Remembering . . .

The Kennedy Family has often been referred to as America's Royalty. Late last night the youngest of the famous Kennedy brothers died. America's news media is filled with words of remembrance and acknowledge of Ted Kennedy's significant life, as I am sure international news is too. He was not only the youngest brother, but also the youngest of the 9 Kennedy children. With all the specials on TV in the next couple of days, it will be like having the history books cracked open and a good review of lots of the history that I've grown up with. I wish the best for his widow, his children, and family during this very sad time.

On another note, today I'm feeling like a dinosaur. I went to several workshops at the campus this morning. One was about teaching to the "2 minute attention span" of students. I couldn't decide whether I'm a dinosaur and need to get out of teaching (retire) or if the presenter was just a bit too zealous in her approach to cater to the younger generation.

She is advocating that as teachers we need to break the rhythm, the delivery method, every 2 minutes to keep our students engaged with the lesson that we are teaching. She is suggesting that we need to use PowerPoint mixed with a little "YouTube," mixed with video games, mixed with multiple choice questions that they answer with student-owned clickers that each student purchases in the bookstore and various other things. Because they are the generation that has grown-up with fast-paced video, Internet, TV shows, commercials, and texting--the concept is to keep up the pace so as not to bore them.

My question is "Will they be prepared for professional life, if we do this?" Most professionals I know need an attention span of longer than 2 minutes. It's all a little baffling and honestly I can't imagine many of my colleagues changing their teaching styles to this chaotic pace.

On another note, we are definitely in a heat wave with triple digit temperatures today and more predicted for the remainder of the week. So the start of the semester next week is going to be a hot one. We also have two wild fires raging now in Southern California.

I hope your day was a little more soothing than mine.
Good night,
Rosie (& Mr. Fun), aka Carol