When Disney's new "it" girl, Chelsea Kane (formerly Chelseas Staub) was asked to pick a personal song for this week's Dancing with the Stars performance, she chose a song appropriately titled "Chelsea". As part of the show, we learned that the song was written for her by a boy she grew up with and that it represented the first time she fell in love.
The rest of the story behind "Chelsea" is actually much sweeter and straight out of a Disney princess, Lala Land sitcom.
And what did The Summer Set lead singer think of Chelsea's DWTS performance? He tweeted, “Speechless for the first time in my entire life. That was incredible, @ChelseaKane. I gave you a song, you gave me a dance.”
Did you vote for Chelsea and partner, Mark Ballas? Who is your favorite star to take the title for 2011?
UPDATE: Special thanks to my friend Jeff Rosado of The Culture of Pop for once again inviting me to be his guest for our weekly Dancing with the Stars podcast. For a recap of last night's dances, or just to hear me talk, listen to the podcast.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Monday, April 4, 2011
Are school curriculums keeping up with the Millenials?
Recently the mother of a second grader shared with me that after becoming increasingly frustarted by "ABC order" spelling homework, she taught her daughter to type the words into a spread sheet and sort. I was taken aback at first and many readers may argue that this mom is teaching her child to cheat. But, hasn't she actually taught her child a more useful, real world skill?
Alphabetizing words manually warrants weekly practice in the second grade. The only application for the skill is "to look stuff up". Student curriculum writers seem not have recognized that a child who is eight years old today will likely never, ever browse through alphabetized keywords to find information. Today's eight year old already knows how to use the "search" field.
My own second grader came home last week with the much anticipated instructions for her big "STATE RESEARCH PROJECT", which included a full page of questions that must be answered about the assigned state. I looked at it with dread. She fired up her ipod and had the questions completed in no time, not once having touched a book.
In the world of the Millenials, a generation that now outnumbers Baby Boomers as the largest section of the population, phone books exist only for the purpose of recycling. Encyclopedias are collectibles. They've never seen or heard of a "card catalog". Hard copy filing systems stand alone as the holdout application for "ABC order". Most of these are being replaced by electronic systems and, for the ones that remain, a review course of the alphabet song for workers as needed would be more efficient than weekly training for all students.
What other traditionally important assignments need to be eliminated or altered to reflect the world our children will grow up in?
Alphabetizing words manually warrants weekly practice in the second grade. The only application for the skill is "to look stuff up". Student curriculum writers seem not have recognized that a child who is eight years old today will likely never, ever browse through alphabetized keywords to find information. Today's eight year old already knows how to use the "search" field.
My own second grader came home last week with the much anticipated instructions for her big "STATE RESEARCH PROJECT", which included a full page of questions that must be answered about the assigned state. I looked at it with dread. She fired up her ipod and had the questions completed in no time, not once having touched a book.
In the world of the Millenials, a generation that now outnumbers Baby Boomers as the largest section of the population, phone books exist only for the purpose of recycling. Encyclopedias are collectibles. They've never seen or heard of a "card catalog". Hard copy filing systems stand alone as the holdout application for "ABC order". Most of these are being replaced by electronic systems and, for the ones that remain, a review course of the alphabet song for workers as needed would be more efficient than weekly training for all students.
What other traditionally important assignments need to be eliminated or altered to reflect the world our children will grow up in?
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