Blog Post #2

Did you know?

In Did you know? 3.0- A John Strange 2012 version, Dr. Strange outlines the original video by Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod. In his outline Dr. Strange discusses statistical facts such as, "Twenty-five percent of the population of India with the highest IQ's outnumber the entire population of the United States." Or that India has more K-12 honor students than all of the K-12 students in the United States. However, the one that surprised me the most was, "By 2025 the number of English speaking Chinese is likely to exceed the number of native English speakers in the rest of the World!"

These statistics are mind blowing to me. I watched the video several times and each time I watched I became more and more amazed with what was going on in our world.
The one thing that really grabbed my attention was, we are preparing students to use technologies that don't exist yet! It is a little bit intimidating if you ask me, but I am definitely up for the challenge.

Mr. Winkle Wakes

In Mathew Needleman's video, Mr. Winkle Wakes it talks about Mr. Winkle waking up from a one hundred years slumber in a business building where people are using computers and phones to contact people and do business transactions on. He begins to get sick, so Mr. Winkles walks to the nearest hospital in which he finds himself in a place full of advance technologies. He sees Machines that are helping to keep humans alive and taking pictures of their bones. Overwhelmed with all this advancement, Mr. Winkle remains sick. He then leaves the hospital in search of a school. When he finds the school he immediately starts to feel better. He was happy to see that the students were in neat rows in the classrooms learning all day, "that some things do not change".

I found this video very strange. However, it did have a good story behind it. It made me realize how far we have advanced in technology over the century as far as hospitals and businesses.  That people back in the day had it a lot harder than what we do today. They didn't have all the luxuries of life that some of us take for granted nowadays.

Although the one thing that stood out to me was Mr. Winkle became well when he entered the school? The video gave me the impression that we haven't advanced enough in the classroom. I beg to differ. I do understand that we do still use pencils and paper but we have made plenty of advancements as well. Teachers are teaching their classes from smart boards instead of chalkboards and we are using computers for research instead of books from the library.
 
Sir Ken Robinson: The Importance of Creativity

In Mr. Robinson's video, The Importance of Creativity, he made some very eye opening points. He talked about how creativity is as important as literacy. Which is true, our society has developed a hierarchy in which creativity and arts are pushed to the side and the only thing that matters are "core" subjects, such as, math and science. The problem is that we don't grow out of being creative; we are educated out of it.

I agree with this! I enjoy math and science. However, I am lacking in creativity. I wish that my teachers would put more of an emphasis on arts. It's important to make such that you mold children into well rounded students. This will be something that I will work hard to maintain as an educator.

Pinterest  

I love Pinterest! Although this is the first time I have created my own account. Normally I use my sister's account. I will definitely be using Pinterest in my classroom. It will help keep me organized for class projects and crafts. Since I am not that creative, Pinterest will help me out where I lack.

As of now, I will be following Kristen Brynteson. Hers appealed to me the most, although I will be going back through each one later on because there was so much to look at. I have lots of exploring to do now that I have my own account! Plus, she had some great educational resources and apps that looked to be helpful.