Why do we educate youth? Why do teachers, leaders, and other educators dedicate so much of their time to the profession of educating students? While many people internalize their own reasoning, I believe the BIGGEST "why" we have centers around the desire to inspire and have an impact on creating a better tomorrow. This is usually articulated in the phrase, "to make a difference" by many educators and leaders.
At the moment, it is more challenging and demanding than it has ever been to make education relevant and engaging by personalizing learning and creating authentic learning experiences. Traditional practices and teaching to the middle no longer prepare students with what they need to know for what they need to do and become.
To create a better tomorrow, we need to connect with students, teach to the whole child, and instill the drive and courage to take risks to become the best versions ourselves (both educators and students). The need exists to continue to evolve our communities, countries, and world to be better for the next generation.
While this is a more challenging time in education and extremely demanding on educators, we have more tools, practices, access and reach to create engaging, meaningful, and personalized experiences for our students. Shifting our practices to offer more student choice and direction is helping to foster not only the knowledge required but also developing the skills demanded for tomorrow's world.
This brings us to why innovation is so crucial--to Simon Sinek's "How" circle. Innovation is creating change that transforms education, learning, and outcomes. We can only expect our students to be as innovative and creative and passionate about education as their teachers are. Furthermore, we can only expect our educators to be as innovative, creative, and passionate about teaching and learning as their leaders are.
In doing this, we need to be more thoughtful about restricting technology and come up with ways to teach appropriate use, make teaching and learning more efficient and personal, as well as prepare students for a world that doesn't even exist--a better world. We need to practice and model the skills we are asking students to develop. We need to take risks, learning from each other and our students. It will be a collective and collaborative approach to educate for a better tomorrow.
At the moment, it is more challenging and demanding than it has ever been to make education relevant and engaging by personalizing learning and creating authentic learning experiences. Traditional practices and teaching to the middle no longer prepare students with what they need to know for what they need to do and become.
To create a better tomorrow, we need to connect with students, teach to the whole child, and instill the drive and courage to take risks to become the best versions ourselves (both educators and students). The need exists to continue to evolve our communities, countries, and world to be better for the next generation.
While this is a more challenging time in education and extremely demanding on educators, we have more tools, practices, access and reach to create engaging, meaningful, and personalized experiences for our students. Shifting our practices to offer more student choice and direction is helping to foster not only the knowledge required but also developing the skills demanded for tomorrow's world.
This brings us to why innovation is so crucial--to Simon Sinek's "How" circle. Innovation is creating change that transforms education, learning, and outcomes. We can only expect our students to be as innovative and creative and passionate about education as their teachers are. Furthermore, we can only expect our educators to be as innovative, creative, and passionate about teaching and learning as their leaders are.
In doing this, we need to be more thoughtful about restricting technology and come up with ways to teach appropriate use, make teaching and learning more efficient and personal, as well as prepare students for a world that doesn't even exist--a better world. We need to practice and model the skills we are asking students to develop. We need to take risks, learning from each other and our students. It will be a collective and collaborative approach to educate for a better tomorrow.
We need to also value the soft skills (or un-testable, linear improvement) on the same level as the other skills. Too often I feel the system, when pushed, is supportive of the traditional ways in which a "good" student is defined. We definitely need to be concerned with developing good students but it is equally and dare I say more important to develop good people.
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I totally agree. The world could always use more good people. :)
DeleteI agree with your statement about making a "good" student and think we need to add "healthy" in with the definition. I see students caring more about technology then getting out and just playing and being active! With the obesity levels in this county raising and all the negative health impacts of it, something has to be done!
ReplyDeleteI love the addition of "healthy" too!
ReplyDelete“We can only expect our students to be as Innovative and creative and passionate about education as their teachers are.”
ReplyDeleteIt should be easy for teachers to show their passion for education. However, I feel like a lot of times we get bogged down by all the other stuff we have to do: the grading, the meetings, the state requirements… It’s sometimes hard to be excited about learning, when all of your energy is consumed by the other stuff. I know that this is something I am constantly battling. I have to work constantly on reminding myself what my priority is (the students), and what would be the best use of my time and energy.