Ted Talk - Sir Ken Robinson

Watching this video again reminded me of how far we've actually come in education and the recognition we have of the diversity in our minds as teachers and those of our students.  One of the comments that was made in class was, "Education is evolving.  Videos like this prove it and reinforce that evolution.  We are excited to push forward and away from the concrete, industrial model."  I appreciate that we are able to see how far we've come, that education IS, in fact, dynamic and that we need to find balance rather than swinging so far to the other side that we then lose the kids who are academically inclined or enjoy the challenge of sciences, math, etc.

I think we touched on the fact that cross-curricular or integrated education is the ideal and that as teachers we have to be integrated individuals OR at the very least be willing to step out of our comfort zones to allow our students the opportunity to explore all aspects of their being.

Polishing my teaching philosophy

A great exercise today was the "reflective wheel"!  We got into groups of eight with four people in the center spoke facing out and four people in the outer spoke facing in.  We started with sharing our philosophy of teaching by sharing with the person in front of us for 60 seconds, then listening to them for 60 seconds, then moving clockwise around the circle to the next person and narrowing it down to 30 seconds, etc. then down to 15 seconds and then down to 5 seconds.

I appreciated that we could narrow our thoughts down to some good nuggets about who we are as teachers.  While I've thought often about how I want this to look moving forward I don't think I have ever verbalized my impressions and perceptions.

It's actually a great tool that could be used in various places throughout a classroom both for personal growth and for the sharing of knowledge:)

Learning to Link Technology

This is kind of a fun new adventure! Trying new things, getting comfortable with using technology I haven't used before and doing new things with old technology. Hopefully by the time I get to the classroom I'll have a few funky tools under my belt.

The first few weeks...

As I wrap up the last few weeks of August it's quite clear that I've already come quite far. Moments here or there and conversations that remind me that I'm on a journey to learning how to teach in a diverse classroom. I can feel the sense of who people are, gradually shifting, grace and understanding setting in and the desire to know who my students are rather than jump to conclusions based on their appearance or behaviour. I encountered a discussion which related directly to one of the presentations I was part of and it was interesting how I felt my response gurgling up but had to hold back as I realized it was not the time or place to share the myriad of information I had acquired through my own personal research! Funny how so many aspects of the last few weeks have clearly infiltrated my thinking. I'm excited to have a place to unload and unpack parts of this adventure and remind myself of why I'm on this journey!