What it is: This week I am presenting at the Highway 21 conference that Adams 12 puts on each year. This year the focus is on global learning. I created websites for both of the sessions I’m doing. While you won’t get the full effect of what I’m talking about, there are useful links and information on both sites.
Technology Globe Trotting- this session is all about making your classroom more global. I’ve included technology that can help to make a classroom global, as well as some technology-free things that we have done at Anastasis that have made our students more global.
Searching For daVinci- in this session, we discuss what it means to be a daVinci thinker. I pose the question: in the current school system (traditional learning), is it even possible to have another daVinci? I set this session up as a What? So What? Now What? format where we use some design thinking to redesign our classrooms to foster more daVinci. From my presenter page:
This session will be broken down into a What, So What, Now What format. Come ready to participate!
- What? What is a daVinci thinker? What characteristics did daVinci have that we want to foster in students?
- So What? Why is this important? Does it matter if we have daVinci thinkers?
- Now What? How do we change our classrooms to foster this type of approach to learning?
At Anastasis we know that it is hard to have a daVinci thinker without first being:
- Inquirers- developing natural curiosity, independent learners, active (not passive) learning.
- Connectors- transdisciplinary connectors, understanding relationships between seemingly unrelated events.
- Communicators- comfortable in expressing ideas and information confidently and creatively.
- Open-minded- realizing that everyone has something to contribute and we can learn something from every person and situation we come in contact with.
- Risk Takers- willing to try something new that has unexpected outcomes. Willing to fail fabulously.
It is essential that we foster a classroom and school environment that allows room for and actively practices all of the above.
How can we search for daVinci within ourselves? Is it possible to search for daVinci in our classrooms if we aren’t willing to search for daVinci within ourselves?
