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Dog and Pony Show

This week I sat through several textbook presentations. The tchochkis were ok - but really nothing in NYC standards... and that's about the best thing that I can say about them. The only big difference between them was a few minor elements (extra crap for utter educator morons vs. extra crap for typical educator morons) and the presentors. Some did not rank high on the presentation skills rating chart, if you want to be polite about it.

To be honest, does it really matter which textbook is chosen? Probably not. Textbooks don't teach. Any of the choices presented would be perfectly acceptable. If they weren't, all the teachers would do their jobs and make it acceptable. I wouldn't take any textbook, plop it on a student's desk and tell them to 'read and answer the questions,' never bothering to speak them again. Even the most perfect textbook won't be perfect for everyone.

In the meantime, the state of WA is taking a break in the form of Spring Break. This morning I sat around with my coffee, bagel and newspaper - relaxing in the knowledge that I have to prepare for nothing. I ran across this article in the Sunday Seattle Times. I'm thinking I might use it when I get back for a couple of sections. The planned dancing lesson for those reading Romeo and Juliet went really well for most of the sections. I even managed to find medieval dancing music online to play while the students were tromping around. I only wish I'd had a video camera.

Comments

Jenny D. said…
Do you think that there could be a better textbook? I think that most have lots of room for improvement, but the textbook publishers are stuck in second gear. Why is that?

Also, the "extra crap" for bad teachers, I'm a fan of that because I've seen it work...but again, I wonder if the textbook people get it.

But I agree 100% that textbooks don't teach. ON the other hand, can they be part of a safety net to protect students from terrible teaching?
5:58 AM
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