When deciding what to include on my visual, I flipped through the book and read the things I had circles and highlighted and I read the titles of the chapters and jotted down my thoughts when I read these. Originally, I tried to incorporate everything I had jotted down, but then I read “Less is More” and decided to rework my design to really focus in on the major takeaways from the book.
I included the definition of innovative because I want whoever looks at this graphic to be using the same definition as Couros intended. I find a lot of arguments and confusion stem from people having different definitions for the same words. The words on the gears are the characteristics and ideas that I thought the book was focused around. I wanted to incorporate the gears that we saw throughout the book; I like the parallel that gears make things around them move much like the different characteristics of the mindset and the major ideas of the book work together. As far as the visual appearance of my graphic, I tried to stick to a color scheme of three to five colors. My goal was for the graphic to convey the message without looking cluttered and confusing.
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What did you learn from the book this week? In tutor training, we looked at some research on reading speeds. A student who is a good reader that starts out with a words per minute (wpm) of 300 who practices reading faster can achieve wpm of 1000 or more. A struggling reader who has a wpm of 150 who practices the same amount achieved a wpm of 300. The same message was stated in the book this week, we need to focus on strengths! A good leader can identify others strengths and encourage them to grow in those areas and as a whole the organization or school grows. Another part of the book that stood out to me was that less is more. Teaching is overwhelming and if teachers are bombarded with resources they are unlikely to use any to their full potential. A few resources at a time are enough. Choices are good but too many choices are overwhelming, when I was thinking about college and what I wanted to do I remember almost wishing someone would just tell me what to do. I knew that was not an option but I felt like I had way too many options and did not know the direction I wanted to go. I had to narrow my options and make a choice. Something that I think will stick with me for a long time was a quote from page 168, “Today, isolation is a choice educators make.” Last week we looked at the characteristics of the innovative leader. I discussed networking and this quote reminds me of the importance of making connections with others in my field and continuing to learn. What did you learn from the videos this week? The first video highlighted that with Youtube and live-streaming students can be two feet away from masters. Teachers do not have to know everything because knowledge is easily accessed with the right google search. The third video touched on this as well when she talked about releasing power to the learners. I like the idea of a students teaching students model. One thing that has been rather hard for me in student teaching is facing that I can’t help everyone, there is just not enough time. I can help some students though, and some students can help other students, and by working together everyone can get some help.
When telling the story of Captain William Swenson the speaker in the second video asked, “are they just better people?” He came to the conclusion that no, while they are good people, they are a product of their environment not better people. It reminded me of the Zimbardo prison simulation I studied while in Intro to Sociology, people do things and act a certain way depending on their environment. This is a major reason why we need to surround ourselves with people who challenge us to be better people. I think about this as I look for a job for next year, I need to try and find a job in a school that will help me to grow and be a better teacher. What are 3 key takeaways from the book thus far? I think my number one takeaway from this book and from my student teaching experience is the importance of relationships. Relationships are the most important thing in education. I was asked today for my view on standards and their role in the classroom. My response was that standards are important and necessary for planning instruction, but they are not the main focus of teaching. Relationships are the basis of the culture in our classrooms and in our schools. They take a lot of effort to cultivate and it is not always easy.
Another major takeaway I have from the book thus far is that compliance does not equal innovation or success. In my student teaching placement, we have been doing a lot of group work recently. Group work can look and feel like chaos, I have to remind myself that silence is not conducive to learning. I also wonder if sometimes compliance is a reaction students have when they are intimidated and not comfortable in the classroom. The final takeaway that I will comment on has to do with student choice. The book does a nice job of emphasizing how student choice can empower students. I love the idea of a genius hour to give students options on what they learn. I also think that giving students a choice is as simple as giving the option of a test or a project. |
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