So I realize the importance of reflections I also realize that in a world where people (ok people like ME) are used to getting their information in 140 character twitter-like sound bits, in order for me to get my thoughts about Edcon in writing (and for folks to actually stop and read them) I really shouldbreak them down into multiple posts. What I realized as I started to jot down my main ideas was that they all seemed to follow the same theme...
A quote from Chris Lehman's blog from Friday morning of Educon pretty much summed it up for me
There's going to be a horde of kids at SLA tomorrow. This is EduCon, and this is their school, and a little snow isn't going to stop them.
This is THEIR school...I know that many of us teach in great places, that their are pockets of "ownership" in our sports and music clubs, student councils and other curricular activities, but in how many of our schools can our KIDS as clearly articulate OUR purpose as educators as Jeff Kessler @educoncierge did in his post
Education is a game and people have their priorities backwards. -- This probably sounds like I'm the child of Chris Lehmann, Zac Chase, or one of the many other wonderful SLA teachers, but I agree with them. We've made education into a game and it's no longer about teaching skills, it's about teaching facts. Data retrieval is incredibly easy. But the ability to process and synthesize the information is difficult. That's what we need to foster; the ability to combine and organize ideas is one that deserves much more time in the classroom.
The ability to combine and organize ideas...
I watched as students (and I mean HUNDREDS of students) and parents and faculty worked side by side not for a sporting event or the arts or music or other extra curricular activity...and while all of these are important parts of the education process these people...the kids, the teachers, and the parents were all working together to promote the BUSINESS OF SCHOOLS... to teach children.
So what are OUR schools and how can we make them more of the community that SLA represents? We spent the weekend trying to tackle the really BIG questions in education but the biggest one for me as a wanna be school leader is how do take all of this and create community
@educoncierge ended his post
I look forward to seeing all of my educartor friends next year and hope that we can actually talk retroactiveally about some changes to our education system.
I can't either Jeff...I can't wait to see how Educon 2.3 has challenged us all to take a look at what OUR schools are ... and how we can do the best for our students!
Thank you to the whole SLA team for once again opening your doors and reminding us....school is for THEM...
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Do you think everyone is in a position to actually make the changes needed in their schools? Are people in a position (of authority) to create change across the board? I'm not sure everyone is there yet.
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