C4T #2 Summary Post

Over the past couple of weeks I had been assigned to Mr. Brian Crosby who has done an excellent job in keeping his post and comments update. The first week I read and commented on his reply to NBC's article, "Make Way for Awe." NBC argues about styles of teaching to get children involved in the class. However, in Mr. Crosby's blog post, he replies by implying that the writer of this article probably has little to no experience in education. He then goes onto say that the people that are being heard in education reform also possess no experience within the classroom but are the loudest to be heard because they either have fame, fortune, or involvement with politics. His main point is that the children who are reaping the benefits of this reform are not the ones who truly need it but rather the ones who just happened to be placed in the best schools which are usually in the best neighborhood. His final stance is that ALL children be given the same opportunities in order to have the chance in life down the road. My reply to this is that I completely agreed with what Mr. Crosby had to say. My hope is that my students will have an equal opportunity to be a well-rounded individual. After all, these children are the future, so why would we wan to leave any of them out?


On a completely different note, his next blog post that I commented on was pertaining to interesting ways to make a lesson plan fun. He took the topic of Thanksgiving. In order to learn what Thanksgiving was REALLY like he had his students research the foods that were using at the original Thanksgiving feast. Once they came up with this menu, they had the chance to experience it for themselves. Most of these foods, the kids had never even heard of or thought of as traditional a Thanksgiving meal. It was quite an experience for the students who probably will not quickly forget. I loved this type of project for the kids to engage. Not only are they really involved but it is fun. So, with the combination of involvement in learning and having a good time, a teacher just cannot go wrong!