1. Watch John Green's An Open Letter to Students Returning to School. Summarize John's thoughts in a paragraph. In a second paragraph tell whether or not you agree with what he has said, as well as whether or not you agree with his methods of doing so. Would you show this video to your students on the first day of school? (Assuming you teach middle or high school.)
2. Check out Crash Course! and watch at least one of the 90 videos on the channel. Choose something that specifically interests you. Then, summarize the video and give your thoughts on it, including its composition and content. Would you ever use a Crash Course in one of your lessons as a teacher? Why or why not?
My Response:
An Open Letter to Students Returning to School
Through a comedic monologue, John Green welcomes any and all students back to school by giving them the message of starting the school year off with an open mind. He makes the point, in the video An Open Letter to Students Returning to School, that many students do not see the point in learning things that they won't use in their everyday lives. He explains that though you may not know you are using these things, in fact you are. My favorite part of the video is the closing. Green closes his video by stating that the reason he teaches is not because of the students, he teaches for himself. He states that the reason he teaches is because he wants the future generation to be able to sufficiently take care of him, by doing things from inventing better antibiotics to inventing a microwave pizza with an "actual crispy crust." He explains that he wants his students to be able to make these improvements in society so that they will be able to take care of him, and to make his life easier in the future.
In the future, I plan to teach elementary aged children. This video is more geared toward older students, so I probably wouldn't show my students the video. If I taught high school though, I would start out every year showing the video to each of my classes in order to inspire them to put forth a little more effort during the year and to understand that even though they think they won't use this information, they actually may have a use for it. I will however, share this video with my colleagues in the future. I really enjoyed it.
Crash Course
After looking at the many videos produced by the Vlogbrothers on Crash Course, I decided to watch one on the Skeletal System because I enjoy Biology. This video was a really great way to introduce the skeletal system to students. It is comical, so it easily holds a student's attention. The Crash Courses videos cover subject matter of a high school level, so I wouldn't be able to show one of these videos to an elementary aged student. However, if I need to brush up on almost any topic in Biology or History, I would be able to watch one of these 10-13 minute videos to do so. The videos could be very helpful in a high school or even college setting. I like them because the way the videos are made is really neat. They use green screen as well as a lot of graphics. Overall, I think the Vlogbrothers do a great job of producing relevant videos for such a large amount of topics.
Victoria,
ReplyDeleteI really liked your creative and helpful ideas and videos. I thought that it was interesting that even though you are an Elementary Education major, you branched out and took interest in something a little bit different. It doesn't apply directly to your major, but you are learning about the education system as a whole and ways to motivate and engage your students.
Keep up the good work,
Carly
Hi Victoria,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog post. It's very creative. I like the fact that you are an Elementary Education major, but you branched out into a Secondary concept. Also, you gave a broader view of the school system and gave some idea for the Secondary Education majors to check out.