This week I've able to keep up with the work much better. I don't think it's me; I think that the material is a shade less voluminous. Also, some of the beginning of the year mayhem has settled down.
I have already put thought into my culminating assignment, and I've prepared a rough draft. It's a realistic plan that will clearly produce benefits for Iona, so I'm pleased. Today created an Animoto account and threw together a ridiculous slide show just to try it. I don't think they could make that any easier. I also started getting a little instruction in Audacity from Darin. It's all going to work.
One piece that totally turned me off this week was the article about Voicethread and Death Comes for the Archbishop. I have grown tired of the steady push to turn everything over to the students. The idea of students "making their own meaning" and similar mushy concepts feels more and more like a shirking of responsibility. Doctors don't make their own meaning as they learn their profession. Neither do electricians, masons, firefighters, or orthodontists. In all of those and many others, someone who knows tells someone who doesn't yet know how things are. Why are teachers afraid to say that they know more than their students? Many of my guys have gone on to successful careers and have proven themselves to be more intelligence than I. However, when they were 17, I knew more than they did. I taught them. That's what I get paid for.
No comments:
Post a Comment