Another major thing that caught my eye in these videos is the fact that the United States is not the powerhouse that I thought it was. According to the videos, India has more honor students that the United States has students all together! Also, China will have more English speaking people than the rest of the world by 2025! These statistics are very scary to me, because like most Americans, I thought that the U.S. was at the top of the chart when it came to intelligence. This shows how far behind we really are, and how much work that teachers have to do in order to help catch the U.S. up with the other countries in the world.
Mr. Winkle Wakes
The My. Winkle Wakes video is about a man who has been asleep for 100 years and he wakes up to find that his whole world has changed. He goes to a tall building, and he sees all of the new technology being used in the world. He does not like all of the technology because it is different from what he has always been use to, and he begins to feel sick. He then goes to a hospital only to find that it is not how he remembered it either because it has also been taken over by the new technology. Finally, he goes to a nearby school. He likes the school because it is exactly how he remembered it.
This modern day re-make of Rip Van Winkle is trying to point out the flaws in the school system. It shows how out of date the learning process is for our schools. Everything in the world is using new technology to better our lives except for the schools. This video shows how far behind the school system is in comparison with the rest of the technological world. The schools are the main places where they should be using technology because that is where children go to learn, and they need to be learning about how to use this new technology to help them with their future. I believe that the school system has realized this problem, and now they have begun to use smart boards, blogs, eBooks and etc.
Sir Ken Robinson: The Importance of Creativity
Ken Robinson's video, The Importance of Creativity, is about how student’s creativity gets taken away from them by going to school. At school, students learn that there is only one way to succeed and everything else is considered a failure, and this leaves no room for their creativity. Kids are so afraid of failure that they are scared to stray away from the standard form of learning that their teachers force them to use-even though not all students are capable of learning the same way as others. This is why teachers need to try to let the students express themselves freely more often in the classroom, and teachers need to encourage students creative thinking.
It really opened my eyes when Mr. Robinson talks about the girl with ADHD or ADD, and that she became famous because her teacher actually noticed her creative ability and gave her good advice instead of just saying that she was incapable of learning like the other students. This made me realize how big of an impact that teachers have on their students, and that it is very important for teachers to make sure we are doing our best to point kids in the right direction.
I think that Pinterest can be a very useful tool for teachers. However,I believe that it would be more helpful for elementary or middle school teachers than high school teachers. Pinterest is an easy way to get new ideas for the classroom, and it is a great tool for organization. I think it would be fun to let my students get a Pinterest, and let them keep a web-journal with some pins they post. Also, I would like for my students to create a Pinterest, and for them to pin some ideas they like, and use their pins as goals they would like to achieve one day, and also make them complete some of their goals. This would be a great way to get to know your students better.
