Week 4

Being a Global teacher and impact the world with one small step

What did you learn from the book this week?  I learned that in order to unleash the talent by empowering educators, you need to develop trust and collaboration.  Innovation is not a command- “you there-you-go innovate now!!”  Instead, as a leader, it is something you are willing to do as a team. I also learned that exploring our strengths and passions-along with sharing and learning provided innovative professional development for George Couros.  So, I began thinking-I have no control over what professional development looks like at my school but I do in my classroom.  What if I took this idea and used it in my classroom?  I could have students think about something they are passionate about and share it with others or something that they want to learn about and share it with others. Then they could comment on others and then reflect on their own learning. 

What did you learn from the videos this week?

This week I learned from the videos three interesting things.  First, I want to work at a place where you can never get fired for performance issues!  I love that the company will support and offer lifetime employment.  Just like a family, you don’t get kicked out of the family for doing something wrong; you are embraced and loved and supported to get through it.  Second, sharing digitally has transformed innovation.  I have never understood why others have watched hours of online videos.  My daughter, for instance, has watched videos on makeup and a few of my other children watch gaming videos.  I ask them, "why don’t you just game instead?"  They would rather watch others play and learn from them.  But the idea of openness, using online video to spread ideas to the world and learning from others is a great concept.  Finally, I really enjoyed the last video.  She talks about releasing the power of our students.  Lately, I have begun not to ban my students from their cell phones-but I find myself telling them if admin comes in-they need to put it away.  She also talked about don’t feed the fears-I am afraid that I will get in trouble for breaking the policy of no use of phones in the classroom.  I agree that we need to focus on real-world environments.  I loved her comment that technology is the language students speak.

I thought also about that they could use some different apps and learn about them and teach them to us-with using their passion/or want to learn something but, then I think, "whoa, Nellie"-one small step at a time.