Another MLK Reflection

I know. It's the trendy thing to do, but I can't help thinking about Martin Luther King on his birthday (or at least when we choose to celebrate his birthday) without thinking about all he was up against. He fought the powers of fear, status quo, and inertia to bring about one of the greatest changes in our society. That leads to my thinking about my own (admittedly on a much smaller scale) pursuit of change. Actually, it gets me thinking about all of our need to change.

I think about what would have happened if MLK and all his followers decided it was too hard, too dangerous, too overwhelming to change. What if he said, "I can't do this." Our society relies on the courage and resolve of its citizens to bring about change. Are we ready to take on our own small transformation? To look at the changes ahead in education and say, "We can do this. We must do this. We will do this."

Photo credit: http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n38/No_7/Annabelle%20Dickson/mlk-with-school-children.jpg

Comments

Metamorphosis revisited

I posted before about metamorphosing in an evolving world. I want to revisit this idea. It has been bothering me that change seems to come so slow. There are many reasons for this, including leadership, state testing, resistance to change, resources, etc... But despite all of these factors, I truly believe that we can bring about more significant change. I'm not talking about technology, so much as I am talking about rethinking what we teach. While I see many teachers evolving (including myself), I think we are too painfully slow for the kinds of changes that need to take place. Photo by Morti Riuuallon http://www.flickr.com/photos/ultimorollo/2520525316/ The best way for us to metamorphose is to follow the example of the butterfly. The caterpillar starts by eating constantly. We, as teachers, need to consume information as if our future depended upon it. It does. We are becoming obsolete and our only chance of remaining relevant into the future is to understand it and adapt to i

Teaching for Tomorrow Part 1

A group of teachers are reading Teaching for Tomorrow by Ted McCain as a summer book group. As we read we will be sharing (I hope!) our ideas about the book. If you are not part of our summer book group, feel free to join in the discussion. All ideas are welcome! If you have any thoughts about Section 1: What Skills Will Students Need for the 21st Century?, please leave a comment on this post. Hopefully this will lead to a discussion on this topic. I look forward to hearing what you have to say.

The Wonderful World of Updates

As a SmartBoard district, we have many teachers using SmartBoards, Airliners, and, of course, Notebook software. So as a Notebook user, I am very excited about the new version 10 that has recently been released. It has many great new features which I will be sharing in later posts. However, as the primary trainer for users of Notebook software, this transition raises many questions about the value of updates. Many of our users are new to Smart Notebook software. I have trained about 100 people this year alone. Now I need to go back to them and tell them that this great tool I showed them is about to look quite different. To a third of them, this will be welcome news. They want the updates. They want the new features. They will pick it up quickly. To a second third, this will raise trepidation. Just when they are getting the hang of it, they go and change it. They will require a fair amount of support to bring them up to the same level of comfort with the new version. That leaves the re

Digital Eyes

Search This Blog