What a week. Just when I started feeling I was on top of things, I quickly slipped back into a state of anxiety. The source of my anxiety, however, is not this class.
Jeff Hopkins was our guest presenter this week and he did not disappoint. What a driven and insightful individual. A visionary in the field of education, devoted to his cause and passionate about offering students the tools to achieve their personal and educational goals. After watching the virtual tour of PSII, he shared some of his student’s projects and goals. I was hugely impressed and wished I had the opportunity to attend his school as a young learner. Hell, I would go as an adult too.
During his TED talk, Hopkins mentions that he is met with two opinions concerning his vision. First, and I am paraphrasing here, that he is doing a tremendous job and is making important advances in how we educate our children. And second, that he is a dangerous anarchist that should stay away from a child’s education. Hopkins argues that we need to move away from what he calls “subject silos” and into a more curriculum-based style of teaching. He argues this because it is next to impossible to argue on what belongs in the cannon of information that we should be teaching our children. How would we decide what to include and exclude? Hopkins explains that we need to change the paradigm and stop viewing knowledge as “little bits.”
While I do believe he is right and that his approach to education is revolutionary, I remain torn. Is it realistic? Are the students that attend his school better off? Will post-secondary institutions commend the students’ choice for attending his school or penalize them? Ahhh! I just do not know. What I do know is that Hopkins is doing is a step in the right direction. Whether this model is the right way to go remains uncertain. One last comment, during his presentation, he was able to answer each of our questions with assurance and he instilled confidence in me that his program was a great option for students. I would love to speak with some of the students that go to PSII and get their take on it.
Aside from this class, I did a lot this week. In my seminar at Lambrick Secondary, we talked about rubrics and assessment. I learned about how creating a strong rubric is an essential tool for teachers and can dispel a lot of potential arguments about grades later. We also learned the differences between summative and formative assessment and when each is appropriate to use. In my EDCI 747 class, we used canva.com to create infographics. I have attached a link to mine below. I have therefore also ticked off learning design, image editing. and assessment from the competencies checklist.
What a week!
Can Short Meditation Benefit Beginners_ (1)