Hello Everybody, As many of you know, I am a middle school music/band teacher and I always run a unit about Edison and the phonograph. We always end the unit by recording on a wax cylinder. For the first time in many years, I am teaching two 6th grade general music classes along with my band classes this year. Today was the first time I approached the topic of Thomas A. Edison. To see where the class was with their present knowledge of Edison, I broke the kids into groups and asked them to write down everything they knew or thought they knew about him. Here is what the majority of the class wrote down: 1. Edison was the 2nd, 3rd or 16th president of the United States. We're not sure which.2. Edison was originally from England.3. Edison's face is on the $20.00 bill.4. Edison was a male.5. Edison probably had a wife and might have had children.6. Edison died a very long, long, long time ago.7. Edison helped to write the constitution.8. Edison had very long, wild hair.9. Edison was very old.
One student surprised me by writing that Edison invented the first talking doll. I was amazed so I asked her where she had learned that information. It turns our that it was on a recent episode of a TV show called "Oddities". Who says TV can't teach! Obviously, I plan on starting at the very beginning of Edison's life and of course his many inventions of which not even the light bulb was mentioned. If any of you have any words of wisdom or little known/especially interesting facts about Edison, please let me know. I plan on going pretty in depth with these kids so anything I can learn will only help me capture their interest and put these misconceptions to rest once and for all. Thanks!Melissa _______________________________________________ Phono-L mailing list http://phono-l.org
