Week 3 EDC 533

Week 3 Blog July 6, 2014

Weather wise, yesterday was a bit wild. Fortunately, we still have power, phone and Internet service at home. However, our farm is on a different power line. There has been no power or phone service there for 24+ hours.

I submitted my curriculum interview on Saturday.

I finished reading Ch 10 and 13.

A number of interesting points were raised in Ch 10. One of our goals in New Brunswick are to support the formation of life long learners. I have tried to model this belief as I continue with my own education. This chapter looks at the Education for Sustainability (Efs) . The author went on to discuss the Cloud Institute. The Cloud Institute has has a blog. This was an interesting section in the book. However, I felt the line was a bit blurred between education and environmental/socialist issues.many of the school discussed where in urban and not rural areas. We do offer a course called "Environmental Science 120". Teachers may get some interesting ideas from the Cloud Institute to use in Environmental Science 120.

I enjoyed the first section of Ch 13 regarding change. As I all-to-quickly approach fifty, I am starting to observe a lot of changes. As we all discovered this weekend, out climate is changing as well. I loved the author's reference to technology. This book's biggest impact on my teaching practices will be modify my curriculum delivery and include more technology. The authors said "Our students are in the 21st century, and they are waiting for the teachers and the curriculum to catch up. I have added this quote to my e-mail signature. Too many teachers focus on bring learners to them. It should be the other way around.

The authors goes on to talk about mental models. I took a course last fall at STU called "Shared Leadership".  We spend a lot of time talking about mental models of leadership. I am in strong agreement with the three Learning Innovation Skills and the Sixteen Habits of Mind. I am going to review these before I start teaching in the fall. The last section on the chapter was based on Habits of Mind. I felt a little lost with this section. I realize that we can all benefit from reviewing and analyzing our habits. However, I would need to reread this section and reflect on it a bit more before feeling confident with my understanding.