First day of School 2007

I posted about this last year but it's such a significant day that I think I'll post about it each year.

Once again Angela and Brian started on different days. It was to our benefit this year as we wanted to deal with Brian's broken collarbone on it's own. Realizing that the first day back to school is usually quite busy for the teachers we got two notes ready explaining the situation. One for the office and one for the teacher. I think they appreciated this. I picked Brian up during lunch/recess to avoid any potential collarbone mishaps. I worry he may get used to this special treatment.

Angela has 2 other Angela's in her class. So much for a unique name.
Grade 3. I think this is the writing and multiplication tables year. The lack of things to say for Angela is actually a good thing.

Not much has changed since we went to school. Some say that schools need to move into the future in terms of educating kids. As an example if you took a teacher from 100 years ago and plopped them into a grade school class today they would not feel much of a difference. Should they? Not sure. Maybe in high school things should change. A teacher at the front of the class lecturing and handing out photocopies is probably not as useful as it was in the past. More interaction is occurring from what I can see but I believe most of the burden falls on the students. Things are changing very quickly in the real world and it's hard for any institution to keep up. I don't think everyone needs a computer but everyone should be using them regularly and getting familiar with some of the common tools. Moving beyond the common would then be a bit easier.

Update: Sept 7/07
I guess some teachers/professors are making changes. See this article that talks about podcasts, videocast, clickers in the classroom/lecture to make things more interactive. Teachers have always been entertainers. This takes it to a new level. Today's guest speaker will be Regis Filbin and is brought to you by the Redbull. Need to stay alert during a lecture, try Redbull!