C4T Summary #2

I was assigned to Jerrid Kruse and he blogged about "The Dreaded Pendulum Swing". He said that when it comes to teaching new ideas in the schools people think it's always ideas and techniques that we have used in the past and we are never reaching our goal. Kruse gave a great example, he said that if you spin money down the coin funnel you can see it spin around and around until it goes down the tube and hits the bottom. Well if you look at the coin funnel from the side you can see the coin spin back and forth like a pendulum until it reaches the bottom which is the goal. He said that people who complain about teaching ideas going back and forth just don't have enough perspective.

After reading Mr, Kruse's blog I admitted that I had never looked at new teaching ideas in the way like the coin funnel. I told him that at the mall here in Mobile we actually have a coin funnel at the back entrance and I have several times spun coins down it and never looked at the coin from a different angle. The next time I go I'm going to look at the coin spin down the funnel from the side to see it swing like a pendulum. I then left him the link to my class blog and told him he could contact me for any further advice.in

Jerrid Kruse's second blog I read was about how he spends his Friday's each semester for a little over a year. He says that he spends his whole day on Friday in a 6th grade classroom. He brings his students in, about 6 each period, and assigns them to a group of 6th graders. He gets to watch them interact with the kids and then they get to see him teach the 6th graders Science. After they watch Mr. Kruse teach, he sits back and watches his students teach the 6th graders as well. He says that "powerful"doesn't begin to describe the feeling.

I commented on his blog and said that reading it made me really look forward to the time I will be able to be observed by other teachers while teaching a class and maybe one day will be observing students doing the same thing. It sounds like a great experience and hopefully my Friday's will become as "powerful" as his sound to be.