Maple syrup capitol of Ohio

The prior comment is from maple11. I am from an area in Ohio that has an annual maple festival. We produce a good deal of maple syrup. I can't help but wonder how she arrived at that screen name:)

She made a great comment about insisting that students 'make the connection' between their prior knowledge and new learning rather than we teachers providing them. I have been guilty in the past of being impatient and providing students with the 'connection'. I never thought that my connection may make no sense to my students.


I agree that the value in concept maps is invaluable. I haven't begun mine yet for our assignment this week; but feel it will be a valuable learning experience.


My mother grew up in Germany and immigrated shortly before World War 11 began. She remembers taking a suitcase filled with money to go to the market; because the inflation rate was so immense. She also remembers when Hitler changed the school week from 6 days to 5 days. Of course students were thrilled! He then started the youth movement so the teens would have something 'constructive' to do on Saturdays. Unfortunately she no longer has those memories (she is 95). I can see how rich an experience it would be for students studying WW11, to listen to someone who lived through that time period.


It seems that technology has made the teaching of facts and figures obsolete. We now need to teach concepts and those intangible soft skills like creativity, responsibility and collaboration.