Entrance Slip: 10/14

 This paper presented an interesting perspective on the teaching philosophy that we currently use. I like the imagery and metaphors of the grid, representing the rigid nature of our current system. The square shape appears in the shape of our classrooms, our schedules, and our teaching philosophy. Yet where do we see such pristine right angles in nature? This idea reminds me of what we learned in EPSE 308 about social emotional learning (SEL). In that course we talked about how we learn things that we care about. We need to form an emotional connection in order for anything to have any meaning. The traditional ideas of worksheets and memorization (of boxes like the image in the reading) are flawed. These activities may help us with recall, but to really learn something we must take a different approach. Even our own thoughts do not follow such a strict grid. We usually don't think in boxes and distinct lines, thought flows like a river. A certain level of standardization must occur to bring some order to the flowing river. The last thing I took away from the reading was that the way we were taught affects our teaching. It seems obvious, but if we were educated in the system using a grid, with straight lines and order, it is extremely hard for us to think in any other ways. Part of the value of this course is to be able to experience some of the ways we might accomplish this, to expand our minds to new teaching possibilities.