I pass 3 high schools on the way to my job. Each school is just about to start, so I get to see herds of kids, often begrudgingly trudging to school. And I'm sure that I am putting my own spin of this, but the most forlorn seem to be those kids holding a rolled up sheet of poster board.
Poster board! Really?!? What could possibly be the purpose of that poster board? Do NOT tell me it is a crucial part of a presentation!!
With all the technology available, with amazing and engaging presentation software, with the future looming closer every day, can we not think of a better way to engage our students? Can we please move beyond making our students do what was done to us!
So, with this daily rant fresh in my mind, my daughter (who is Grade 3) comes home with: A poster board project!! Oh, the things I wanted to say!
First of all: Why? Why does my daughter need to present to the class using a poster board? I tried to chip away at her resolve, offering to help her using a computer to create something much more amazing. However, I was met with an 8 year's resistance: "No Daddy. Mrs. H. says we need to use a poster board. So we have to." Done.
Second: What is she learning? Never mind that this project is an at-home project, what in the media literacy curriculum could she be discovering? We talked about placement of graphics and text. I insisted that she type up each of her fact bullets, and we printed them off (in colour!) along with graphics and clip art to enhance the presentation, as best we could.
Here-in lies my professional conflict: Everything we know about student engagement and 21st century learning speaks to an eye to the future. Though we ended up bonding and "enjoying" the project (a project with 9 days left in school is worthy of another post!), I can't help but feel that an important opportunity was missed.
I am undeterred. I still think we can do better than poster board!
M.
