These are my notes from the Oklahoma Lt Governor Jari Askins’ comments at the luncheon during the OU K-20 Center’s MidWinter Conference in Norman, Oklahoma, on 29 January 2009. MY REFLECTIONS ARE IN ALL CAPS. The conference Ning is http://k20center.ning.com, and is open to anyone.
I videotaped the first 8.5 minutes of Lt Governor Askins’ comments today, and pending her approval I’ll share that on YouTube and link it here. (I’m emailing her a link so she can look at it first and approve it before I post it.)
After I stopped videotaping, these were a few of her comments.
We often teach what we are comfortable with, and what we are comfortable with is what we have learned.
She also said, in reference to students:
Don’t assume that we know. We need remediation. It’s important for you to tell us. We get mixed signals [IN THE LEGISLATURE.]
My background working in the criminal justice system (working with the parole board) we saw that one of the best outlets for inmates was some type of creative activity
– in my hometown [DUNCAN] the first alternative education program had a lot of artistic elements / choices / opportunities
– my question was: Why did we wait to offer these creative opportunities for expression till after these [CRIMINAL] acts have been committed
It’s not about thinking outside the box, it’s about realizing there is no box.
Last year at the education day summit for aerospace, there was an awareness that if we were going to motivate students in the classroom, we need to provide good lesson plans for teachers.
I REALLY DON’T THINK THAT APPROACH OF PROVIDING NEW LESSON PLANS ABOUT STEM IS GOING TO BE SUFFICIENTLY DISRUPTIVE IN A CONSTRUCTIVE WAY TO MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE. I THINK WE NEED TO GET STUDENTS INVOLVED IN INTERVIEWING SCIENTISTS, ENGINEERS, INDUSTRY LEADERS, AND OTHERS AND SHARING THOSE SHORT VIDEOS ON CELEBRATEOKLAHOMAVOICES.
Students today are going to have the biggest impact on what Oklahoma will look like for the next 100 years
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