C4T #1 Summary

Beth Kittle

This month, I had to follow a blogger named Beth Kittle. On her post, Access Isn't Value, she said that having access to data isn't the key to success anymore. And those who just have knowledge are more likely to have to depend on someone else like co-works and classmates. The key to success is having the ability to find information quickly, sort it, analyze it, and act on it. She asked her bloggers if our practices as teachers helping our students become a knower or a processor?

I agree with what Ms. Kittle says about how the key to success has changed. Now, people must have to put the information they have found into good use to become successful. I asked her how do you make your students more of the processor? She answered me by saying by allowing them to be do-ers by creating things and using their communication skills.

Observations from a Waiting Room is her next post about what she observed in a waiting room at a children's hospital in Boston. She noticed that every school aged children were doing their homework and every parent was trying to get their child to focus. She stated some of the conversations she heard about children missing school and homework assignments, and their parents trying to catch them up. She also watched the chronically ill children battle to do the homework while being hooked up to the medical equipment. And how these families do not have any "family time" together since they are always in the hospital and yet their parents are still making them do homework. She wondered to her self about what are we doing as educators? We have had to have more pressure on student progress which places more and more pressure on teachers which makes more pressure on the students and parents to make this progress.

I think she has made a valid argument about what really matters in our children’s learning process and student progress. I think that practice is important with learning but it can become overboard. I think some pressure needs to be placed on the students and parents but just some.