When you think about your high school days, the mind wanders to many places: football games, Calculus class, homecoming.
But mostly, I think of “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.”
As a petrified freshman in a new town, I wandered into my first-ever high school class, World History. Nervously straightening my bangs, I sat down and pretended to be immersed in reading the introduction of my textbook, trying to ignore my churning stomach and the fact that I did not know a single person in the entire class.
Lucky for me, as the bell rang and my stomach dropped, my teacher flicked the lights off and pulled down the AV curtain. This could only mean one thing: a movie.
Enter “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.” Starring a baby-faced Keanu Reeves, the film is a reckless romp through history, wherein Bill and Ted travel back in time to try to save the future. Though I don’t remember much about the movie, I do recall laughing along with my classmates, making friends with my desk-neighbor by giggling at how silly Billy the Kid was, and by the end of class, thinking high school might not be so bad after all.
This is excellence. Not the movie, per se, but the foresight of an excellent teacher, who knew how nervous, unsure and terrified we all were, and found a great, non-stressful way for us to bond (and learn a little) on the very first day.
Excellence in education is something that deserves to be recognized. Recently, Tech & Learning named their 2011 Award of Excellence winners, a great list honoring hardware, network Web products and innovative applications that break new ground as well as those that demonstrate significant enhancements to proven education tools. A panel of more than 30 educators selected this year’s Tech & Learning Award of Excellence winners after reviewing more than 160 entries.
This year’s winners include:
- Discovery Education Science Techbook, Discovery Education, New Product Winner
- Igotta by netTrekker, netTrekker, New Product Winner
- myOn Reader, Capstone Digital, New Product Winner
- LessonSearch, Education2020, Best Upgraded Product Winner
- PebbleGo, Capstone Digital, Best Upgraded Product Winner
- Shmoop, Best Upgraded Product Winner
- VizZle, Monarch Teaching Technologies, Best Upgraded Product Winner
To learn more about all the winners, be sure to check out the December issue of Tech & Learning.
And, as Bill and Ted would say, “Be excellent to each other.”