Hello from beautiful upstate New York! I'm spending the week at St. Lawrence University, which is the site of the Institute for Learning Centered Education's Annual Constructivist Conference. Why would a teacher spend part of the summer in school...without pay? Simple. Just as the proverbial bus driver takes a holiday by bus to experience something familiar in a new way, teachers immerse themselves in new learning experiences so that the new will inform, infuse and extend their previously internalized (and perhaps stale) skill sets.
This week I'll help out with technology related issues, and have some wonderful conversations with educators who love teaching. If I'm lucky, I'll have time to write about it as it happens. I hope that what you read here this week will inspire you to go on your own Busman's Holiday. After all, whatever you do, there is always something new.
Want to hear more..or maybe start a conversation? Drop me a line. I'm here, and I'm ready...to listen and to learn!
Hear, hear! It's truly wonderful to devote parts of each summer to learning from other educators, whether in the form of books, conferences, retreats, or whatever. Like it or not, we all live in a cyber-intense world these days, and it sure feels good to come together as a community of teachers/learners and share our stories face to face.
Sometime, check out BIE (Buck Institute of Education),up in the California Bay Area. They're all about constructivist learning!
Posted by: Joey Serim | 07/26/2009 at 09:51 PM