Re: Re[2]: The Anecdote & the Educator

TIGHE@APSICC.APS.EDU
Mon, 20 Apr 1998 8:39:13 -0600


Tim Flinders wrote:

> Marty: Exactly my thinking! Each week I went over the prior week's fiasco
> with the kids, received their assurance that they indeed preferred even
> games to blowouts, and strategized with them about how simple (so I
> thought) the remedy could be. (Incidentally this is a gifted program, and
> these students quite capably -- and willingly-- speak their minds!) And
> each week I'd watch with increasing amazement as the girl captain chose her
> best friends, realizing full well (unless she or her friends were gifted
> athletically) that she was probably dooming her team to defeat...

Personally, my preference would be to try to get the male captains
to try to be more social and less competitive...
Of course, that would have very little chance of success and would
probably get me branded as an insane person--not a good reputation
for a teacher.

Like Donna woodka, I support the use of random choice in most
situations, from classroom seating assignments to cooperative
groupings to team competitions. This takes the onus of choice off
both the teacher and the students, and if you rearrange the groups
at regular intervals, the wannabees will sometimes end up in the
groups they want, and the social or competitive controllers will
be frustrated in their efforts to chase out the students they
don't want to work with.

--Bob Tighe

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Robert Tighe Resource Teacher tighe@apsicc.aps.edu
Instructional Technology Outside of a dog,
Albuquerque Public Schools a book is man's best friend;
220 Monroe SW inside of a dog,
Albuquerque, NM 87108-2811 it's too dark to read.
USA -- Groucho Marx
505-256-4266
http://www.aps.edu/aps/SW_depart/~Tighe/rtighe.html
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