2008 Woodie Awards
Alonso speaks on teaching methods, vows to improve New York City schools
Report finds sharp increase in college student volunteering
Steven Deering, Staff Writer
Issue date: 10/25/06 Section: News
"What should children know, what should they be learning?" asked Dr. Andres Alonso of graduate students and professors at the Carol Gresser Forum Oct. 17 in Bent Hall.
According to Dr. Alonso, the new Chancellor of Learning for the New York City Department of Education, the important aspects of teaching are not necessarily class size, economic status of the students or skill level of the student but rather the expectations placed on students and teachers alike.
Alonso said that his own processes of learning to read as a child helped to shape his ideas on teaching. He learned to read in Spanish through the teachings of his mother, then learned English from the teachers and mentors in the Union City, New Jersey school system he grew up in after moving with his family from Cuba at age 12.
Alonso would later find himself "figuratively" learning a new language while teaching emotionally disturbed children in Newark, New Jersey.
"[The students in Newark] needed to teach me what the struggles [of reading] were, because I had been someone who had done things so intuitively that I had never paid attention to the tasks or dimensions that are so important in reading," said Dr. Alonso. He explained that the student is to be given more input and trust in their own learning process.
Alonso called the Newark students his "pillars," saying that they also helped him develop his ideas of what should be done to move forward in the teaching of students today. For him, expectations "make an extraordinary difference in how we construct knowledge in the classroom," and to do this, he looks at the educational experience of the students through their eyes by visiting two schools per day.
Alonso maintains that there is a problem in the way students are learning in middle schools and high schools and it is visible when looking at the drop off in test scores as they move along in grades. Dr. Alonso plans to fix the problem of variability.
According to Dr. Alonso, the new Chancellor of Learning for the New York City Department of Education, the important aspects of teaching are not necessarily class size, economic status of the students or skill level of the student but rather the expectations placed on students and teachers alike.
Alonso said that his own processes of learning to read as a child helped to shape his ideas on teaching. He learned to read in Spanish through the teachings of his mother, then learned English from the teachers and mentors in the Union City, New Jersey school system he grew up in after moving with his family from Cuba at age 12.
Alonso would later find himself "figuratively" learning a new language while teaching emotionally disturbed children in Newark, New Jersey.
"[The students in Newark] needed to teach me what the struggles [of reading] were, because I had been someone who had done things so intuitively that I had never paid attention to the tasks or dimensions that are so important in reading," said Dr. Alonso. He explained that the student is to be given more input and trust in their own learning process.
Alonso called the Newark students his "pillars," saying that they also helped him develop his ideas of what should be done to move forward in the teaching of students today. For him, expectations "make an extraordinary difference in how we construct knowledge in the classroom," and to do this, he looks at the educational experience of the students through their eyes by visiting two schools per day.
Alonso maintains that there is a problem in the way students are learning in middle schools and high schools and it is visible when looking at the drop off in test scores as they move along in grades. Dr. Alonso plans to fix the problem of variability.
Be the first to comment on this story