Blog 2 Monday's Panel

I thought the panel did a great job describing what it is to be a teacher and some of the challenges they face with technology, dealing with kids, and everything they have to do day and day out. The only problem with the panel was the fact that all three of the teachers teach in smalltown Iowa were there is not a lot of diversity. I think it would be great to hear from a teacher who has taught in a school that has a lot of diversity with race and class. There are several students at Luther who will be interested or going to teach in a place that is far more diversified then North East Iowa. Those students will face issues that do not just deal with the subject that they are teaching, but also have to make sure that there are not problems being started in class. Im not saying that every big or inner city school has major problems, but as teachers we will have to know how to deal with kids that come from a variety of backgrounds. I know that not every teacher is made to go teach in the south side of Chicago, because someone coming from small town Iowa it would be very hard to relate to life in the ghettos of Chicago. But hopefully all teachers can be prepared to deal with a variety of students. And it would be real cool to hear from a teacher that has or does teach in a school with a bunch of diversity.

Paper Clips

Paperclips was interesting because it took a new approach to showing students what happened during WWII. It gave them a hands on approach to learning. The students ended up collecting over 25 million paper clips and managed to get a German Train Car to store the paper clips in. This whole experience helped the students learn more then if they just read it in a textbook and had a teacher lecture on WWII for a certain period of time. It also gave them goals and a sense of accomplishement for what they had done. This may give them confidence to do extraordinary things in the future in and out of the classroom. I believe they was a great thing that these students have done.
I believe that more teachers should try to do things such as this, but probably on a smaller scale as compared to gathering 25 million paper clips. I am confident that doing things that the students have a hands on experience doing helps enhance the learning experience. There are a variety of ways to do this and I think each teacher should do it in there own unique way.