Finding Truth in Media

Aside from being one of the most disconnected lectures that I have ever heard in my life, Scott Simon's lecture was long and did not hold my attention very well. I thought that some of what he had to say was good, but he did not present it in a way that I was able to follow. He started out with some humor, but he was unable to tie the humor into the main point of his speech, which I am not sure he even got to. He used a lot of stories that were interesting, but very unconnected and in some of them I had no idea who or what he was talking about - probably because I do not read or watch the news very often, but he did not do a good job of explaining who the people were or where he was talking about.
However, I was able to pull some things from his lecture that I think directly relate to teaching. He said, quoting someone else, that "sincerity is the key to [journalism], and if you can fake that, you'll go far." Now I don't think that faking sincerity is a good thing when talking about journalism or teaching. As a teacher you should be able to be sincere when talking to your students, and you should actually care about what you say to them and how you say it. He also said that journalists were as fallible as brain surgeons, and I think the same is true of teachers. We hold the lives of students in our hands and are responsible for what we teach them about the world and even what we unconsciously teach them about how to act, what to say, and what things are important. Students pick up on many things, just like a sharp audience, so we have to be careful and make sure that we act in a way that we would want replicated and make sure that we get the facts right. Simon also talked about how they used to think that the Earth was the center of the universe, and someone had said, it wasn't wrong, you just miss most of the rest of the universe. In our schools we are US-centered and we run the risk of missing most of the rest of the world. We need to make sure that students are informed about more than just US history or US politics or US religion. We are a global society and need to prepare students for this kind of world or they will be missing out. Finally, Simon talked about how you can begin to trust journalism when it has the audacity and integrity to give you facts that you don't really like. The same can be said of teachers. Teachers can be trusted when they trust their students with the truth of how the world is and what has happened in the past. It is not our job to paint a pretty picture of the history of our country or the world; it is our job to make sure that students understand what happened and why it happened and why we need to look at it now. So, overall it was an okay lecture and I got quite a bit out of it, but this also showed me how important it is to hook your audience from the beginning and be able to hold on to them throughout.

Technology

Technology has made huge advances in that last ten or so years, and education is having a very difficult time keeping up with all the new advances. Inadequate funding keeps some schools from getting the technology that they need to keep up with other more well funded schools. I think that when used correctly, technology can be a very good tool to use in the classroom and is something that students need to learn about because technology is everywhere and knowledge about technology is needed in almost every field.
Things like basic computer skills - typing, using PowerPoint, and how to use the Internet, are definitely things that students need to be taught. These are skills that students will need throughout their lives. Other types of technology can also be both fun and useful in the classroom, but it is time consuming. Individually, teachers will have to make the choice as to what technologies they use with their students and, most importantly, teach them how to use. Of course this means that the teacher will have to have proficient knowledge about the technology to teach it to students. Using digital cameras and iMovie can be a a lot of fun, but the time has to be taken to show students how to use them correctly, not just sending them off blindly to hopefully figure it out on their own.
There is educational value in using some technologies, and not only because technology is now such a huge part of our lifestyle. Having students work together on movie projects can teach cooperation and how to work in a group so that one person is not doing all the work. Blogs can create places for students to "talk" to each other about different things that they believe in or have gone to that is outside the school spectrum. There are so many technologies out there, however, that as teachers we cannot cover them all. We will have to pick the ones that we know the most about, will not be too time consuming or difficult to work into our curriculum, and that will benefit the students most when looking at what to use in our classrooms. We cannot just leave technology out of the classroom anymore and it is very clear that it can be used for more than just typing and playing computer games.

Hair

I had not seen Hair before, so last night was a very fun and interesting experience. I had only a general idea of what I would be seeing, and was totally blown away by the power of the message in the show. Music is a very powerful instrument of communication and presenting the time period and feelings through music really gripped the audience and pulled us right into what was happening. It helped that they had been working together for a long time on this, and they looked like they were having a blast. This is important to remember when you are presenting, because you want your audience, whoever it i, to see that you are excited about what you are doing and enjoying it.
As for how this relates to teaching, something of this nature could be used to gets students thinking about the time period which this reflects and what they could learn about that time from the dress, music, and actions of the characters. The teamwork aspect, getting students to bond through a common experience is also something that would be useful in a classroom to create that community feeling. Using a class project of some sort, most likely not a musical, to get the class to bond, to come together despite different views, would be wonderful to be able to do. Another way that Hair can be used as a teaching tool is through its relation to Shakespeare. I thought that it was very interesting and powerful that the lyrics in "What a Piece of Work is Man" and "Eyes, Look Your Last" were from Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet. Because of this, these songs can be used to introduce Shakespeare, to show that it really is found everywhere, and encourage students to look at Shakespeare in new ways. I also think that the fact that this show is about war and how it can effect people can also be used in the classroom. Looking at wars in the past, such as The Vietnam War, and the war that we are in right now can show students connections between past and present. Shows like Hair can be used in many ways to supplement teaching and encourage new conversation about both past times and our own.