C4T #1

Bill Ferriter, The Tempered Radical
I was assigned Bill Ferriter, who is a 6th grade language arts teacher in North Carolina. The article that I read was titled, “What if schools created a culture of do instead of a culture of know?” This was a great first article for me to read because it was right after Mr. Strange explained the whole burp back system that schools are using. In a quick summary the post had the main idea of “what if”. The school systems need to change, so students will no longer feel thrown into this world and they can be involved in a learning environment. It only takes a step and this post was a motivation to let those in the education system to take that step and change their classroom for the better.

I responded to Mr. Ferriter’s blog just letting him know that I experienced a burp back education and didn’t learn anything. I am finally realizing how important technology and didn’t ways of teacher are, so that the kids can be successful in life. This culture would be better off with the doing then simply stuffing material in students brain for them to know but not able to apply.

Mr. Ferriter is a constant blogger, his page is full of post that are useful and he too believes in changing the way the school systems work. He wants his students to succeed by applying things such as the post that I just commented on about 25 word short stories. Ferriter uses good methods to help his 6th graders be creative and actually use the assignment outside the classroom such as text messages. He understands how advanced the world is and how technology is becoming popular. He wants to make sure he is helping his students become prepared for the real world allowing them to learn skills they can use daily.

I was amazed on how a middle school student can write a story that only consists of 25 words. A story that can be read and comprehended is a very difficult challenge, which makes the students choose their words carefully. It is a great exercise that I would definitely consider in my classroom and I thanked Bill Ferriter for his great post and will continue to read his blogs.