Back to Class

 BACK TO CLASS!
August 26, 2019 

Reflections on first Science and Technology class

I enjoyed our first meeting of the Science and Technology class. I enjoyed the ice breaker activities.  It feels good to get back to work after a long break from the summer--I feel energized and ready to go! I am interested to hear others’ input about getting students engaged in learning science.  Technology I feel makes it fun and engaging. However, I feel that sometimes these days we lack balance. Students also need to get outside in nature, which is also a scientific study--exploring the natural world.  I am glad I am part of the Earth and Space Explorers group. Hopefully we can explore ways to get students off the couch and outdoors exploring the natural world and beyond!

Reflection on Did You Know Video 

This video brought to light the fact that students in school right now are being prepared for jobs that do not even exist yet, while other jobs will be obsolete within the next 10 years.  That is pretty amazing! The producer of the video inserted all sorts of statistcs, such as 67 babies were born in the US while over 200 babies were born in China just during the time the video played.  

In the end, he posed the question, “What does it all mean?”  However, he did not answer the question. I suppose it is up to the viewer to surmise what all the statistics mean.  Obviously, China and India are growing in population at a more rapid rate than the United States. Will we be left behind in a global market even though, historically, since WWII, we have been the economic global leader?   Other questions bear asking, such as is the capitalist economy the United States has thrived in even sustainable in the future? That is an economic question. There are also questions to be asked about where the United States is headed culturally.  We have true societal ills in this country that need to be addressed--drug addiciton, mass shootings, children growing up hungry, and global warming, just to name a few. The answers are obviously more complicated than how many children are born every year or how quickly Facebook became an online community.  Hopefully our future students will be able to think critically and arrive at solutions to combat these issues.

Reflection of 21st Century Learners Video: A Word From Our Students

I found some of the statistics in this video quite shocking.  For instance, China will be the largest English-speaking country and only ½ of students in the United States will graduate from high school this year!  That really surprised me!   

As future educators, in order to engage our students, we are going to have to meet them where they are and embrace technology.  However, I want to broaden my students’ horizons in other ways beyond the use of technology. Technology is not the be all and end all.  Students can be engaged through acting, the arts, hiking in the outdoors, and visiting new places. Gardening is a great activity for hands-on learning.   I saw another video recently which spoke of the fact that many people who work for the tech companies, such as Apple and Google, send their children to Waldof schools where elementary students hardly use technology at all and high school students only have limited access to computers.  There is surely a happy medium somewhere in the middle.  

Reflection on TED talk video

I enjoyed this video very much. I found Sir Ken Robinson very entertaining and I completely agree with him! Children should be encouraged in their creativity. I was very artistic as a child. I enjoyed reading and writing stories for English class. I had very little use for math and science, although I did enjoy learning the life sciences.

My true talent was my ability to draw. I loved art class. When I was a freshman in high school, my parents and I sat with the guidance counselor to discuss my plans after graduation. I expressed an interest in designing clothes so we mapped out the course schedule for the next three years. Every elective had something to do with art or design. My parents encouraged me in this endeavor. My mother bought me art supplies and sketchbooks. I eventually went to college and studied fashion design for four years. I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Fashion Design in 1993. I did feel,as the doctor suggested, sometimes that I was not as "smart" as some of my peers since I was pursuing an art degree rather than something more academically based. However, since I attended a liberal arts college I still had to take all the "core" classes in the humanities and sciences. In the end however, I believe that the creativity I cultivated while studying the arts will only serve me further in my future endeavor as a teacher. I only wish I would have done this earlier--but better late than never!