To us, the “great lesson” is not a core curricular area but something that is more nuanced and intangible.  This episode was inspired by a post from Quora, an on-line forum with expert advice.  Fred thinks it’s hard to teach students to research online appropriately as they often cut and paste information without reading the whole article from beginning to end.  This has parallels to adults reading fake news on Facebook, especially around the U.S. Presidential Election.  I think it’s hard to teaching empathy, gratitude and being kind to others (as Ellen DeGeneres says!) and find it best to teach these concepts in both designated lessons and as incidents arise in my classroom.  During a conflict, do I address the whole class, a small group of students or just the individuals involved? Do I stop the lesson and take care of these problems? What’s your most difficult great lesson to teach?

Links mentioned:

* Episode 89: How Scratch Can Create Community & Collaboration

* My math specialist journey blog post

* Episode 14: Teaching on the Fly

Music by Jukedeck