Lots O Work

Overwhelmed does not even begin to describe my feelings of late. I think I have a good grasp of what is going on and then "poof", reality settles in and I am once again lost! I know we will get all the work done, I am in a good group, but the mountain is high and time is short. The chance to work on it last night was a gift from heaven. I did feel I had a better understanding when I left, but still there is lots to do. There are just too many major projects to keep straight. There has got to be a better way. I thought the Work Sample 1 was an ongoing project, yet I have heard nothing of it and I know Work Sample 2 is right around the corner.

If they are going to include software education in this course it should be at the beginning. It would be a mistake to have it after the multimedia class. From the sound of things last night, I think people expected to learn how to use multimedia software. This would have been most advantageous to the group. How can we use multimedia with our kids if we do not know how to use it?

I really like the teacher tube video we watched "Are You Listening". I think it makes its point very well. I would like to use that with my faculty. I wanted to interject last night that it would be wonderful to move kids away from "how many sentences does it have to be" to "can you understand what I mean, do I make my point?" That would make a huge difference in engaging the student vs teaching for the test. What are the means to the end and what is the end? Are we preparing these future leaders to think for themselves or to get the answers correct? It seems that changing our models of education is a slow and painful process. Even though we know the key to success is in being able to problem solve and think, the students don't spend enough time partaking in that type of learning when they are being lectured at all day.

There are tried and true models of education that practice and succeed in this very type of education, but we fail to change our ways. Hopefully our colleges are teaching this way of teaching and our new teachers will follow through. We all know how hard it is to teach an old teacher new tricks!