After reading this chapter my first thought was wow, I want to be in his class!
The main thing that stood out to me in this chapter was how he contacted people right here to find refugees from the areas in Africa that they were currently studying in class. Most teachers would have used the textbook, maybe found a video or shown “The Lost Boys of Sudan” documentary and the students would have remembered everything for a short time (enough to get through the test right?) but they wouldn’t be making lasting memories like in Trevor Muir’s class.
“I felt that the student hearing from an actual person who has been on the journey of a refugee would be a worthy experience… I was right.” -Trevor Muir
I don’t know if this was one of the refugees living in MI that Muir reached out to but this chapter reminded me of this awesome Ted Talk:
Overall my takeaway from this chapter was that creating experiences that students will remember forever is key to them actually learning and not just memorizing information.
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“This outdated system that does not reflect the 21st century creates a lack of engagement in students.”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!
My favorite professional development event, round 2! During COM 2017 I learned a whole lot, but generally I was a little overwhelmed with the whole experience because I was still pretty new to teaching in the online environment. So this year I was really excited to go back with a better understanding of my knowledge and what I wanted to learn more about.
Keynote
In the online and blended learning world technology is obviously very important. So, that is why Liz Kolb’s keynote presentation that started off day 1 was mind-blowing to me.
She started out with telling us about this awesome new tool she started using in her classes that turned assignments into game quests like in video games that a lot of our students play. And then she dropped the “It didn’t work” bomb on us. She went so full into technology that the learning was starting to get lost.
That is when she presented her key point, Learning First, Technology Second. Her point was that technology is great when it can enhance learning, but sometimes using the next cool thing all the time can just get in the way. We need to be selective about the technology tools we use and ask ourselves daily, is this the best way for students to learn this material?
Communication Impressions… And the Teenage Brain
This was a really awesome part of the Social Studies Department meeting where we looked at examples of message from students and talked about responding to them in a positive and professional way. We talked about how different students respond to comments/situations differently and how we can best meet all of our students needs to leave everyone with a positive experience. This was great to take on the role of other types of students (I was always the annoying over-achiever type in High School) and imagine how certain words/phrases would effect them.
Overall, amazing discussion with amazing coworkers!
My Experience
This year I got to present a Spark Session about one of my current obsessions – Piktochart!
I presented on how teachers can use Piktochart to answer frequently asked questions, share expectations, and connect with students on a deeper level. I think that the presentations went really great (even though they were so short) because a lot of people had great questions/suggestions at the end about how they can implement my ideas and examples in their own classrooms, virtual and face-to-face.
I also got to present 10 Tech Tools in 10 Minutes to the Social Studies department! It was awesome to have the opportunity to share with my coworkers some of the awesome tech tools I had discovered over the past year. Check out the presentation below:
And I got presented with the Social Studies Team Award for Creativity and Innovation 2018. How awesome is that?
Overall, Collaboration of the Minds 2018 was one AMAZING experience and I hope I get to go again next year!
