Mr. Winkle Wakes

 

Mr. Winkle wakes up from a 100-year slumber...now that is a power nap!

  I recently watched a video named "Mr. Winkle Wakes." In this video, an old man awakes from a one hundred year old slumber, only to find that the world he knows is not the same as he left it. He sees for the first time computers, modern medical advancements, and other modern day marvels such as Skype. However, the one place that he realizes hasn't changed is a school that he stumbles into. He sees the "students in neat rows, with the teacher at the front of the room" while she drones on and on and lectures about things the students don't seem to care about. Mr. Winkle finds comfort in this routine, and spends the rest of his day there.
     This video presented a satirical perspective on how schools are not moving with the times. While businesses are communicating over thousands of miles, the school's structure has not changed one bit. I believe that it is so important for classrooms to integrate technology as much as is appropriate. It helps the students feel more engaged and will allow them to explore so much more of the material. Rather than standing up in the front of the room and lecturing, a teacher can shake things up a bit by including some activities that work with various kinds of technology. Our job as elementary school teachers is to prepare our students for the upper education levels as well as the social interactions that will be experienced in the higher grades. In order to do that effectively, we must appropriately align our practices with those of today in order to show our students the relevance of what they are learning.


You can watch the Mr. Winkle Wakes video here!