Four days of training in DC with our international counterparts—teachers from India, Finland, South Africa, Argentina, Mexico and Singapore. Hours and hours of training session and meals in the lower meeting rooms of our hotel which is enough to disorient anyone on top of late nights filled with conversation. It’s hard to put it together into a linear account—so much has happened over the past few days it will take a little time to process it fully. Hopefully writing will help. It feels like dream time—stretched, but intensely focused and vivid with pieces of conversation spiderwebbing off into other meaningful conversations.
The teachers I met this week are incredible educators and people—brilliant, committed, deeply engaged in the craft. I wish that had remembered my camera, but AED took a lot of pictures so hopefully I can download those soon. I’m still blown away by the conversations and connections made outside of the sessions—incredibly memorable. I haven’t even left the hotel yet and I miss these people intensely. I have room for just a few of the highlights—this entry could be a book unto itself.
One vivid memory that I will keep with me for a long time is discussing race, politics and history with a teacher from South Africa. Two hours passed like minutes and we both walked away grateful for having the time. I also had a chance to get to know a science teacher from Finland (we initially connected over a mutual appreciation for good beer) and we had many discussions about the role of the teacher in our students’ lives, our families, sport, guitars—our common ground. Just on a personal level, I am going to miss him the most—great guy to have a beer with. We left last night with invitations to each other’s homes and I hope we can keep them. I think our little girls would get along tremendously. AED set up two meetings with IB teachers/coordinators in the DC area. It was wonderful to have conversations as well as share materials, success stories, difficulties our programs face and to get another couple of sets of eyes on my proposal. Both of these women helped me a great deal in how to think about this project and additional questions I could ask—I am so grateful for their time and wisdom. I had an unbelievable discussion with an Indian math teacher from Pune. Before one of the morning sessions, we discussed her research proposal—using Vedic methods to teach mathematics—and she gave us a mini-lesson in how they work. It was an incredible experience—we talked about number sense and teaching students how to think about math and then instructing the student on how the math works. Her students never use calculators, and these techniques are designed in reinforce computational skills as well as save time on exams. We also discussed how she folds in the logical foundation of math and how it is different than science—a mini-lesson in knowledge with her students, but an essential component for their understanding. I desperately want this teacher to come to my daughter’s school—her approach is fascinating. This is how almost all of the discussion went—you’d walk away with new ideas, feeling intellectually invigorated, marveling at the assembly of truly great professionals who care deeply about kids and education or just a new personal connection with someone who is about to embark upon a similar journey.
There is one last piece—DC. I’m getting ready to leave in a few weeks and I had a chance to walk down the Mall. I made it all the way down to the Lincoln Memorial before I had to turn around and head back to my hotel. The conversations about our country and its culture over the past few days, the tour of the Capitol building, taking in a play at the Kennedy Center and watching Marine One fly over us with the Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials as the backdrop, combined with today’s sights I can’t help but feel deeply patriotic and proud of my country. Perhaps this is a good way to begin my journey—reminders of values and principles, but then also having to step away from my own culture and really listen to others explain theirs. The conversations and experiences over the past few days have really given me a chance to reflect on my own culture and understanding (this really built on the presentation by one of our presenters—a professor from American University who discussed cultural awareness and collisions). I feel ready to go—just more at ease, a better mind set. It all seems connected, a oneness—the biography I’m reading, the conversations, the lectures—but maybe (and my ToK students would laugh at this) it’s just how I want to see it, how I want to see the meaning in it. Perhaps there is more than one right answer to this.
No comments:
Post a Comment