Empathy- Chapter 7

I yawned several times for the author. Often, I have this thought "I'm embarrassed for him/her". I think that is empathy. While I was reading, I was trying to categorize people I know into two groups, empathetic and not. Our family doctor fits into the first category. I have never thought about why I like him so much. Even my children are excited to go the doctor. After reading chapter 7, I have decided that I love him because he is "empathetic". He takes notes while I tell him our symptoms. After he decides what to do for us, he always tells me a story about his own children. He relates to me because he "feels my pain" as a parent. I can't wait to try the websites given in the portfolio section.

Thing 4

My sixth graders probably wouldn't admit to being artists or designers. But, when I think about their personalized binders and handmade duct-tape jewelery, it is apparent that they are designers. We recently designed book brochures for our book project. There was no complaining or moaning during the assignment. The brochures were all unique and impressive products. This chapter reminded me of my students who need to sketch while I teach. I love the idea of bringing design into the public schools and public housing.

Chapter 3 Creating

By creating a product with the information from part one of chapter three, we were forced to take apart the information given to us and put it back together again as our project. Because I had to synthesize the text by Dan Pink, I have a deeper understanding of the content. What a great lesson for me as a teacher. I want my students to have a deeper rooted understanding, so I should give them tasks that call for sythesizing.

Thing 4 Comments

I thought that the actual task of making comments was simple enough. But, I think everyone should remember Thumper's quote: "If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all!" I enjoyed reading the comments posted by my colleagues. The ideas we collect from each other are priceless.

Thing 3 Widgets

Today, I learned how to add "widgets" to my blogspot. At first, this was a very frustrating task. In the end, it was just a moderately frustrating. Several "gadgets" contain illegal characters and couldn't be added. I ended up using mostly "widgets" from Blogspot. Those were a much better fit for me and my blogspot today. As I improve as a "blogger", I'm sure that my "widgets" will improve as well!

Thing 2

Thoughts about web 2.0: As our students change the way they communicate with each other, we must change the way we communicate with them. Our lessons should be based on collaboration, creation, and contribution. With the flood of content students are faced with an information dilemma. We, as teachers, have the responsibility of teaching them to deal with this dilemma in an ethical way. This flood of knowledge is causing the experts to give way to this generation of collaborative learners.