The Epic Classroom by Trevor Muir

I am SO excited to read this book and participate in a book study with Andrea McKay and the awesome group of iEducators. The next few blog posts will be about what I took away from each chapter of this truly epic book.

Chapter 1: The Power of Story

“This outdated system that does not reflect the 21st century creates a lack of engagement in students.” -Trevor Muir

I would love to quote this whole chapter because I found myself highlighting nearly every line. But the quote above is what really stood out to me the most in this chapter. Muir talks about how the school system reflects the last time that an overall update was made – back when schools were training a future workforce for jobs that consisted mostly of factory jobs. And while those jobs are still around and important, this education system does not reflect the trend of more and more job providers wanting candidates that can demonstrate a high level of critical thinking and creativity. One of the main purposes for education is to prepare young people for their future careers. The field of careers has been changing with the times, but the education system has not. And I think it is about time we catch up!

One of the biggest barriers to student success is engagement – and in this chapter Muir explains how the power of the story can be applied to help boost student engagement in the classroom. I have found this to be extremely helpful because social studies is often the subject that most students think is boring. Now that we have discussed the problem, I am very excited to read the rest of the book and see how the story-telling-solution can be applied in a real life classroom!