Friday, May 23, 2008

This I Believe...

Beth Knittle tagged me for the This I believe meme started by Barry Bachenheimer. I blogged a while back about my Common Principles for 21st Century Schools. I think I lot of what I came up with encompasses what I believe, but here is my latest articulation of those ideas. Thanks Beth for tagging me!

  • I believe that risk taking is essential to learning.
  • I believe in a growth mindset - failure is not a reflection on the learner, rather a reflection on the strategy.
  • I believe in the power of collective intelligence, together we can accomplish so much more than we can alone. We are what we share.
  • I believe that learning to effectively and efficiently discover, evaluate and synthesize information is more important than the information itself.
  • I believe that teachers must be given the opportunity, the time and the resources to experience and assimilate new technologies for themselves before we can ask them to share their understanding with students.
  • I believe that we need to constantly and consistently ask ourselves why we teach what we teach.
  • I believe in the power of educational technology to improve learning, create communities and inspire new thinking (had to include this one since it is the subtitle of my blog :)
So there you have it. I believe in lots more, but that is all I can pull together tonight. Now I have to tag some more people.
What do you believe?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Giving teachers the time to experience and feel comfortable with technology is so important. I am retired now and love using technology. When I was teaching, our computer inservices were short, and there was little time to practice. I also felt that the instructors catered to the teachers who caught on quickly and ignored those of us who needed help. I did use technology but not nearly as much as I would have if I had been given the opportunity to practice and learn new applications.

Connie Weber said...

Liz, I love your list and the conversation here. I'm bringing a printout so we can talk about the ideas tonight at an informal teachers' meeting. Would you consider posting this as a forum on Fireside as well?
Thanks so much, love your work and thoughts--
Connie

Anonymous said...

Hi:
I think, until schools quit treating grades in such a way that they are either a punishment or reward, we will not see much risk-taking. Grades and the rewards/punishments attached to them, create a perfect environment for the safest, easiest, least risky route to be taken by students. Assessments need to be handled as information and nothing more. Then we will see students taking chances, challenging themselves, and choosing to learn vs. simply trying to get good grades.