Summary Post C4T Teacher #1

I was assigned to read Hadley’s Blog, Middle School Matrix: Exploring the Changing World of Middle School Teaching and Technology. The first blog I read was “12 Goals” and it was truly inspiring. It consisted of a list of 12 goals for the year geared towards teaching. Two of my favorite ones were, “I will laugh at my mistakes and never try to hide them from my students. I will apologize when necessary and model a willingness to learn from them and move on.” The other one was, “I will not allow myself to become stagnant or complacent. I will spend time each week connecting with other educators, seeking to learn and grow in my own practice.” In my comments to the blog I stated that how just doing one of these goals would go beyond what most of the teachers I have had in my life. In my experience, the teachers I have had seemed to have died inside and this uninspired attitude towards learning seemed to transmit to students. When I become a teacher I will post this list of aspirations on my desk to be reminded and inspired.

The second blog I read of Hadley’s was “A Return to Imagination”. This blog was inspired by an interview with John Seely Brown and John Hagel on their new book, The Power of Pull. This book got Hadley thinking about the lack of imagination in our curriculum and in turn in our students. Hadley expressed that as teachers we needed to inspire students to think beyond what is and the facts and imagine possibilities. Hadley suggested that a key to helping students in unlocking their imaginations was through unlocking our own. I responded in agreeance and added that without imaginations students would not be able to contribute anything new. I remarked on how imagination is a skill that needs to be nourished by teachers. It is crucial to do this because everything in the world today seems to be designed to hinder imagination. The television, video games and even teachers just spoon feed students information and hardly challenge their individual imaginations. I proposed that it was up to every teacher to find new ways to integrate the use of imagination in the curriculum.