C4T #3: Dr. Strange's Strange Thoughts

In Dr.Strange's blog post Facts, he talks about how facts are irrelevant. He was sitting next to a member of the New Jersey State Board of Education at a conference, when he was informed that the Board was insisting that kids learn important historical facts. He ask the man which part of history to be exact. Giving student dates to remember is not really giving them facts about that event. Dr. Strange feels that giving the students the dates of history without gathering information to know why the event has taken place is irrelevant. Its good to know they are learning the dates when the event took place, but knowing why it took place is just as important. Many students get by with dates or just knowing the event took place. Being able to explain why the historical event took place helps students out more in the future. They will be able to explain their thoughts on the event and not just be able to say when the event happened.

In Dr. Strange's blog post Understand Sarcasm and Satire or You Might be Dangerously Irrelevant as an Educator was an eye awaking post. In Dr. McLeod's post "Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please?" was misundrstood by 35% of the students in EDM310 this semester. Either the students really missed the sarcasm or they just did not read the post. Last spring when I had taken this course for the first time, I was one of those students that misunderstood Dr. McLeod's concept in his post. Now retaking the course, I had an opportunity to reread his post and understand what Dr. McLeod was saying. I feel that if people cannot understand sarcasm/satire at the time they can get confused. It depends on how well are you paying attention to what the writter is saying. I do believe, as an future educator, that its sad that some people do not know when a person is using sarcasm/satire. I felt really bad, but when I reread the post I knew it was a mistake and that I misunderstood what he was saying. I just need to pay attention more carefully to what I am reading.