Ask One Question Today
“Teachers have not changed the way they teach. We are using $2,000 pencils.” Alan November
I don’t want this said about you.
As I type this, my computer freezes briefly and then mysteriously opens another MSWord window and types the rest of the word I had begun.
I should stop using the computer, right? Open the window of my hotel room and scream the rest of my thoughts to you.
But you wouldn’t hear me.
You wouldn’t hear me without the information pipeline.
And neither will your students.
So, today, please do not be a statistic. Set aside a few minutes. Just a few minutes.
Today, use the information.
Ask one question.
Go to http://www.dnatube.com/ let the Editor’s choice video play. It does not matter which one; all are amazing. Don’t object because this is “science.” You don’t have to be a “science teacher” you are a “connecting teacher.”
(”But our filter blocks everything,” you say. Click here then and ask the same question…I guarantee this site will not be blocked.)
Ask one question: How does this relate to our study of__________
If students are at computers, have them type their answer,
If they are not, have them write or talk.
And then listen.
Take notes on what they say, make connections to what you are teaching.
Just ask one question.
If you want to ask more questions, click here for Greg Smith’s 3 Classroom Lessons for Using Gas Prices to Teach Math, Writing, Social Studies, and Technology
Please do not tell me you can’t do this because you have no _____ or ______ or _______.
You can. You will see results with your students.
Trackback here and leave a comment about what you did.
Prove Them Wrong Today
May 13th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
It appears that this blog is blocked (!) by some school filters! But some teachers who receive the email subscription update, emailed their comments for inclusion.
Mrs. H: “My students divided a piece of paper into quarters and labeled nouns, verbs, adjectives, and while they watched the video. Then they read to their words to the class as I entered their words in an Inspiration diagram. They seemed proud their compilation.”
Mres. R: “We made a two-column table and recorded the similarities and differences between the video and our current unit of math review.”
Mrs. W: This looks cool
Mr. R: Well, the DNA site was too much for my kids, but they loved the Astronomy Picture of the Day. I will come back to this page!
May 13th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
in 1993 Seymour Papert wrote a book called “The Children’s Machine.” He said that now teachers could realize the dream of individualizing education. Sites like the ones above are resources that I never dreamed I could have twenty years ago when I assigned research reports based on what books were available in our school library.