What I Want For My Children

Cindy Seibel just linked to an excellent video at her blog “Technology for Learning“. Cindy says, “Every parent and teacher will be moved by what this parent asks of teachers and challenges other parents to do.” For me, this video is particularly important to me as my own little girl started preschool this year.

We bring our kids to school with so much hope, so much love, and so much fear. We ask and expect so much from our teachers, and this is why I feel so lucky to work directly in teacher education. I get to help shape the futures of our teachers with the hopes that they will benefit all of our children.

There was at least one piece of the video that was not agreeable to me. At 5:42, the video encourages us to “always believe that teachers want what’s best for our children.” At the more generalized level, perhaps. At an individual level, I do not feel that such blind faith would always be wise. For instance, I have had some teachers that have (seriously) scarred me for life. And I am not the only one. As parents, I think we need to use the other good points (like asking questions) to validate our hopes and beliefs for our chlldren.

The creator of the video is Heidi Hass Gable, do check out her blog. She’s done a great job here.

The Write Stuff – K12 Online Conference Teaser

My very talented colleague, Dr. Patrick Lewis, and the amazing Kathy Cassidy have put together a trailer for their upcoming K12 Online Conference presentation. Here it is:

Cathy and Patrick have done some amazing stuff to bring stronger connections between students in our teacher education program and young children in the field. I am really looking forward to their presentation.

THEBLOG WEEMADE

I just came across THEBLOG WEEMADE which is focused on”sharing the artwork and creativity of kids”.

Sample Art

Reasons I like the project:
– Simple interface, and quite easy to submit artwork.
– Moderated submissions (I know because I tried to submit).
– Keeps with my philosophy that student work and creativity should be shared and celebrated with/by others, and not held hostage in classrooms and on bulletin boards.
– A visual archive.
– The no-brainer, RSS.

What it is missing:
– I can’t seem to find any information on the project. Can anyone find an “about” page?
– Lack of visible, appropriate copyleft licenses (e.g., CC).

Neat project, and it wouldn’t take much to create your own version of this for the classroom.

Being Familiar With Popular/Internet Media

How many of these videos or references are you familiar with? How many do you think the “average” teenager would recognize?

How familiar should we be with the popular media of our children/students? Does it matter? Did it matter when it was mostly television? Should we bother? How should we (e.g., teachers, parents) approach this topic/issue?

Obviously, I don’t have the answers. Would love to hear your thoughts.