I had the fantastic opportunity to attend the College of Alberta School Superintendents (CASS) Leadership Academy, this past weekend in Banff, Alberta. Working with representatives from Parkland School Division, we talked about the many fantastic opportunities that we have in the future of education. While many are very pessimistic about the future of schools, I really believe that there is no better time to be an educator. The unlimited access we have to information and the opportunity we have to create in our classrooms, will be something that can be absolutely transformational to our schools and the state of education.
Watching the Minister of Education in Alberta using Twitter, and connecting with both educators and stakeholders in real time during the conference, just shows how much our world has changed in such a short time. With schools in Alberta and Alberta Education really aligning their systems and beliefs, education in our province seems to be on the cusp of something really great. Knowing that we are not only able to connect with some amazing educators within our own province, but all over the world, can really be something fantastic for all of us in education.
Here is the one idea that really stuck out for me this weekend from the words of Ben Levin. Dr. Levin said that (paraphrased),
“…no one ever waits for someone to tell them to be great; they just go out and do it.”
We often encourage our students to be risk takers, and challenge themselves. As educators, we need to role model this and not wait for initiatives to come our way, but move forward. We owe it to these kids that are here right now. The one thing that I know about education in 5, 10, 15 years, no matter what tool or pedagogy comes our way, we will always need to work with our students so that they will learn to learn. By giving our students the opportunity to create, collaborate, and learn, we can see some really amazing things happen in our schools right now.
As always, I am excited about the future of education, but I am just as excited about the opportunities we have today. What will we do right now?
