Episode 32 – The Office

Empowering Modern Learners - PDSB #Peel21st

https://modernlearnersca.files.wordpress.com/2018/06/episode-32-the-office.mp3

In this episode, we interview Claudine Scuccato who is the new Coordinating Principal of Modern Learning here in Peel. She shares her own journey with Empowering Modern Learners as well as some advice for teachers and administrators on how to get things going with the Empowering Modern Learners vision.

What’s New in the World of EML

Jim shared the notion of learning concepts through immersion. Seymour Papert often spoke about creating an environment, a Mathland, in which students had a variety of opportunities to think, speak and create mathematically so that they could learn the language of mathematics as easily as a child who grew up in France could learn French. Jim shares a little of the discussion he had with some teachers who were talking about times in their lives in which they learned things through immersion, not through courses or school. Some of the ideas were:

• Finding happiness
• First using social media
• Collaboration, working together
• Parenting / raising children
• Finding one’s way around a city after just moving there
• Rules in sports through playing
• Fractions – one teacher who grew up in a family with 7 children said she was always thinking about what would be her share or portion of whatever was being given the children

Amit shared the work that he is doing over at Alloa Public School with Julie Vandendool, who was featured in Episode 19, in the school’s Library Learning Commons. He talked about how you can create a space that is inviting for students from K-8 and mentioned that trying to incorporate student voice as much as possible is important.

Links from the Interview with Claudine Scuccato

In her interview, Claudine talked about:

• Learner-Centered Innovation: Spark Curiosity, Ignite Passion, and Unleash Genius by Katie Martin

• Empower: What Happens When Student Own Their Learning by John Spencer and A.J. Juliani

• Claudine can be reached on email at [e-mail]
• Claudine can also be found on Twitter

Shares for the Week

Jim shared a few paragraphs from chapter one of Lifelong Kindergarten in which Mitch Resnick recounts a 2013 meeting with Chen Jining (the part of the chapter Jim quotes has been made available via the Learning Creative Learning free online course from MIT). Jining was the president of Tsinghua University at the time. The most interesting part of the passage to Jim was:

Jim really connected to the ideas in this paragraph and the point that Chen Jining made about students not demonstrating the creative, innovative spirit needed to succeed in modern (and future) society. This is one of the underlying goals of the Empowering Modern Learning vision and is the rationale behind the moral imperative.

Amit shared a video entitled “Women of Colour Share Their Imposter Syndrome”

The video defines Imposter Syndrome as “feelings of inadequacy or phoniness that make one believe that they are undeserving of success”. It goes on to state that “factors such as racism and doubts about one’s abilities due to race, gender or background can lead to the development of imposter syndrome.” Amit reminded listeners that as educators we have to be flexible and responsive to our students’ needs and that ultimately means we need to have a deep knowledge of who our students are and make sure they are at the center of what we are doing.