Challenge #15 Tell Your Story

When I started this semester/book, I really thought “flattening Classrooms” was going to be another buzz word/concept that educators would get all crazy about and quickly forget. But the more I read the book and worked through the challenges, I realized that flattening the walls of your classroom is the future and is the best approach.

During my career as an educator I have worked in two different school districts. One district that had a severe financial crisis and hadn’t upgraded technology, let alone anything else, in a long time. The second district I worked in was better off financially and was undergoing a digital renaissance. You might think that the teaching going on in the two districts was as different as night and day. Having worked in both districts, I can report that the teaching and learning strategies in the two districts were very similar.

After reading this book, I know that if we keep teaching our students the way we are teaching now, we will not prepare them for the future. In order to change my teaching style, I am going to focus on collaborating at a local level. Once local collaboration is seen as a viable and successful learning mode, I will move to district, regional, and then global.

I wish I could report that the schools I have worked in are in the process of flattening the walls of their classrooms. But the reality of the situation is that they are not even collaborating amongst themselves. After reading this book, I have realized that I need to be the agent for change.

 

I have also taken the survey.