Changing the Education Paradigm

Sir Ken Robinson shared with us his problems and thoughts about the state of public education in the US. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

Particularly, how a revolutionary idea like public education has devolved over time and perhaps become a symptom of what ails our society.

In another video on the same topic, Sir Ken describes the story of Gillian Lynne. Ms. Lynne is a famous choreographer of the musical CATS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gillian_Lynne and many other Broadway plays and musicals. Her story is interesting to our topic because she was famously doing poorly in school and in particularly had trouble sitting still. Ms. Lynne was saved by her thoughtful principal, who instructed her parents to take her to dancing school rather than sit in classes. Today it is probably common that Ms. Lynne would have been medicated, told to calm down and worse, missed her calling to become one of the greatest choreographers the world has known.  

Change is hard. Not only for an individual but imagine changing and entire school. What would you do if you were in charge? What changes would you implement to make education more meaningful to young people? What about here at St. Saviour? 

Fake it till you make it...

Body language affects how others see us, but it may also change how we see ourselves. Social psychologist Amy Cuddy shows how “power posing” -- standing in a posture of confidence, even when we don’t feel confident -- can affect testosterone and cortisol levels in the brain, and might even have an impact on our chances for success.

What is your impression of "power posing"? Have you found yourself in circumstances where you feel power less? When? How does it make you feel? Try "Power Posing" next time and see if it works. 

Wired Magazine

Technology has impacted virtually every aspect of every industry that exists today. We rely more and more upon it everyday and even the slightest disruption can be costly and irritating. It is essential for any successful professional to stay on top of the news and be knowledgeable about current events. In the tech filed, Wired magazine covers it all. We will be looking to Wired this year to keep us up to date on the latest news coming out of the tech world. Each of you please read one article and summarize it in one to two paragraphs for us.

Life-Hacks

What is a life-hack? Life-hacking is a popular term used for "hacking" one's life. It is like a simple how to guide to doing everyday things simpler. For example: Keyboard shortcuts like Cmd (Control on the MAC) + C key is copy, Cmd + V key is paste. There are entire websites dedicated to the subject: http://lifehacker.com/
Many useful tools or methods that are designed to nudge us out of our habits and into more efficient ways of accomplishing tasks no matter how simple.

We will watch many in class and get a chance to try some of them in the real world to see if they work. For our blog discussion, do you know a life-hack? Describe it for us? Have you taught others?

So we begin...

Welcome ladies to your Senior Year, our technology class and another year at St. Saviour High School. Your last year here! This is an exciting time for you as you begin your final push up the ladder of success. Some questions I want you to consider for our first blog post and for yourself on this journey (because it is a journey you are on) are:

1. Why am I here? 
2. Why do I have to learn this or these subjects? 
3. Where do I want to be next year? In 3 years? In 10 years? 

It is your future that you are working towards. What do you have in store for yourself?