ASKING QUESTIONS, EXPLORING OPTIONS, CHANGING THE IMPACT OF PUBLIC EDUCATION.

Open for Discussion

A Reflection On Sir Ken Robinson’s Lecture.

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It has been a week since Sir Ken Robinson came to Houston to share his thoughts on creativity.  Apparently, one can’t just imagine good ideas to be considered creative.  You actually have to do something with your ideas.  I wonder what those of you who attended the lecture (or watched his videos) have taken away from his ideas.  Please share!

One idea of many that resonated with me was a quote by Anais Nin: The day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

When I think of this with respect to education, I wonder how long we will tolerate the status quo in many areas before we make a change.  Change can be hard.  Many factors can contribute to an initiative failing.  Leaders take a risk to set a new course.

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School House

Conference Anyone?

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There are certain people in one’s life that one doesn’t forget. One in particular is a professor in Medical School who loved to tell personal stories. This personal story, I feel is poignant to many different professions and life circumstances.

He spoke about how people responded when they heard he was a doctor. People just seem to forget where they were at. He could be at a store, or a guest at a friend’s house, people would just come up with personal medical questions. Tired of it, he spoke of a time when a woman who after she heard he was a dermatologist, she started talking about her skin problems.

She asked him for his opinion/consultation and he bluntly told her to undress.

“Here?” the woman asked,

“If you are asking me for a doctor’s consult here,” the doctor answered

“Then yes, here!”

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Ed News

Educational Technology.

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My family has a shared interest in education. Today I am interviewing my sister, Tara Mason, who is a doctoral student in special education at Texas Tech University. As part of her five year doctoral program, she is planning to minor in educational technology. Previously, Tara served as a special education teacher at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired as well as an English and art teacher at a small private school in Austin, TX. In addition to her doctoral studies, Tara currently observes and evaluates first year teachers in their K-12 public school classrooms all over Austin. Her primary areas of study are student learning, effective instruction, and incorporation of technology in the classroom.

The topic of educational technology is receiving a great deal of attention. For the sake of today’s discussion, we have decided to focus on three primary areas of concern with the understanding that there are many challenges related to the effective use of technology (to be discussed in another interview, perhaps!).  So to begin…

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Innovation

Six Common Objects, Six Billion Possibilities.

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Consider these six common objects:

1) a pencil

2) a plastic water bottle

3) a plastic shopping bag

4) a piece of rubber band

5) a paper clip.

6) a sheet of white paper, 8.5 inches Ă— 11 inches in size

What can you make out of these objects that is whimsical, artistic or practical?

Two weeks ago I launched the “Six Common Objects, Six Billion Possibilities” project for middle and high school classes within iEARN and already have as participants teachers and their students from Oman, Belarus, Lithuania, Canada, USA, Japan and Romania.

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REEP News

Educational Leadership For A New Era – The Launch of REEP.

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Hello REEP Blog Readers -

REEP launched a White Paper on our history this week, which is quite interesting to see the evolution of our program.  Rick Hess was the lead author and has blogged about it today in his site.

Click here to read more about it.

Visit our website to download a complimentary full copy of the White Paper.

Post your comments below and let us know what you think.