Reflection #8: (Podcast) Conversations

Conversations #89 Teachable Moments

Well at first I was going to change to a different podcast because it took a little while longer than normal to get to the topic. Now I am glad I stuck it out to listen to the whole podcast. Teachable moments, I learned, are not things that we fit into the curriculum or plan ahead for. They are just things that are so important they need discussed. Many times has to do with current events. For example, climate change is a good teachable moment that teachers could have taken advantage of many times this year with the Haiti earthquakes, the floods in Brazil or the 48 of 50 U.S. states with snow fall. The podcast wants to capitalize on these moments in this era of "no extra time." A few other teachable moments from recent current events are the shootings in Arizona and health care issues. They talked about how most of the time students are hearing about these things at home and school is where they can learn factual information about these topics. Some parents however would rather talk to their kids themselves about it rather then them learn about it at school. The problem is, how open do we get with the students? Also they talked about how experienced teachers are more likely to take advantage of teachable moments then new teachers because it is scary and easy to get off track. Also you don't know how far the kids will take some of the topics and it can be hard to get back to the curriculum. Or experiment teachers just recognize that the topic may be more important then the curriculum for that day. teachable moments, Ive learned is just all about you handle it and being flexible!