Alan November talked about the research on what makes teachers captivating at the Microsoft Partners in Learning Innovative Educators Forum. In his keynote, he stressed the importance of the first five days of school.
Each year, I have my students evaluate and give me feedback on the “best of” and “worst of” the school year. In Computer Science, they always love taking computers apart (we call it computer dissection). They say that is what helps it become real and I’ve usually waited until January to do it.
This year, I’ve decided to start with the best first and see what happens. We are taking computers apart now and then leading into the history of computing, the parts of the computer, and binary numbers. To do this, I had to rethink about how we could back into the history of computing and I realized that if I have the students make a master list of all the computer manufacturers represented inside their machines and then research and tell the stories of how those companies started that the history of computing would begin to show.
You may be happy showing up to a job every day, but most good teachers I know want to be MORE. So, I’ve drafted up a list of what I want to be.
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