cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo shared by jakerome
Thankfully, the #flatclass book club took a break last week due to Mothers’ Day, which gave me a welcome reprieve as I tried to catch up with my blog reflections. This week, I’m going to share my reflections on Chapters 7 & 8 of Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds.
It’s about “Choice” (Chapter 7)
While I struggled to make a contribution to the discussions surrounding Chapter 7, I was able to glean a few useful lessons:
Teachers make instructional choices about technology, curriculum, pedagogy, and classroom learning environments on a daily basis.
Teachers who are willing to learn, experiment, and explore new teaching strategies are more likely to become life-long learners, and successfully engage their students in their learning.
I also liked the ideas for supporting student engagement – enabling students to question, build, invent, connect, find meaning, understand, and excel through the effective application of technology & engagement in global collaborative projects. We are beginning to work towards these goals in the #globalclassroom project, and I look forward to applying these ideas in my own classroom one day.
Creation & Collaboration (Chapter 8 )
I enjoyed chatting about Chapter 8, which explores the topic of “co-creation”. While I prefer to think of this as “creative collaboration”; I was able to draw many parallels to my own professional practice.
As those who have come to know me online over the past year and a half will attest, the development of my online presence (digital footprint) has been a wild ride.
I started out blogging about classroom management, joined Twitter, met my dear friend @clivesir, and presented at my first online conference… A few months later, as I was going through a massive professional transition, I met Deb Frazier, co-founded the Global Classroom, and the rest, as they say, is history …
I now find myself, as a third year relief (substitute) teacher, becoming a voice of change in the global education sphere. By collaborating with experienced teachers online, I’ve led the creation of a new global education community, and learnt a great deal about myself in the process.
So yes, I can only smile as a I read this chapter, and recommend its key lessons to my fellow readers –
- Establish your online presence – Its time to share your story
- Connect & contribute to your network – your voice IS important
- Don’t be afraid to create & collaborate – with your school colleagues, local community, and members of your global Personal Learning Network
- When you are ready, start exploring ways to bring this creative collaboration into your classroom – for our students need to learn these skills too …
As the old saying goes, “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”.
It is time to take it.