The question that she posed at the end of the article got me to thinking. "Do you embrace them, talk about them, invite discussion? Or do you ignore and move on?" - This question caught my attention... as I do the latter of the two. This is something that I had never thought about... most likely because the nonstop duties in the classroom. The antics of these celebs is something that my colleagues and I usually only discuss around the teacher lunch room table. They are not topics that find their way into the classroom... at least not mine. However, I think that these actions could be every teachers dream - a teachable moment!
Next time that Kanye rocks the mic [when it's not his mic to rock] or Serena goes on a profanity riddled tirade, I will teach. I will discuss these people, whom my students look up to and admire. I will use the teachable moment to discuss what their thoughts on the matter are. Hopefully my students will come away with a better understanding of how to deal with situations in life that may arise. Too often we in the public education sector are so focused on standards, AYP and such that we forget that "life happens" and we must address and teach about these issues even more so.
We should be taking advantage of every teachable moment that comes along. Thanks Betty.
Your thoughts?
More to come...
Mike Meechin
mike@innovateeducation.com
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1 comments:
And you should...teach that is. It will be important for us to learn as well. I was offended and shocked by everyone of the episodes that was mentioned on the Edutopia blog post (Kanye, Wilson and Serena, et al.) In fact it was a heckuva week for bad behavior. Then the fireballs started. People wanted an eyetooth to prove folks were really sorry. I bet each one of those folks wish they could take it back (maybe not all for the right reasons); Their antics cemented in the virtual time capsule called YouTube. It was important for me to hear students explain why they think stars think they can act lilke that. Whether or not they are allowed to make mistakes and how it costs them more than when you and I make the very same type of mistakes...I mean how many soccer/mom and dads were outraged at Serena but do the same thing on the sidelines of their child's peewee fottball game? They don't see the parallels and its time to start drawing some as we have candid discussions with our students. Thanks for this forum.
Gillian
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