This is my new career objective as a teacher: "The pursuit of deeper understanding."
It is the sure cure for apathy and purposeless, lifeless lessons planning.
When is the last time I as a teacher wrestled with the meaning of any subject matter to my own life? What means the most to me at work as a teacher? Isn't it what I do with my students in my classroom? Shouldn't my biggest struggle and angst as a teacher be the ongoing challenge to create meaningful, inspiring learning opportunities for our students? Shouldn't the opportunities afforded by digital media and the internet throw us into a tizzy of interaction and discussion about how to wrap our subjects around these "things"? And, shouldn't the greatest joy and satisfaction come out of grappling my way to a solution--something that actually works!
So, I sat down with my friend and mentor, LM, and we dialogued about my next term's plans. It felt good and validating to bounce ideas off him, to see some stick and some get pushed aside. Even as I spoke many ideas out loud for the first time, I realized whether they were important ones or not. We need to interact over our plans! It helps so much.
Then, today I stumbled across an old Time article about "Canadians Making a Difference." One article mentioned the Galileo Educational Network. I looked it up, and it took me to an affiliated web site: http://www.myio.org/ Intelligence On line
