New Teacher Panel

In this weeks Monday night seminar, we had three new teachers come speak to us. All three were Luther grads and were either in their first year teaching or were in the first couple years. I thought what the panel talked to us about was helpful, however I felt as though it wasn't a representation of the "real world" of teaching. in our group meeting the next day, we talked about where or what size school we wanted to teach in. Although small schools were a popular choice, all of us agreed that we were not staying in Decorah. The teachers in the panel all grew up in the area, went to Luther and then didn't leave. It seems that the "Luther bubble" stayed with them. I think that it would have been more interesting to have teachers from all different sized schools, Although I know that it was a Monday night, maybe teachers from Rochester schools could be added to the mix for next year.
Another interesting point that was brought up by the teacher panel was the use and reliance on technology in schools. The teachers in the panel made it clear that technology was used in curriculum on a daily basis. I think that incorporating technology in the classroom is needed in our society today, however, it shouldn't hinder the learning of basic skills (like using a dictionary, penmanship, and so on). I think that technology and computers can be a real asset in the classroom, but not at the expense of learning how to write in cursive, or find information in books and not using google.

Paperclips

In our Monday night seminar we watched a documentary film called Paperclips. It was about a middle school in rural Tennesse that collected paperclips from all over the world as part of a Holocaust class. The film got both teacher and student perspectives about the project. I really liked the film, I thought it was a really cool project idea as well. However, it wasn't the best representation of teaching. It seemed as how the students were mainly counting paperclips. In the beginning there were some clips of teachers using direct instruction, however, other then that different teaching methods weren't shown.
When our group met to talk about the film we discussed alot about how this Holocaust project could have been improved. One of the main things we discussed was that more technological resources could be utilized to make the project alot better. Students could make power points about specific topics pertaining to the Holocaust (which could be used as a form of assessment), or incorporate movies or clips from youtube even to give students a better understanding. Technology is a powerful tool that should be used in the classroom! Check out the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GP15cY3f7UA