Garden of Your Mind

It's been 45 years since Fred Rogers made a different kind of name for himself, and started helping children find out who they would be.  Despite TV still showing the kinds of programs he hated, the show that prompted him to create his own "Neighborhood," his impact is still felt, by our own generation, by the lessons he taught us that we hand down, and even by a few in this current generation who were able to see him before the end of the broadcast.

I've come across two videos today that made me not only reflect on the lessons he taught me, the same lessons I want to teach (especially to the older kids who may not have learned them when they were younger, and to my own child I can't wait to hold by the end of the year), but also on the reasons he had for doing so.

Today I offer educational tools of a different sort - something he'd have called food or flowers for the "garden of your mind." This video is tribute from the Symphony of Science and the PBS Digital Studio (something that could be a tool for the classroom!)



The second video is from his convincing speech in defending the need for funding for PBS.


Please tell me what he taught you, what you know you've passed on, what you hope to pass on because of him, and what legacy do you think you may leave?

Making music when talking history

There is a site I've run into a few times over the years, and I'm happy to see it stay relevant.  There is a channel on youtube from History teachers in Hawaii who take popular songs and remake them into music videos for unit topics.

When I was subbing, and the students would beg to listen to music, I would open this channel and watch to see how long it took for them to realize it wasn't what they were expecting.  I love each video, but one of my favorites is their video for the French Revolution:



Do you see any tie to how you'd use Animoto, or think there is a video they made you find exceptional?