TED Talk 2: Ramsey Musallam - 3 Rules to Spark Learning

Well, I did not follow my plan to check out the videos that Sugata Mitra recommended, and I'm kicking myself.

I watched this talk by Ramsey Musallam and was underwhelmed. I'm sure he's a fantastic chemistry teacher, but nothing he said seemed revolutionary or epiphany-ish, and unlike how I felt after the Mitra talk, I do not feel inspired to continue learning more about what I heard. The talk today covered three points of inspiring children's curiosity:

1. Curiosity comes first. Don't talk, don't use technology to teach - wow kids with something that confuses or interests them, and let their questions lead the discussion.
2. Embrace the mess. Mr. Musallam runs all kinds of fun / messy experiments to get the kids talking.
3. Practice reflection. I'm honestly not sure what he really meant by this. My older son was singing a Michael Jackson song while he walked through the room and I guess I missed a bit.

I don't disagree with anything from this talk, but am totally uninspired by it.

I did, however, go on to do further research based off of this talk. I'm trying to learn more about the No Child Left Behind policy, it's affect on schools especially in our DC region, and how I can find a school that I'm excited about for the boys when we move back to DC in 2014. It feels good to be so inspired by that talk; I need to find another powerful one for tomorrow! Stay tuned!