Alien Pedagogy

Another TED video…

Seth Godin on idea diffusion and making ideas remarkable — worth making a remark about.

What’s your trick for making the ideas in your classroom remarkable?

Scarily, I sometimes find it more useful to read marketing blogs than edublogs.

Bill Gates attempts to identify what makes teachers great, though it seems that the only thing he has learned is that dynamic and interactive teachers who can engage students are effective teachers. Teacher to teacher interaction is important too.

(Three minutes later, he goes on to call for DVD recordings of great lessons that we can give to students that aren’t engaged in class.)

For a non-decision maker like me, the most pressing question is what I can do to become a great teacher because Gates mentions that great teachers can be identified by their third year and I’m in year 2.

(I’ve heard reports that state growth continues through to the tenth year.)

Gates is right to suggest that interacting with other teachers is significant, and I also find reading educational blogs useful. Professional development is certainly important.

However, if Gates’s foundation is correct and it’s the first three years that are essential, then perhaps the best thing the developing teacher can do to become great is to identify a solid university program and then to attempt to be hired by a school with a solid philosophy of education backed by systems that the school has put in place to bring that philosophy into effect.