I am ending day one in Helsinki, Finland feeling excited about the future of education. Many times as a teacher, I feel lost in the sheer number of things that I have to get done and the many students that need "extra" support; it sometimes feels like an impossible task and definitely not one that can be done alone.
Watching the Master Classes at the hundrED Summit made me realize that we are not in this alone. There are amazing people doing phenomenal things all over the world. I watched a presentation from SEISEI essential creativity on "10 Exercises in Creativity" where I became excited about not only things I could do in the classroom but things I could do in my daily life that would strengthen my creative self. Josh from Community Share presented an online way for teachers to connect with community partners and so much more. There were also a variety of other presenters sharing things such as IDEO sharing Design Thinking, Awesomepreneur's at Talking Tree Hill in New Zealand, Qrius discussing constructivist mathematics, and Dream a Dream sharing a rubric used when helping students from disadvantaged backgrounds develop life skills. Although each of these presentations were unique and designed to support students places throughout the world, they all had one major thing in common; every person in the room had a genuine desire to make the world a better place through our children. We are not in this alone, there is a huge network of people and organizations truly doing things to make a positive difference. I have always known this, but it is nice to be reminded in such a powerful way. In addition to feeling connected to innovators all over the world, I also felt grateful for the fact that we have innovators surrounding us in our community. Lisa did an amazing job presenting about blogging portfolios. Through the journey of preparing for this trip and the learning and research I am doing in my masters program, I have come to realize the power that we have at our fingertips. Check out Lisa's blog for a quick preview of her amazing presentation. As a school site, a community, and a world, I challenge us all to recognize the great things happening around us and to connect with others, push our thinking and our practice to move education to a place where children thrive.
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Kendra ParsonsMath teacher on the 9th grade team and teacher of La Promesa. ArchivesCategories |