This article is very inspiring to me, especially in this day and age. Today, when you say the words technology, most people first think of a computer. They do not think about hammer and nails, pliers, screwdrivers wrenches or even a manual drill. Murphy Barron, who is featured in this article, gave these exact items to his junior in college daughter in the late 1970s. Mr. Barron was an industrial arts teacher, also known as your old shop teacher. However, he did not instill these preconceived findings into his students. His students were lucky enough to have this and be push in class to not just go into the work force, which all of his students where tracked to go into, but to find another area past the work force. Mr. Barron had one student who created such great artwork that it took a long time before he was nabbed for counterfeiting. His suggestion, drive and push for this student were to go into the legitimate art world of advertising.
I would call myself a 4th generation shop teacher. Today, however, I am teaching my kids about Engineering and Architecture in my courses. I too can see how the kids that go into a specific area will only be preconceived to one particular job, even in today’s society. I too am trying to break this thinking by instilling the various options after high school and what they can do with their interests and hobbies.
I also need to prepare my kids, now more than ever, for digital literacy. I do this by instilling the various types of media that I can to my students. I try to incorporate more computers where originally paper and pencil will be used. Overall, by reading this article, and reflecting on my own practices, it has made me think even more to what else I can do for the kids to get them closer to the 21st century skills they will need.
Baron, K. (9/28/10) Not My Father's Shop Class: Fusing Career Tech with College Prep
Eutoptia Blog Post. Retrieved October 13, 2010 from: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/stw-merging-career-tech-college-prep
No comments:
Post a Comment