Chapter Ten Response

I thought that this chapter had a lot of really useful ideas that I will be able to implement in the classroom one day.  I think one of the things I am most worried about when I am teaching is that I will not have enough diversity in my lesson plans to keep things entertaining, but I felt that Jim Burke gave me a lot of really great ideas.  I like how he gave advice for all eight roles that will help make up the "New Middle [class]" (Burke, 2007, 152).  I have a few strategies that he listed that are my favorite because as I student, I feel like I would have personally really liked if my teacher had done these:

1.  "Establish a threaded discussion online..." (Burke, 2007, 153).  I think that a lot of times students really appreciate the time to think through their thoughts and write them down carefully.  Instead of always putting the students on the spot in class to respond to questions I think it is a great idea to have discussion forums.  Burke implemented this in his own high school classes and found great results.  He said, "It was as if all cylinders of the students' brains were lighting up as they told their stories through an experience I designed" (Burke, 2007, 163).  I think a lot of the quieter students will really benefit from the forums where they can write everything they are thinking instead of trying to spit it out in class. 

2.  "Focus on design when creating presentations" (Burke, 2007, 159).  In today's world more than ever, appearance is so important.  The students are going to feel much better about turning something in when they feel confident that it looks the best it can.  I feel like I never really learned how to do much on powerpoint and that most of my technology skills are not so hot.  It is so important to keep them up to date with everything so they don't fall behind. 

3.  "Bring speakers into the class from the work world so students hear what people in different fields must know and how they are expected to work" (Burke, 2007,157).  I think this is really important because so many kids think they are never going to be using the things they are learning in school again.  Having workers from various fields come and talk about all of the different skills they have to use in their jobs will really show the students how important it is to be well-rounded.  I think this is one of my favorite tips because I personally find it so much more interesting to hear real life accounts about the real world and I think students would really benefit from this also. 

I think that this article about the new "flat" world is really relevant to our world because there are so many changes for all of us.  If we as teachers are current on the changes in the world then we will be able to better prepare our students.