The big picture, pie in the sky, head in the clouds stuff is where I often live. The mechanics, or nuts and bolts, are not my specialty. As a teacher I think we swing on the pendulum between both of these. Often you swing between questions like "what is your vision for your kids?" and "how will you teach this lesson in writing?"
Today I sat through a writing training. I was immersed in the nuts and bolts of a particular set of writing materials. I was incredibly happy to hear the presenter say that the materials were another set of tools for our respective writing toolkits, as the standards are the curriculum we teach. To me, it couldn't be put any better. You need to use a variety of resources to reach your kids, and ensure that they are able to meet and exceed the state standards in different content areas.
As I said earlier, I'm a big picture person. I like inspiration, and need to consume it (see it, read it, hear it, etc) on a regular basis. Below are a few videos that I've been replaying in my head (or on screen) the past few days. When working in the classroom I put them up on the projector and had them in the background. I've returned to them quite a few times. Enjoy!
First is a big picture, where is education now video from TedxDenverEd by Keith Kruger called Mastering the Moment.
Next is a video I've posted before, featuring Brian Crosby speaking about his classroom and his integration of technology to meet the needs of his kids (again, TedxDenverEd)
Finally, I think watching Dan Meyer from the blog dy/dan is another source of inspiration. I believe the ways that he rethinks math instruction, and embeds multimedia, can be applied across content areas. (TedxNYEd)
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