The post by Will about the conference he is at on the future of schools got me thinking. There is a lot of talk about, new thinking and old thinking, and arguing about where the problem is. I’m proposing a new meme about this to try to suss out where we’re at. The questions are:

1. Is School 2.0 about technology or pedagogy (teaching methods)?
2. What were 1-3 things you had to”unlearn” to become an effective teacher?
3. Did you learn these poor practices in your teacher preparation program, or somewhere else? If so, where?
4. Describe the philosophy of your teacher preparation program in 25 words or less.
5. What age/grade level do you teach? When did you attend school at that level?
6. When were you in your teacher preparation program?

I’m tagging folks who started this argument:

Will Richardson

James Farmer

people who have commented on this:

John Calvert

Matthew Needleman

and a few others just for the heck of it:

Nancy Bosch

Glenn Moses

Dan Meyer: Hey Dan if you look at Will’s link according to this conference, you should still be out there getting a “variety of experience” you wet behind the ears kid, and leaving the job of learning facilitation to older second career types like myself. Are you as bothered by that as I was? Trying to picture a world without Mr. Meyer. It was a sadder place, let me tell you.

Rules are answer the questions honestly; tag it with: teacherprep20; pass it along, I don’t care to how many people.

Here are my answers:

1. Is School 2.0 about technology or pedagogy (teaching methods)?
   Pedagogy, but the tools do create some new and interesting connecitons.
2. What were 1-3 things you had to”unlearn” to become an effective teacher?
   How I was taught (sit in your seat silently to learn).
3. Did you learn these poor practices in your teacher preparation program, or somewhere else? If so, where?
   I learned them as a student in elementary and other grade levels.
4. Describe the philosophy of your teacher preparation program in 25 words or less.
   Emphasis on Vygotzky and meeting students where they were at, scaffolding them to where to where they need to be. Multiple input modalities and standards based instruction.
5. What age/grade level do you teach? When did you attend school at that level?
   Grade 1-6 or age 6-12; I attended elementary in the first half of the 1970s
6. When were you in your teacher preparation program?
   1999-2001