Once again, I am to read posts by John T. Spencer on his blog "Education Rethink". My first post this cycle is by far my favorite of his so far. It is entitled "What-Works Wednesday: Documentary". He is specifically doing this project with English Language Learners in fifth grade, but it could work across the board in just about any curriculum. Students work together to create ninety-minute documentaries on a topic democratically decided upon by the class. Though he uses it to promote language and technology skills, I would be using it in an upper-level classroom to help teach difficult topics. I feel like this is a fantastic project for several reasons: it promotes higher-order thinking, it helps students become more technologically literate, it requires and encourages teamwork, and it simply helps students have more fun in the classroom and helps them to love learning. I hope to be able to do a project like this in my future classroom.
For my second post, I read a post entitled "The Problem with PEMDAS", also by John T. Spencer. This post was a great read for me. He speaks on the terrible way that we teach the Order of Operations to students, using the cute little acronym "PEMDAS", for "Please excuse my dear Aunt Sally." The problem is that it leaves out multiple parts and concepts of the Order of Operations. In my comment, I told Mr. Spencer that I have been irritated about this all through school, wondering why each teacher taught this concept differently.
Isaac,
ReplyDeleteI always think it's great when I find something useful that I can use to make my job even better and make me better at my job, especially when it helps others become better. It sounds like your pretty outspoken and not afraid to say what is on your mind when needed. I think you made some great points and were headed in a good direction. It seemed that you cut yourself off right when you were getting into your discussion. Elaborate in an extra paragraph to help paint a more vivid picture for your readers. I would like to know what Mr. Spencer had to say about the comment that you made to him. Continue to stay driven in your posts because I think they are model examples on how to portray how you feel through writing when someone can't see your expressions.