“One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again. ~Abraham Maslow
I was asked to write about the purpose of schools 3-4 weeks before our first meeting with George Couros. Here is an exert:
“…The purpose of schools I see not only through the lens of a teacher but parent of a 12 year old daughter and 10 year old son… we are educating the children of the 21st century. What does that mean? How does that change the stance on education from years ago? A few have questioned… I believe it is our mission to provide a multitude of experiences to our students that allow for creativity, collaboration, and communication and to ignite sparks of curiosity in classrooms. We, as teachers must cultivate a democratic culture where their voices are heard and valued as we unpack the curriculum in creative and interesting ways that are responsive to the learner. Providing students opportunities to wonder, derive theories and wrestle with wrong answers fosters stronger critical thinkers, problem solvers and reflective learners. This will make our future brighter. We teach kids to take risks, to think out- side the box, to get involved, to care about the world around them. We integrate technology into everything we do because we know that is their future. We infuse passion into learning about topics that matter, topics they won’t forget because it was connected to real life. We facilitate learning…as we teach them… they teach us…Why School? We are teaching students in the 21st century…tomorrow’s leaders… and they deserve to be ready.
The reason I share a piece of that with you today is to let you see how timely this workshop was to my thinking about education. My writing reflection was written from the heart, firmly rooted in what I believe and practice as an inquiry support teacher. Upon my return from session #1, I re -read my writing and the 3 sentences I highlighted jumped off the page and made me think… really think. I wrote about integrating curriculum with technology, our students being tomorrows leaders, and raised the question about what it means to educate a 21st century learner. I thought I got it. I thought had most of the answers, I knew what George was talking about… we spoke the same language. Well, maybe not exactly. Participating in George’s workshop and reading his book has challenged my thinking…has shifted my thinking. I am someone whose never been on Face book and bragged about it. Never been on Twitter, Snap Chat, Instagram- you name it…I wasn’t on it. I also held my daughter off of a device until 2 months ago (she’s almost finished grade 7 and the “ONLY ONE” without a device). George made me think about social media in a whole new way. He made me think about audience in a global context. He made me think about how social media is their future… the way to connect in the 21st century world and the earlier we start modeling Digital Citizenship more and more in our classrooms and utilizing it in connected meaningful ways, the more our students will be ready to use it responsibly on their own. I am a glass half full kind of gal but my outlook on social media was shattered after hearing all the negative stories. I signed up on Instagram to follow my daughter and I am now on a personal inquiry journey with Twitter. I have a twitter account and connect with other educators everywhere! I tweet! But can’t hashtag properly (according to my daughter), I am holding learning lunches at my school to start the conversation about edublogs, twitter and digital citizenship. I have always read professionally but I am doing it even more now. So… George and WSD support, thank you. Thank you for a shift in mindset and the opportunity to learn. I thank you…and so does my daughter!
Camie Lawson/ Montrose School