To Schrute or Not to Schrute

The key to motivation is often elusive to teachers. Trying to find engaging and exciting ways to present materials, while still adhering to standards and teaching students the material necessary is challenging. Cool Cat Teacher Blog tries to tackle this question in a unique format. Her post entitled Why Aren't they Motivated? Does Looking at Dwight Schrute Give us the Answer? discusses the traditional role teachers play in trying to motivate students. She references a friends video featuring the ideas of Alfie Kohn, who discusses that disengaging tasks and meaningless reward systems create a system of failure for teachers who try and engage students. I think this is a really humorous look at a struggle teacher's face daily. In highlighting this post, I wanted to bring the most attention to how this could apply to professional development. Teachers and professionals often complain that professonial development is not engaging and this offers a look into how workshops can be more humorous and attractive for teachers. Personally, the post had me at Dwight Schrute and I think that most teachers would agree!

We Are Living in Exponential Times

I have seen other versions of Did you Know, but I'd never seen the 2.0 version. I think for me, the biggest reaction I have to this video is how important global connections are becoming. The statistics about how many college graduates are coming from China and India in comparison to the United States is alarming, as many of these countries are more advanced in regards to science, math, and technology. Careers in the United States are becoming much more technology orientated, and if we want our students to remain on the cutting edge, we ourselves need to become technologically advanced. Two of the points from the video that really resonated with me was that there were more than 2.7 billion searches on Google in just one month, and then the video posed the question "To whom were these questions directed B.G. (before Google)?" I think this is an excellent point because there were obviously ways to research and learn before the internet and google, but the scale of learning that the internet has allowed is remarkable. It has allowed people without access to experts to become more informed and make connections around the globe, and I think that is one of the best characteristics of the internet. I think as teachers, we need to understand the power the internet holds for our students and become aware of it's different uses.

In the midst of all of the advancement, however, the video also offered a more disturbing perspective. One in three children in developing countries will never have the chance to finish fifth grade. And while the video did mention that laptops were being sent to many of these students, facts like this still alarm me. I think the internet can do good in so many ways, but it does not replace good, quality teachers. The fact about a computer in 2049 exceeding the capabilities of the entire human race is also shocking!

I do think the video offers critical advice for educators and administrators. To help our students reach their potential, we need to develop them for the changing world.