The Flight From Conversation
By Sherry Turkle
Anti-Teaching: Confronting The Crisis of Significance
By Michael Wesch

How do we make learning meaningful? How do we motivate our students to believe that their education is significant? Wesch believes that both teachers and students are to blame for the lack of significance. Teachers are teaching to the test and students are just working to get by. I have heard educators make that comment too many times  that some students are not cut out for school.Wesch changing "school" to "learning" hits you right between the eyes! What am I doing to inspire my students to be life long learners? How am I reaching all of my students? Wesch believes that developing good questioning skills is the key to higher learning and I agree. I know that inquiry based learning is the better way to learn. It teaches students to be accountable for their own learning.
I also agree with Wesch when he states that "When students recognize their own importance in helping to shape the future of this increasingly global, interconnected society, the significance problem fades away". Real-world interactions can provide motivation for students. A few years ago I did this project with my kids. We were learning about environmental issues. I had the students bring in some of their trash from home. It was September , and I told them that we were going to bury the trash and did it up before the ground froze and then in the spring. They brought in paper goods, cans, news papers,Dunkin Donuts coffee cups...to name a few. The students made predictions to which items would break down by late fall and what would be left by spring. Then we buried the trash. In the end they were amazed by how much trash was left. This project spiraled into many other projects, The students were interviewed in the local newspaper and they won an award from the Governor for their project.
This is how I wish that I could teach all of the time. I love when the bell rings and students say "That"s our bell? This class goes by so fast."


Even though I do appreciate technology, there are times when I don't like it. Of course I know that it is necessary in education, I use it almost on a daily basis in my classroom. However I do agree with Sherry Turkle that we as a society have become accustomed to being alone together. Every where you turn people are on their phones. My husband I and I were out to dinner the other night. We were sitting at the bar and another couple was sitting across from us. Almost the entire time that they were there, eating  and drinking they were both on their phones. I find this sad. I know that this is the case in many homes. People don't talk face to face. Cyber bullying is out of control. When our students were asked last year in the survey works survey how many times they text durring the school day the average was 96 times! The American Pediatric Association just this week came out with a warning statement to parents that kid should be limited to two hours a night on the computer. Too much technology can lead to too little communication in my opinion