I am working hard on my and Janet Hale’s upcoming book, Documenting Learning- Making Thinking Visible, Meaningful, Shareable, and Amplified with Corwin Press. (Estimated date of publication: Spring 2018). As I am articulate why learners (and specifically educators) should see themselves as documenters, my mind wrapped itself around the following: Educators need to see themselves as more than covering content, lecturers or deliverers of prescribed/established curriculum.
We live in a time, where we learn, how we learn, when we learn and with whom we learn changes at an exponential rate. Now more than ever, we can’t rely on the old tried and tested methodology or practices, because the rules of what it means to teach and learn have changed.
As educators, we must:
- have the self-motivation oflife long learners, who are never satisfied with the status quo and see continued learning as part of their regular work and life. (added on May 7)
- have the restless heart of an adventurer to try new things and step outside of our comfort zones.
- have the spirit of pioneers who thrive in uncharted territory.
- have the mind of a scientist to push beyond what we can see with our eyes and imagine theories, articulate theses and find evidence to dispute or confirm them.
- have the soul of a teacher to instill the love for learning and inquiry and explain our world to others.
- possess the courage of an innovator to continuously wonder “what if…” and not be afraid to fail as part of the process.
- have the imagination of a storyteller to paint in vivid colors different types of stories and to share these stories with the world.
- posses the unselfishness of a parent to unconditionally love our profession and share without expecting anything in return.
- possess the curiosity of a researcher to continuously search, test, try, prototype and document our work to contribute to a larger purpose of advancing educational practices.
cross posted at langwitches.org/blog
Silvia Tolisano is a Curriculum21 faculty member, author of the book Digital Storytelling Tools for Educators and founder of the Around the World with 80 Schools project. Read more at http://langwitches.org/blog.
