This is not a post that is anti-edutainer (the combination of educator and entertainer) but more an exploration of what does this mean, and how does it effect the children we work with. Over the years I have seen edutainment - both in classrooms and also as part of educator training/workshops, and while I use the strategy myself sometimes, I also wonder where does the line go for edutainment? Where is that line from it being a part of a democratic classroom to it shifting to a tool of control and management?
Hey Suzanne, Once again, I appreciate your nuanced worldview. I agree that looking at educational moves as either good or bad is a gross oversimplification. I minimize my role as sage-on-the-stage or edutainer and mostly function as a. guide-on-the-side. I just started doing my spring after-school and home-school nature-science enrichment meetups. I stared, always, going around the circle for check-in. Right after check-in, I enacted my observation of a bobcat catching a squirrel. That was my 60 seconds of edutainment for our two-hour meeting. I think that my crawling like a bobcat helped establish playfulness as a cultural norm in our little group.
exactly - entertaining can very much be a part of teaching and learning... as Mary Poppins says, a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down... (I must learn how to write that without singing it... but maybe not, I think the little song in my head is fine - haha)
Hey Suzanne, Once again, I appreciate your nuanced worldview. I agree that looking at educational moves as either good or bad is a gross oversimplification. I minimize my role as sage-on-the-stage or edutainer and mostly function as a. guide-on-the-side. I just started doing my spring after-school and home-school nature-science enrichment meetups. I stared, always, going around the circle for check-in. Right after check-in, I enacted my observation of a bobcat catching a squirrel. That was my 60 seconds of edutainment for our two-hour meeting. I think that my crawling like a bobcat helped establish playfulness as a cultural norm in our little group.
exactly - entertaining can very much be a part of teaching and learning... as Mary Poppins says, a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down... (I must learn how to write that without singing it... but maybe not, I think the little song in my head is fine - haha)