Comments4Teachers: Bill Ferriter

I subscribed to Bill Ferriter's blog The Tempered Radical a couple of weeks ago; I receive alerts on my iGoogle home page every time he makes a new post. He is a 6th grade language arts teacher in North Carolina, and he is NOT very fond of interactive white boards; he believes that "Willy-nilly spending on silver bullets is literally sinking American schools." (That is a quote from his most recent post...) It's interesting to hear the other side of the story concerning SMART Boards - because everyone seems to be crazy about them, and he has certainly helped me see the downsides to spending the money on the "really expensive overhead projectors." Mr. Ferriter honestly believes that IWBs are not all that they are cracked up to be; everything that they "accomplish" can be done more efficiently and less expensively with practical tools than with a SMART Board. I'd have to say that I agree...

Another post I found to be very interesting was the one where Mr. Ferriter debated on whether or not school is relevant for students. He argued that, "the standardized preparation that students receive in our factory-model of education leaves them woefully underprepared to be noteworthy contributors when the enter the work world, where innovation and risk-taking are rewarded." What kind of life is this type of learning preparing these students for?

"What can we be proud of about American education? What should we criticize? What are you convinced we need to keep? What could we pitch tomorrow? Let's do a bit of dreaming about what should be."

Mr. Ferriter makes very good points that I have not really considered - especially about the whiteboards. He makes it a point to make his instruction as relevant and cost-efficient as possible, and I'm sure his students adore him and his honest, genuine, understanding instruction. I especially liked reading his posts about his life and personal teaching styles: he is an adoptive father with a noteworthy outlook on parenting, and he is an understanding teacher to his students.