tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4956989639073843954.post7348665640193920460..comments2024-03-21T05:30:03.220-04:00Comments on Science teacher: Stars and storytellingdoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12901661320505882735noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4956989639073843954.post-89429508431166703782011-08-07T23:20:20.785-04:002011-08-07T23:20:20.785-04:00Hey Doyle,
"Look up," was the advice D...Hey Doyle, <br /><br />"Look up," was the advice Derrick Pitts gave us at CMK. I like to think that he meant look up at the stars but also look up from our screens, look up from our feet, look up from the page. Look up, dang it.<br /><br />Whitman is my favorite cosmologist. <br />"Lack one lacks both, and the unseen is proved by the seen,<br />Till that becomes unseen and receives proof in its turn. "Katehttp://tabor330.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4956989639073843954.post-56777485675717044132011-08-05T19:19:22.569-04:002011-08-05T19:19:22.569-04:00Dear Cri,
Thank you for the kind words.
Never kn...Dear Cri,<br /><br />Thank you for the kind words.<br /><br />Never know what to do with the educator/teacher thing. I was born in the 50's. The few teachers I loved, I loved dearly.<br /><br />So I call myself a teacher--if nothing else, the word just sounds so much better (to my ears) than educator.<br /><br />Maybe we need a new word--not sure what it would be. But if my tombstone reads "teacher", well, no complaints here.doylehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12901661320505882735noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4956989639073843954.post-64035820297013928902011-08-05T18:02:05.582-04:002011-08-05T18:02:05.582-04:00I don't think this post needs a comment. Least...I don't think this post needs a comment. Least of all an "educational" comment. Too beautiful to be dissected by words like "effectiveness", "teaching", "criteria" and all the edumacating rhetoric. <br />I think it will touch the heart and the mind of educators. Not teachers.<br />@surreallyno on TwitterCristina Miloshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11259559822429559538noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4956989639073843954.post-18981926356454009242011-08-05T17:03:05.516-04:002011-08-05T17:03:05.516-04:00Dear Tom,
I need to dive into Whitman before I ru...Dear Tom,<br /><br />I need to dive into Whitman before I run out of lifespan--a huge gap in my reading. <br /><br />"...mystical moist night-air" is dead on. Bother, and only a month left of summer to dive into yet another pleasure. =)<br /><br /><br />Dear Mary Ann,<br /><br />Your voice resonates in my head, of course, and at some point, or maybe many, your words will creep into mine.<br /><br />Atoms, of course, <i>are</i> stories--the more you know about them, the more obvious this becomes, as you no doubt already know.<br /><br /><br />Dear David,<br /><br />Of course it's "a bit of a generalization"--I slap down thoughts on a blog--but I stand by it.<br /><br />To use tools not understood by the user while still a child, when the senses of youth are so sharp and the world is so open does indeed stunt growth.<br /><br />Heck, if I were more religious, I'd call it a sin, and because it strips humanity, borders on a mortal one at that. (Among the Catholics out there, yes, I know, that was hyperbole.)<br /><br />The "you have to use something to be able to criticize it "never made a lot of sense to me--especially if the criticism is not directed at how well a tool performs its function but rather aimed at the purpose of the function it is designed to perform. <br /><br />"Relegate" is a loaded word--learning how to use high-tech tools properly is really ridicul;ously easy compared to learning how to observe, or ponder, or whatever this thing called learning is.<br /><br />"Critical thinking skills" are not a 21st century phenomena. They are not even a written language phenomena. The development of thinking (as opposed to the acquisition of knowledge) is not any easier with the iPad, the Smartboard, or the Commodore 47 than it is with a slate and chalk.<br /><br /><i>Efficiency</i> of certain types of algorithmic thinking, true, are ridiculously enhanced by classroom computers, and that's all fine and good. Our fatasl error in education, though, is to attribute a child's use of, say, Visual Basic as some major breakthrough in thinking, instead of the dog and pony show it really is.<br /><br />[I may drag this discussion up to the front.]doylehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12901661320505882735noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4956989639073843954.post-67079518344243005392011-08-05T14:13:35.840-04:002011-08-05T14:13:35.840-04:00I think "If a child uses a computer before sh...I think "If a child uses a computer before she uses a magnifying glass, her science has been stunted" is a bit of a generalization. I do agree that too much of the technology we use is magic to our students, and that tech-criticism is a key skill our kids will need.<br /><br />Can you become a person who is really critical of the ways in which technology changes us without using it? Should we relegate the use of technology to after school finishes, and then hope our students have enough critical thinking skills to be able to see the pitfalls in its use by themselves?Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08098221991466148258noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4956989639073843954.post-52635055934708076062011-08-05T13:17:00.241-04:002011-08-05T13:17:00.241-04:00"Time comes into it.
Say it. Say it.
The ..."Time comes into it.<br />Say it. Say it.<br /><br />The universe is made of stories,<br />not of atoms."<br /><br /> - muriel rukeyserMary Ann Reillyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14349201167828984708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4956989639073843954.post-23635545983804373022011-08-05T12:37:55.771-04:002011-08-05T12:37:55.771-04:00Reminds me of some Whitman I heard last night watc...Reminds me of <a href="http://www.bartleby.com/142/180.html" rel="nofollow">some Whitman</a> I heard last night watching <i>Breaking Bad</i> on DVD. This accompanied a discussion of how chemistry <i>is</i> magic.Tom Hoffmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08577165613934129833noreply@blogger.com