When I first read the title of this book I asked myself, “How is this technology related?” Come to find out it is not. I really like this book and taking a step back away from the norm over the past (almost) year…yay, we’ve come so far!!
This book really is an easy read that makes you think differently. The first chapter said, to me, that life is about taking the time to think differently. I tell my students they need to think differently. Quite often I will give an assignment that is so easy but requires a different perspective. Eventually my students figure it out they get the entire point of the assignment. For instance I use note cards and write one letter on each note card. These are the letters on the cards… j-u-s-t-o-n-e-w-o-r-d . Then, I ask my students to think differently and use all the letters to make just one word. They try to use all the letters in one word instead of spelling out the words--just one word. Eventually someone figures it out and shares it with the rest of the class when they see the results they get really excited and this shows them that there is another perspective.
Chapter 3 also spoke to me as well. I really like the idea of giving everyone an A as it would take away the measurement factor mentioned in chapter 2 and not to mention the stress that overcomes students. While reading this I couldn’t help but think about if Dr. Wiley told us on our first day of class about a year ago that we would all get A’s in all of our classes and all we had to do was to write a letter describing ourselves in the future. I thought about what my letter might say…
Dear Dr Wiley,
I am amazed at who I have become in a technological sense. A year ago I didn’t even know what a podcast was. Now I can make them with my students. I have become a mentor to my mentor who cannot even print an attachment to an email. I have become an advocate for technology who shares and strives to convince others to be the same. Most importantly I have taught my students things that they will use in the future. I have sparked an interest in them that may have never been sparked if I had not taken this risk to make myself a 21st century teacher. I am proud of the things I have learned and shared and I hope to impact more and more lives in the future.
Ashlee Park
Ashlee –
ReplyDeleteI really liked your “Just One Word” assignment. I think that we have trained our students to a test so well that they only think in the literal sense. They have difficulty with anything where the answer is not obvious. This creates a great problem for me as a Reading teacher, because they often do not use their imagination to think of the possibilities when it comes to a text. I use graphic illusions or perspective drawings like the Old Hag/Young Woman to teach my students to think outside the box. I show one half of the class the picture while telling them that it is an old hag and then I show the other half of the class the same picture printed in color while telling them that it is a young women. I then put both pictures on the overhead one on top of the other so that they can see that they are indeed the same. It is really fun to watch the light bulbs go off in their heads. Then we normally spend the next ten minutes showing the more literal students that it is indeed the same picture.