This week I had the distinct privilege of speaking about educational technology to the Victoria Mac User Group. I got to share some pedagogy (SAMR Model), some 21C learning competencies, and mostly I got to share stories about my classroom. I got to tell them of my favourite teaching moment ever- (our class being selected as the first question for a NASA Live Press Conference). I got to tell them about the 7th grader who tweeted and got an immediate reply from a JPL engineer.
There is so much power in sharing our stories. We encourage our students to share their stories and their learning with us, but are we doing an effective job (as a profession) about sharing the great and wondrous that happens every day? Ask any teacher about their favourite or funniest moment- they'll have a hard time narrowing it down to just one from even that week! One of my favorite Sir Ken Robinson quotes is "A three year old isn't half of a six year old!" and I find that to be true every day. My 10 year olds aren't 'half an adult', they are fully human, with their own thoughts, worries, concerns, cares, passions... they can't be pandered to, condescended, or patronized. A real relationship is what honours the students and me too! To say it in a different way, if I know and plan and teach and respond to the humans in my classroom then they have an opportunity to grow and explore in a way that values who they are. If I teach content to students, I'm not going to have the same buy in, there will always be some kids who dive in and get it but the ones I'll lose in the process are too valuable. Jim Iker challenged us at the BCTF New Teacher Conference a couple years ago to go out and share our stories- to let everyone know the joys and (to a lesser extent) the challenges we face in our profession. I hope I did justice to that commission, and will strive to continue to do that every chance I get.
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AuthorI respond to Sarah, Mrs. Moore, Mrs. Smoore, Miss Sarah, (and sometimes Mom!). I have been an DL (homeschool!) teacher for 2 years and am now a proud member of the SD35 team! Archives
September 2018
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