot afford adequate books, science labs, and more. What an example to use.


My Comment: I will admit, my first reaction to the idea was "how unfair!'; i could have easily gotten thousands of dollars by the time I graduated high school (between standardized tests and AP scores)! However, after watching further, I can not even begin to see the reasoning behind this idea.
The kids are only memorizing what they need for the test. Ask them a week later, and it will be a foreign concept once again. Their scores go down when the money is not dangling in front of their faces, and the school itself does not even have money to pay the faculty or have adequate supplies. Money would not be a necessary go-to if the teachers had materials to effectively engage students to learn.
However, if a wealthy businessman wanted to give all of his money to 9 year old children, why not put it into a college fund, inspiring them to continue to do well. The benefits of teaching elementary school children to expect money for doing well ($100, not even something like $10 or $20!) and become so money-hungry that all motivation disappears when the incentive is no longer offered. I think I can stand waiting to see how these children will expect to be spoon fed even when they grow to be adults.

29 Ways to Stay Creative - July 5, 2011
I think the video and title are quite self-explanatory. I really liked all of the suggestions too; perhaps I will write them down as a reminder!

My Comment: I thought this video was fantastic! I really like that they titled it ways to "stay" creative rather than "be" creative because I believe that you cannot actually teach someone that. Perhaps that is why one of my goals in teaching is to allow my students freedom to be authentic in their learning. I like all of the ideas, but I had never thought of #23 (reading a page of the dictionary)!