Blog Assignment #10: Video Responses

An Open Letter to Educators
     This is a post by Morgan Bayda where she shares a video by Dan Brown that expresses his feelings about the world of education today. He poses the question, "what does it really mean to receive an education?" Dan Brown says that every great mind learned what he needed to learn from a university...back in the day. But now, a revolution is in place - and that revolution is the internet. There are thousands upon thousands of new ways of learning via internet. New tools are being created and distributed every day for public use. Why would the educational world not want to embrace this new kind of learning?? Dan tells of his personal experience where he dropped out of Nebraska University because he felt that "his schooling was interfering with his education." Why do students pay hundreds of dollars to sit in lecture halls franticly writing facts spoken by a professor when they can find the same information and learn on the internet...for free?

Tom Johnson's Adventures in Pencil Integration

     This is a blog post written by Tom Johnson entitled 'Don't Let Them Take Pencils Home.' This post is more or less a dialog between Tom & Gertrude, the school's interventionist. She says that students who use pencils at home have lower standardized test scores than those who do not. Mr. Johnson tends to disagree. He says that having children take their pencils home will encourage them to get involved with what activities they have been doing in class - especially if the family is from a low-income household. He says that even if the child is just playing hangman, there is still learning that can be done. And I couldn't agree with that more.

Two Q's That Can Change Your Life
     "What is my sentence?" and "was I better today than I was yesterday?" Two simple questions that can have so much meaning. I thought that this video was very thought provoking. If I were to have one sentence sum up who I am and what I can be, what would it be? It seems to be easier said than done. As for the second question, also easier said than done. Being better today than yesterday means a continuous and constant improvement of oneself - which seems very challenging. But I think that in the end, I can do anything. So...what is my sentence?

I am going to mold a child's mind into something great one day.