Dan Grass on Five Things Educators Will Have To Accept & Embrace

For this Journal review, I will comment on each of the five things the writer claims educators will have to accept. These responses come from my personal opinion and experience.
 
Education is more PUBLIC than ever
 Boy is this true. it seems like we can't get away from the watchful eye of well, just about everyone. This is in part to social media much like the article stated, but is also in part of the overall investment in children education by their parents. Students are finding that is harder and harder to get into colleges of their choice. Additionally costs of post secondary education are skyrocketing which means there is more need for scholarship funding. This is important to note, not because what that means for the student, but for the parents. Parents are finding that it is more important now to invest in their child's college early on rather than later. This means following with great scrutiny what is happening in that child's educational life. 
 

Educators have to COLLABORATE
 I think we as educators have always been expected to collaborate, but recently it seems that it has become the corner stone of public education. Schools are being asked to add more and more variety into their class offerings. This means more dynamic classes such as music technology, engineering, and advanced literature courses. All of these take cues from other classes. To fully achieve a high level classroom education, educators must look to each other with experience in a variety of areas to ensure success. It's a game of keeping up with the jone's so to speak. 

 Educators have to CREATE curriculum
Creativity in curriculum is important for both reasons listed above. Because the heightened expectation of teachers by parents, and because classes are becoming increasingly diverse, we as teachers are being required to put more personal touches on curriculum. We can not merely take what was handed down to us by our predecessors and call it gospel. This is important in determining why we must have a personal connection to the curriculum of which we teach.

Educators will have to be serious users of TECHNOLOGY
 To be comparable to our international counterparts, this is very important. My biggest fear going forward for educators is that we are lapped even more so by our students. We as teachers are struggling to keep up with the growing knowledge that students are already arriving in. It is important to stay on top of this. 
 
 Educators need to facilitate COMMUNITY


Community involvement is an important part of developing a successful school. They are your stakeholders. They are the ones that will stay living in a community for not other reason than they trust the school system. And more importantly, they talk. They talk to each other. They talk to their friends. They create a buzz about successful schools. This brings money and students.

Dan Grass on 40 Ways to Incorporate Your Own Interests and Passions into Lessons

This blog I find very difficult to wrap my head around. I suppose it's possible for people to teach classes of which they have no interest. Band and music go hand in hand, and it is because of that I find no challenge making sure that my personal passions are invested into each lesson. I suppose the challenge I face is not really in incorporating music as my passion, but the other things. I love my dog. She's sweet as sugar. My lessons sometimes use stories that I have gathered through her upbringing. I know for a fact that I have many horse lovers in my classes, as I teach close to horse country of North Georgia. Perhaps using my experiences with my dog can parallel what some of my students have experienced in their own lives. This brings connectivity. That connectivity is important to the development of trust in a learning environment. Once you get the student's invested. It's easy to see that they will work harder in the tasks that you give them. They feel that they can connect with the information. I suppose that's why student's are more successful in subjects that they enjoy. They work harder and make more connections faster. This improves learning for all. Hopefully by adding in personal touches to lectures, students will feel those connections in all classes.