Meme: Passion Quilt

 

http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/archive/bestof/

I am passionate about creating passionate students and teachers. I chose this picture since astronomy has been much on my mind lately. We are looking for funding to replace our high school's planetarium program with new hardware and software. It ain't cheap - about $60K for the package.

I've never been a big astronomy buff, but I was in awe of this new means of "exploring space." Imagine not GoogleEarth, but GoogleAllTheKnownUniverse. In a totally 3-D immersersive environment. You do go where no person has gone before - from Earth's atmosphere to a point so far away even our galaxy is but a speck of light.

We in education spend millions on dry textbooks, drill-and-kill software, inumerable paper worksheets, and useless testing. What if we took just 10% - or even 5% - of our budgets and spent in on things that actually got kids excited about learning - like an immersive trip to the stars, really good library books, educational games or field trips to interesting local history sites. What would be the ROI?

I've always found that people who want to learn are easier to teach. 

Steve Dembo over at Digital Passports tagged me with this meme. Thes are the rules:

1. Post a picture from a source like FlickrCC or Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids to learn about…and give your picture a short title.
2. Title your blog post “Meme: Passion Quilt” and link back to this blog entry.
3. Include links to 5 folks in your professional learning network or whom you follow on Twitter/Pownce.
   

Jane Hyde, Rob Rubis, Rob Darrow, Sara Johns, and Susan Ens Funk are hereby tagged.

Comments

[Missi Baker]

You are (indirectly) tagged again.

[diane]

Sorry - forgot you had already been tagged!

Guess it's a double whammy...watch out for those monsters.

http://tinyurl.com/yuwu82

diane

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Diane,

No worries. It is a honor to be asked!

I like your lockers photo and the meaning behind it!

All the very best,

Doug

Monster-free - so far.

[arkreynolds]

I agree with your comments regarding money being spent for things that actually get kids excited about learning! We might not be leaving any child behind, but we are leaving their best interest out!

[Doug Johnson]

My worry as well, Arlene. For us, it seems to be all tests, all the time, and little else counts. I am frustrated~

Thanks for leaving the comment.

Doug