Hilarious quotes about the current state of education
I am learning a lot at GAETC this year. I am sharing with you my conference experience as I see it. I am not researching the breadth of which vendor is the best nor do I wish to start flame wars -- these are my observations and I look forward to hearing your input or suggestions for other ways to do things.
I've been going through the conference with my digital recorder, notebook and laptop and boy have I been learning a lot.
Rather than do a massive post, I'm going to separate my posts into topics so that you may share them in a topic focused way.
I've also created a podcast channel over at Odeo that I will use for these and all future podcasts - the feed is on the left side of my blog and can also be found at this feed: http://odeo.com/channel/80086/rss.xml
Technology will become the backbone of Georgia performance standards
We heard from Stuart Bennett - Chief Deputy Superintendent of Schools, Georgia Department of Education
"Technology will become the backbone of Georgia performance standards. Supt. Cox plans to get behind technology in a big way.
Strong budget support and personal technology learning support. We can expect that."
That is great! I hope that educators will be wary and remember that politics swings like a pendulum. This pendulum may swing in favor of technology for a while, but it always swings back! So, spend it wisely on technology that is going to last at least 5-6 years. One year subscriptions can kill your money situation for the future.
The Keynote: Hilarious Learning
The keynote was actually a group of people called Wavelength. It was Hilarious! The title was "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to NCLB." It made so many great points. Here are some rough "take away" thoughts that I got from the keynote. It was so funny!
Funny Take Away Quotes from Wavelength
I have learned from 7 years of teaching that I can sleep anywhere.
I want eLearning - I want to teach from hom in my pajamas.
If we want to be treated like professionals we should act like professionals. Hands business cards. (Now it seems I was just missing a card.)
Some of us are way beyond the basics here [on technology]-- "Yeah, we've almost caught up with the kids."
Everybody tells us how to do their job, but do they want to do it? No.
Education through the ages
"Everyone is concerned about the recent violence in Sparta. All slingshots should be checked at the porticos and all off duty gladiators should go through the hallways during off duty hours. The deities belong at home."
Music before the age of 10 opens childrens minds to more logical, critical, or creative thinking.
An abacus in every classroom. Advocate an abacus for every student. Who can we appoint - whose not here? Meticulous and Ridiculous are not here -- they are on the committee.
Leave no plebian behind. Must do well on the Athenean tests. All students learn differently. We cannot spend all of time taking tests. Do we want to create test takers or lifetime learners?
Her daughter fallopia was harrassed on the bocce court by his son testosterone. NGA - National Gladiators Association.
Uniform togas, two students per pedagog? LSL - Latin as a Second Language - Should we be bending over backwards to cater to these Greek kids?
If I only had 6 months to live - I'd spend it all with my fifth period -- that rowdy class? Yes, then, it would seem like the longest 6 years of my life.
Dr. Phil imitation talking about Nclb
New legislation has politicians and educators driven more crazy than gnats in a yo yo.
Succinct government -- oxymoron.
You went from zero to psycho in 3.2 seconds!
Personal, Social, Vocational, Academic - NCLB only focuses on academic (our education system was founded on all four.)
A tested person is not necessarily an educated person. Take everything out because it is not on the test.
Pour yourself a big cup of calm down! Did you just full out of the dumb tree and hit every branch on the way down?
Don't be so technologically focused that you lose connection with kids.
Zena Warrior Princess Skit
Kicking the horsehockey of a math teacher who thinks he's being effective using math handouts and dry boring lectures.
The three tenures sang-- we'll always have jobs we can't be fired.
Remember why you got into teaching so you are capable of handling yourself well in battle!
Jessie Jackson imitation
A law to improve education may help politicians save face but a mandate without funding is a national disgrace.
It is the DOE not the DOA.
We should not let it become the tech have and tech nots. We must not have cyber segregation or we'll go back on the progress we've made.
You've got to teach a brand new way!
My take away is that humor does have a place if it is professional and well done. I loved the Jessie Jackson imitation. It was enough to make you get up and yell! I was so stunned with the message they were able to get across and the ensuing inspiration!
I took a moment to interview them in the following audio file. I've also uploaded this to my new podcast so if you subscribe to that, you can get all of the feeds that I'm sending through tonight!
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