They (Justin) say a good blog ends with a question. But what’s my question going to be?
Should I be asking something practical about the best way to implement all of the mind-blowing new tools I learned about at our first cohort meeting? How can I best manage my time, as well as all of these new tools and the data/information they produce? Or maybe I should aim for something more profound: What will education look like in 2030? How can I best prepare students for a future that is as uncertain as it is rapidly changing?
Maybe I should take a break to clarify that I’m not overwhelmed, I’m invigorated. I’m grateful to be a part of a group of professionals that want to be better – that are committed to bettering themselves, their students, their schools, and the profession. It felt amazing to be a student again and to have my motivation mined in a way that has had me thinking and excited since I left out first face-to-face yesterday. I loved being pushed out of my comfort zone and being made to feel like it was okay and actually a good thing to feel that way.
Okay, back to this whole whole question thing. Maybe I should address Tony Wagner and ask where the balance lies between knowledge and 21st century learning skills. Or how best to create what Wagner refers to as “just-in-time learners” But maybe I’d rather focus on how I can get my students using Diigo to create course resource banks. Oh, but maybe I want to know about the Klingenstein Summer Institute and other opportunities that exist for me to push my professional growth.
Oh man, I’m also not supposed to make these blog entries too long. Maybe I’ll just end by asking, if I’m asking the right questions. Well, am I?
So glad you joined Cohort 21! Looking forward to your posts.
Aaron, as I was starting to read your passionate post, I was thinking to myself, “I have to tell him about Klingenstein!” Okay, so here is the link.http://www.klingenstein.org/content/summer-institute
The skinny is this:
– for teachers in their 2nd-5th year as a teacher
– elementary, science, social studies, english, and math can apply
– it’s the most incredible experience other than Cohort
– it’s free (and valued at $11,000…they give you full funding for the program)
– you get to network with amazing educators (mostly from the US)
– I’m obsessed with it
– It has changed me forever (like Cohort did)
– you should apply right now!
Thanks so much for the information, Celeste! I’ll definitely look into it right now.
Hi Aaron,
these are great questions indeed! I would suggest that Diigo is a way to deepen students’ understanding of the research process in order to make them more effective Just In Time learners. For example, in my “Headlines of History” course, I use Diigo to get my students to create a “textbook” of sorts, where they annotate and suggest why someone would want to read this site. THEN, when we are discussing the topics in the class, we can access these sites and quickly find information on the fly, just in time, to contribute to the discussion of the historical concepts.
Diigo can be a powerful tool, not just to create a resource bank, but to instill great research skills and processes in our students!
Thanks, and as a Klingenstein alumni, it is a real mind-blower! Give it a shot!
garth.