COMMENTS FOR TEACHERS 4,5,6

Mathew Needleman's Creating Lifetime Learners

My first comment was based on watching several videos whose scripts were written and performed by students features in Mr Needleman's blog Video in the Classroom Mini-Carnival #5 I think what he is doing with film is amazing. He has unleashed so much originality and creativity in his students. Their messages are very powerful and there is no better way to get these moral messages across to teenagers than through their peers. I am also glad to see that by writing films the test scores for the students have improved. I was not expecting to see that kind of data. I guess that is what Randy Pausch would refer to as faking them out. The kids are getting great enjoyment from making films and learning valuable skills about writing.The one method that he used that intrigued me the most was Stop Motion Animation. I could not stop thinking about the old skits of “Mr Bill” from Saturday Night Live. They were always my favorite part of the show. I have never really wanted to make a movie before but this is intriguing. I would like to use it for a project in my media class at the University of South Alabama. I asked him for any information that he would like to share.
On Mr Neeldleman's blog The Low Tech Way to Show YouTube Movies in School he finds a way to get around YouTube restrictions. I think it is great when the good guys find a way to beat the system. It's even better when they share it with everyone. This will be great information should I need to use it. I also enjoyed the comment from Kimberly Wagner on how she uses her smart board and real player to Youtube videos as flash videos to her class.
The last blog I commented on was Good Teaching Should Be Like Pulling Teeth (Sometimes) This is a challenge I hope to be prepared for. I can remember teachers who "pulled teeth" and I retained more from their classes than any others even though I may have disliked them at the time. By the way, I have never disliked you Dr Strange. I think you are great. Higher level thinking takes a lot more effort from the student than traditional memorization. I hope that I will be able to motivate my future students to want to learn bad enough to apply that kind of thinking. I wonder if you learn how to do this simply by trial and error? I would like to hear more from experienced successful teachers about this.