staffreflections

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Francie: Very interesting, also just found these statistics 61% of low income families in US have no books in their homes, also there are < 770 million illiterate adults in the world. 2/3 are women and girls, and 100 million children are currently NOT enrolled in any school.It seems like we have a long way to go to educate all people. Hopefully with all the research and developments improvements can be made. But I guess no matter how advanced the technology gets it's still the Human factor that will decide what type of world our children will face.

Eric: The video in some ways made me anxious about the prospects for my own kids. As a society, our children are in school nearly the fewest hours compared to their counterparts in other Western countries. Children in many Asian countries are fluent in multiple languages and have superior math, science, and reading skills that will place them ahead of the pack when applying for jobs. Many professional jobs in the near future will be able to be completed from anywhere around the world as videoconferencing is a standard feature in computers.

Thank you Eric for sharing the video. All I can say is I'm glad I'll be retiring in a few years! I agree with Carolyn that this is our Sputnik - back in the 50's and 60's first Eisenhower and then Kennedy challenged our scientific community and educational leaders to beat Russia at the space game - we need a visionary leader to light a fire now and get us moving in the right direction. Good luck!!

Amy: Thanks for sharing the video clip, Eric. The video really shows the importance of teaching our students to become problem solvers and use higher level thinking skills. We cannot prepare our students for everything that they will face in the future, but we can give them the tools to attack any new information that they encounter.

Laura: Thanks for sending this link, Eric. I saw this same video last year at a GT meeting in Anne Arundel County and it was just as powerful now as it was then.

Maria: I wonder what the lives of the people in these other countries with superior math, language, and science skills are like. Do they also have fun in their lives or is it all about studying? If so, where are the "people skills" that are still important despite the massive need and reliance on technology. I wonder what their power point presentation about the American way of life is like. I wonder how the people in other countries such as the ones featured in this video perceive us.

===Carolyn: Wow! This video brings to mind Friedman's book __The World is Flat.__ While the video is enlightening, it is also alarming. Predicting and projecting, designing and creating learning communities to prepare our students for the new world are daunting tasks. Clearly technology is one of the forces driving this shift in the paradigm. Readying our students and ourselves for the 21st century is our new Sputnik.===

Susan: I think it shows how important it is to teach our kids to think & problem solve, not just memorize and spit out answers! wonder if they know that in washington....

Wow! That was very enlightening. I agree with Carolyn, it does remind me of, "The World is Flat". This article also supports the fact that we must raise our expectations for our students and push them past what we think their limits are; they are capable of so much more then we may think. Our students are sponges, they will rise to the occasion. Troy


 * Okay....apparently I'm not as GT as I thought.....this is my 2nd post since I couldn't follow directions the first time:)  The content in this video is THE reason the GT office is working with the STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) initiative.  It's critical that students are exposed to these areas at an elementary level to spark that interest and for us to find our next Einstein, Armstrong, or Gates......looks like we need to focus on our girls as well......**