1620 <--- link to teacher tube video
The above linked video is what our class was opened with. 1620. That's a pretty large number when put into most contexts, but this was the number that was calculated to determine how many tests the average student would write by the time they graduated high school. Then the video ended asking a simple question... "is there a better way?"
Well, I agree with Mr. Kuropatwa getting outraged at having something like this broadcast across the net. Is this in fact what people think of teachers? Test giving machines? Too bad it wasn't that easy, just assign some textbook work, hand out some tests, call it a day! Wow... teachers have the easiest job in the world!
Now, let's fastforward out of the 1900's view of teachers and step into something a little more current. Today's classrooms are seeing fewer and fewer orderly rows, teachers talking, and tests being thrown at the students indiscriminately. Students are starting to leave their seats, converse with one another, and are taking many different paths to achieve the same outcomes. Isn't this a better way?
I think we have found a better way, and I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Kuropatwa for coming in and introducing us to some additional ideas out there. A couple of these ideas that I will try and integrate in my classroom (when I get one) will be using flickr and its hotspots for some good collaboration assignments, and using youtube to publish a false video that the students would have to repair… a good error analysis approach.
One final note I’d like to throw in is a video we were introduced to, which along with some good moral applications also has many possible educational applications as well. The video is great and I’d like to try to make something myself for a science style question… enjoy…
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