Mr. Hardwick’s Education

Be Thankful.

We had turkey, corn bread, pumpkin pie apple juice, class-made butter, candy corn and whipped cream. It was great. The kids all dressed up in pilgrim or Native-American costumes and Mrs. Koenig let them play for a good 30 minutes after the feast. I took lots of pictures and some short videos and burned all of it to a cd for Mrs. Koenig to share with her class or as part of a school wide audio-visual display. I don’t know if there is an end of year assembly/slide show for Jackson Avenue or not, but if there is, Mrs. Koenig has some pictures to share.

Let There Be the Use of Technology.

Taking the pictures and making the videos reminded me of lessons learned in the “Business World” about leadership. Specifically, that without a champion in a leadership position most initiatives, regardless of how simple to use, innovative, cost-saving (insert your superlative here) they are, they will fail. There is a long history of “Technology in Education” that is less than exemplary and full of good intentions, profiteering and corruption. I like the use of technology for educational purposes, but it has to be inexpensive (or free), easy to use (teachers have enough to do without having to learn the intricacies of some new piece of software) and serve a specific educational purpose. I do realize that in the context of taking pictures in a kindergarten classroom the stretch to a discussion of technology in schools is a big one. However we (teachers, administrators, ie. the adults in the room) should always be thinking about ways to enrich the educational experience for our students. And technology is and will be a large part of it.

Butter–Peanut and Other.
Whenever food is served in a classroom, I worry about all kinds of things:

• Food allergies.

• Choking.

• The State of New Jersey’s school food obsession.

• Will there be enough for me.

I don’t know if Mrs. Koenig considered it a science lesson or social studies, but she brought in some heavy cream and an empty jar and half the students took turns shaking it until a clump of butter formed. The other half sat with Mrs. Ferrarra and measured ingredients and made some corn bread. Which was of course, served with the butter they made. And there was enough for me.