Tomorrow's Only Day Three?

Good Gawd. How fatiguing!

Fish Out of Water: Looking Toward Day 2

Well, Day One went better than I expected, although I fell into lecture without intending to do so. Gotta watch that.  

The kids are terrific and many showed some genuine interest in Plato's anti-empiricist rant in the Allegory. They will read the piece tonight, generate questions on it tomorrow, and discuss it in a Harkness circle. The kids will also write their first journal entry tomorrow when they reflect on Plato's positioning vis-a-vis The Truth.  Then it is on to Jacob Bronowski Wednesday. 

Teaching for four hours straight in the summer is . . . challenging.  I imagine that from the perspective of the students it is even more of a trial. 

Onward!

First Time for Everything

I will enter the science classroom tomorrow to begin a 3-week stint discussing the scientific method, reading essays on the history of science, teaching the APA style sheet as a way to document sources in science writing, and working with about 60 students on a field guide to the flora and fauna of Virginia Key. It all sounds a bit daunting to me (particularly this last component) . . . but, hey, I am game! Remains to be seen how this literature and film teacher of 31 years is going to do in a foreign sphere. More later. 

A Turning Point for U.S. Education?

I highly recommend this short article by Newsweek's Jonathan Alter: 

http://www.newsweek.com/id/200896.  He makes the point--and a good one it is, in  my view--that we have a critical choice to make in teacher training and evaluation and the spending of stimulus dollars. Do we continue with the status quo, funding public education evenly in spite of spotty or highly unreliable data on teacher quality, or do we venture into unchartered terrain, challenge the tired curricula of schools of education and focus on TEACHER EFFECTIVENESS? 

Twitter to Blog, Blog to Twitter

Posting URL to the blog on Twitter today.  Will be interesting to read comments, if any result!  

Education and Social Media

We are living through an epistemological revolution as the various social media provide new and exciting avenues to learning and sharing knowledge. College and university course syllabi reflect this seismic shift in education. Twitter, Facebook, Diigo, and the full arsenal of Web2.0 tools have become far more than learning peripherals. It remains to be seen, though, how the public schools will respond to the opportunities and challenges of these new online tools. Who will carry the day? Will it be the directionless IT divisions that continue to block social media tools in the interests of adolescent safety and network security--or will it be the more inventive districts that promote online resources in a way that encourages both experimentation and protects the interests of young people?

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

test from iPhone

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]