Project #3 C4T#2

For this assignment, I reviewed teacher Bryan Jackson's blog post, “Canadian Conversations,” where he discusses his homeland of Canada after meeting with several other esteemed educators at an Unplug’d education summit in Ontario. According to the “Unplug’d” website, participants enjoyed a weekend of canoeing, kayaking, biking, and having campfires, as well as networking, discussing education initiatives and peer editing. Mr. Jackson describes the landscape, the weather and touches on the history of his country in his article. In closing, he says he has been replenished and inspired.

In my comment to Mr. Jackson, I told him the education summit sounded like a great getaway, as well as a relaxing atmosphere in which to tell stories and share ideas with other educators. His description of Canada made you imagine beautiful views and shows how much he appreciates the landscape of his country. I also told him he made me appreciate the beauty of my own country and the history of its forests and mountains by the way he described and shows appreciation for his country, society and culture.

In the next post, Bryan Jackson discusses Giulia Forsythe’s publication, “Why Doodling Matters.” He says Forsythe’s essay developed into “a visual essay” that promotes thinking in doodles. In this essay, autism and animal rights advocate Temple Grandin is quoted, “the world needs all kinds of minds.” Forsythe also explains that doodling leads to problem solving and sharing ideas and perceptions with others. There are a few other very interesting videos in this post where other educators discuss “Why ___ Matters.”

I commented that I believe people are most creative when we are expressing our feelings and ideas subconsciously. I have been taught in school to brainstorm ideas on paper, writing main ideas and writing subsequent ideas as my mind links them to the first point automatically. When we doodle, we are essentially brainstorming, only with pictures or drawings or even scribbles instead of letters and words. Our minds link a thought to a picture we’ve drawn so we can venture out even farther with more words and pictures. We can then share with others our visual thought patterns. I also enjoyed hearing the stories by the other teachers and learning about what they think matters most in the classroom.