Teaching things they can't Google....

I'm currently in graduate school working towards a Masters in Curriculum and Instruction with a minor in Mathematics.  Each semester I take an online curriculum course and a face-to-face mathematics course.  It isn't important that I drive an hour and a half there and back for that class every Monday night....   :)

I knew I wanted to further my education.  I knew now was a good time- no family and no real commitments outside of work.  This was a time in my life I could make school a priority....so I jumped in.  I do not know what I want to do once I receive the degree.  I like being in the classroom for now.  But eventually I may want to step into other roles, and hopefully this degree will open doors down the line.

Here is my frustration.  I'm not learning very much.  I learn way more from my google reader, twitter, my brother, my principal, the teachers on my team, MY STUDENTS.  My math class meets for 3 hours every Monday night-  this week we were talking about proportionality.  We spent three hours measuring body parts, looking for relationships between them, graphing this data, determining proportionality.  Okay... I did a very similar activity with my students last semester.  My sixth graders can do this.  I get the point-  we are all teachers and he is trying to share possible lessons...but of the three lessons he shared with us for teaching middle school proportionality....they were all things I could easily find using google.  By myself.  Without driving a total of 3 hours and sitting in this classroom for 3 hours and without paying tuition.

Why is education not teaching things that I cannot google?  This problem extends to my classroom...I realize this.  I'm currently teaching converting measurement....  Guess what?

Thanks Google.

I get it.  Its a skill they need.  Its in my standards.  I have to teach it.  But I refuse to let myself become a teacher that only teaches these things.  I have to be better than that.  I have to teach my kids things they cannot Google:   how to work with others, how to think, how to reason, how to problem solve, how to take risks, how to ask questions, how to create a product, how to communicate their ideas....etc.