Peggy's blog

First of all, I’d like to say that I love Facebook.  I move around a lot, and it has been a great way to keep up with all of my friends and family who live far away.  For many people, sites like Facebook and Twitter are simply places to network socially.  They provide a simple way to share with the world the answer to “What’s on your mind?”.

In the past couple of weeks, the word “hero” has been a huge part of the news media as 30 American soldiers were tragically killed in a recent Chinook crash in Afghanistan. The crash caused the highest number of American casualties in one day since the beginning of the conflict. As the names of the fallen were being released, friends and family remembered the soldiers as heroes. One 10-year-old boy posted a picture of his dad, a pilot of the downed helicopter, on CNN’s iReport and described him as a hero. This touching personal account of loss touched many people and caused an outpouring of comments on the site.

We study history to learn from other people’s mistakes and successes. More importantly than learning the facts about particular historical events, we want students to form connections with the history they are studying so they can apply the lessons to their own lives. In order to do this, we can help students compare and contrast historical characters and events to current events and people. The featured resources on The Gateway to 21st Century Skills this week employ creative techniques for the study of the American Civil War.

Not all of the students in my chemistry class will be going on to earn a technical degree in college. Although understanding the intricacies of balancing equations, predicting the products of reactions, and carefully following the scientific method is important for these students, they also need to learn to be educated consumers of scientific information.

Putting the words school and religion together in a sentence is enough to make many people cringe. Separation of church and state is an important facet of the U.S. government, and teachers tend to avoid religious topics so they don’t run the risk of crossing that fine line. Joann’s featured resources this week on the Gateway give teachers tools to teach students about world religions in a fair and balanced manner.

Although it was a few years back, I distinctly remember the hours I spent studying to memorize the steps of how a bill becomes a law. Passing the Constitution test was a requirement for passing the eighth grade, so it was a pretty big deal to us at the time.

I feel like such a hypocrite writing this minutes after smoothing aloe vera gel on my daughter’s sunburn from a long day at the pool.  Our topic this week on the Gateway is sun safety, and I have not been a good example!  Today’s blunders remind me how valuable it can be to help our students learn from other people’s mistakes, so they don’t have to make every mistake on their own.  I could start a sun safety lesson tomorrow by bringing in my daughter as evidence of the sun’s powerful rays…or by using another primary resource like a video I find online.  There are videos out there showing the consequences of too much sun exposure, and you can find ones that are appropriate for many different age groups.

Movie day!  Students love to be entertained, and teachers love the chance to sit back and breathe a sigh of relief (or tackle that giant pile of grading).  No lectures to take notes on, just a passive viewing of a movie in a nice, dark, cool classroom, right?  I hope not.  I hope we can find simple ways to use movies in class as more than just entertainment.  Instead, movies can engage students and inspire thoughtful, critical thinking about current classroom topics.

“I’m booooooored!”  It’s the sound of the gains made by this year’s students slowly slipping away as they veg out in front of one kind of a screen or another.  Movies and video games will keep our kids entertained and…quiet, but there is no mental challenge to maintain the learning from the school year.  We all need a break, and summer vacation is the perfect time to enjoy some much-deserved relaxation.  A good goal for teachers as summer approaches is to help students and parents find intriguing, fun, and memorable ways to work out their brains all summer long.  Summer should be relaxing, fun, and engaging…not boring at all.

A major part of a student’s life from upper elementary through college is maintaining the delicate balance between fitting in with their peers and being true to themselves. Teachers and parents share the responsibility of ensuring that these young people are armed with the right information and skills to make good decisions when the need arises.