Educating A Colonized Mind - Who Are We?

This is more of a thought in process, but I hope it's one with which everyone can help. There are a lot of elements that brought these ideas together - music, various twitter tweets, random blog posts that I've read, and President Obama's Inaugural Address. Here's how it's come together.

The more I look to connect our students with a global culture the more I realize I am thinking with a colonized mind. I guess my age is showing. Let me define colonized mind. It is a mind or mindset that narrowly looks at our nation derived from its roots of British colonies, and with a largely Judeo-Christian background. That's who we were, although it's not really that simple. But the more I read and learn the more I realize we are not that anymore.

A recent Will Richardson tweet on Twitter said he really likes reading the NY Times Global Edition, and that he even was pointing his own children toward that resource for news. He wanted, and likes a global view. I look for news sources that come from outside the United States. It's "interesting" to see how the same news is reported based upon who is telling the story.

Vicki Davis, aka Cool Cat Teacher, recently defined a flat classroom in a post entitled "How do YOU Roll?" In that post she talked about vicarious modeling and its affect on students' viewpoints. She said through vicarious modeling and making connections students learn not to be sterotypical. She wrote: "Unfortunately, some of the biggest phobias we all have relate to one another. Flattening the classroom is about learning, technology, and collaboration, but the most important by product about which I am PASSIONATE is how it transforms the world view of the students involved. Learning to overcome cultural barriers and collaborate with anyone, anywhere, anytime, is vital to the success of any nation, and indeed all of us."

Refer back to this past January and the Presidential Inauguration. Partisan politics aside, Barack Obama made it a point to redefine us in his address by stating, "We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and nonbelievers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth.
"And because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace." Not the thinking of a colonized mind.

I'm not sure if I know who we are now, but I know it's not what we were. I also believe that even if I don't have a good handle on that I should continue to consider this. In our schools we teach children of varying races, creeds, values, and religious backgrounds. We live in diverse communities. While we don't always agree with the values and beliefs of our neighbors surely it is important to respect and consider them. Surely teaching our students to do the same is even more important now. That's why I am passionate about connecting our students. Please comment, share your global connection successes, stories, and insights.

Still in process...

Enough is Enough!

I've noticed as we've gone along that with all the requirements of the everyday grind that there comes the feeling that we haven't done enough with our new found tools and knowledge. It will all come together with time. The important fact is that we've started to think about connections and actually make them. We've started to think about integrating technology and we actually have. We've started thinking globally about how our students can create and be engaged by what they're creating.

STUDENTS LEARN WITH THIS PROCESS because they have to think critically about what they are creating. Our last Teach21 meet was a sharing process of what we found at NCTIES, where we put it for teachers to access, and how (using effective digital tools) we captured it all.

To regain perspective on where we are and where we're going we shared a post from Vicki Davis' blog "The Cool Cat Teacher Blog." The post was entitled Do What You Can. Share What You Can http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/. It's message was simple - when you feel like you not doing enough you probably really are. Davis says when it's your students time with you give them 100 percent. When that time is over, let it really be over. "Share what you can, when you can and that is enough."

There are many times in teachers' lives that they feel overwhelmed by the enormity of the job and the lists of things to do. I think it's good to remember that when we started Teach21 it wasn't designed to be something else on the plate, but a different entree' that was already on the plate. Davis was the opening keynote speaker at the NCTIES Annual Conference held in Raleigh, NC the first week of March. In that keynote she said that we should all leave the conference with three new things to take back and try or implement. Applied to the Teach21 model I think she means three new ways of doing things we already do - and that will be enough.