Summary C4T 3

     I commented on two of Mr. Joe Bower's blogs. The second and favortie one was on bringing the Socratic method back into the classroom. I am a huge fan of the Socratic method. I beleive that actively engaging students conversationally teaches them to think, express those thoughts, and breaks some people out of their shells. I have liked the memorize and vomit classes. Sure I can do well in them but the whole class period I am counting the minutes until I make my escape from the confines of my desk. By no means am I a shy and quiet person and if I get a thought and it is socially unacceptable to express that thought it eats away at my brain.
    My favorite quote from Joe Bower is "Reflecting upon one's beliefs can be a very productive use of time, and I can think of no better time to do so than when we have come to mindlessly accept something as a given truth. When questions are no longer answered because questions are no longer being asked - it is time to rethink what we are doing." Students, including myself, are to quick to accept whatever the teacher says as truth. Its a combination of fear and ignorance. If a student doubts what the teacher says is true more often than not they are too scared to voice that opinion because they are scared or ridicule or their precious grade declining.  
     The other post was "Here's all the boring shit you need to know..." catchy title don't you think? This post was about the super passionate teachers instructing classes on the "basics". These instructors seem to think that since the coursees are for non-majors in that field that the student does not need to know the cool and interesting things about said field. If I was a college professor I would consider making the basics interesting enough to attemp to convert students to that area.
     I hate how my "basic" science classes will probably never let me blow anything up. What fun is science without fire and explosions? No fun at all. Not saying that if they let me put fire to something I would abandon my English teacher career but it couldn't hurt for them to try. But instead I will take Geography and learn about atmospheric processes. Quite frankly I care absolutely nothing about clouds and whatnot. So I am hoping for an engaging class.