ABC (13-14)

For this week’s extra credit I choose to write on an article that my professor posted on our website. The topic caught my eye when I was on our class page, so I decided to read it, and found that it had some really insightful things to say. Here is the link, http://21k12blog.net/2010/11/26/engaging-not-distracting-the-digital-generation-responding-to-the-time-wired-piece/

The article basically talks about responding to our students who now live in a digital world. The author did a study of school age kids to find out what they are doing with their time, and how people can try and reach out to these digital students. One example the author talked about is how many teachers still stand up and lecture, while that is not what these students need. The authors says that if school isn’t engaging to the students, why would they want to spend their time studying, when they could be playing video games or something else that is more engaging. That brings me to my first point. What are we doing to engage our students?

The book asks “what are we doing to meaningfully engage our students? I think this is a question every teacher could ask themselves. Are we as teachers really trying to engage our students, or are we doing what is easiest for us. I know in my classroom when I am tired, it is much easier to stand up in the front of the room and just speak at the children. I also know that when I take the time to put together an activity that engages them, they seem to retain a lot more of the information, and have a better time doing it. This article just reminds me of the fact that to be a good teacher, I sometimes need to go outside my comfort zone, and doing what is easy, and just take the time to do what is best for the students.

The second thing I really enjoyed was when the author talks about reading in school. I know some students don’t like to do that, but I also believe that we need to find meaningful, and inspirational reading. Students read blogs, emails, and texts, so let’s find books that relate to them that they can enjoy.

Overall I really liked this article and thought it has a lot of good information and insight. I would encourage anyone to read it.

J Martin. (2010, November 25). Engaging, not Distracting, the Digital Generation: Responding to the Times’ Wired piece. Retrieved from http://21k12blog.net/2010/11/26/engaging-not-distracting-the-digital-generation-responding-to-the-time-wired-piece/