Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Prince Caspian

Yesterday was the first time (I think) that I've ever been on a field trip as a chaperon instead of a student. We took all the 4-8 graders in the school (the whole upper school) to see Prince Caspian. For the past week they have been reading the book leading up to this monumental field trip. It actually went very smoothly with no major mishaps.

 What did I learn? Well, I learned that it doesn't matter how much help you have, if you haven't planned well you will not be able to effectively use the help available. I learned that most kids prefer movies to books; I could be wrong, but I really think that the whole thought process behind which better (books or movies) has changed since I was in fourth grade (although I know it wasn't that long ago!). I don't think there is a movie that I enjoy over a book---and even though as a child I lived in a media saturated world, I still had (and have) a great appreciation and enjoyment of the written word. I know that Mustard Seed does an excellent job at making sure that its students are readers and enjoy reading (they have to read one book a week outside of what they are reading in class) however, I think that there is still a greater appreciation for media than your own imagination. Of course this is a broad generalization, but something that I noticed yesterday. I guess that leads me to ask the question, how does/should that affect your teaching style? Should you use more media because it is what they (students) want or should they (students) be forced to read/learn more traditionally without much media. I would imagine the answer is somewhere in the middle, a balance. This makes me wonder how much more media drenched society will be in the next ten years....

The Spring Concert for the Lower School was last night. It went fabulously. I think that heaven will be full of little children singing, because I'm not sure that there isn't anything more precious. 


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