Tim Wilson Blog ePortfolio

Recently I listened to a "Start with Why" podcast entitled It's Not About the Coffee! Finding Clarity of Why .  In this episode the two host talk to Lori Collins about her experience of getting to the "Why" of her business of coffee roasting.  When she gets down to her real passion and why she does what she does in this statement, "I really want to serve through love, that people feel wanted, cared about, and loved" you know her "why".  I wanted to go and stay at her hostel (which I don't think exists) and drink coffee all day. Have you ever met someone that just oozes out their why or passion that you want to drop everything that you are doing and join them and their cause?  Earlier this year I had an opportunity to attend the Innovate Conference at the Graded school here in São Paulo.  At the conference I attended a session called "blue sky schools" lead by Dan Kerr (I happen to have worked at the same school as Dan p...

In the Research Methods course we will be choosing a topic that we are interested in and will be able to cross reference against other studies.  I thought here I might start to start to flesh out some ideas. What happens to language/vocabulary acquisition as measured by? when first-time language users learn from interactive software for the first 6? months The reason I thought about this is 1 of 2 native English speakers in his class in Brasil. When we arrived everyone that we spoke to said "Oh in 6 months your kids will be fluent in Portuguese, their friends will all speak it on the playground". Well we don't just learn languages being surrounded by immersion alone. What I've noticed is that he is having a hard time making the jump from knowing nothing and not being able to interact in Portuguese to having just enough vocabulary to start to hear the language while others are speaking creating the snowball effect of knowing and more importantly using more ...

One of the most important ideas to consider from How to Innovate: The Essential Guide for Fearless School Leaders , is the constant asking of both "Why" and "What if".  We are far to often bound as teachers and school leaders to preconceived notions of what school should be, how we allocate our time, when and where learning should happen, who should be doing the teaching and who the learning.  Many times these notions come don't come from written policies but from our past experiences in other schools or when we were in school.  If we are to truly begin to change how our schools work we must continually ask "Why" and then creatively "What if". -Why can't a teacher who does not teach during the first 3 periods on Thursday come in at 10:00? -What if we included into our professional development expectations a personal wellness provision, and that teacher uses that morning time to go for a run in the park -Why do we separate new languag...

Getting to Yes on Amazon

Right to Left Thinking This is a concept I’m most interested in and feel like I have the most connection with.  I have often given the advice to graduating students, figure out what you want to do, or where you want to be, commit yourself to it, and then figure out how you’re going to accomplish it.  I’ve found that jumping into the deep end (hence the name of my ed tech blog ) is sometimes the best way to learn how to swim.  It’s the “Declared Future” idea. Kennedy said “We WILL put a man on the moon by the end of the decade”

I do this to be inspired by and inspire others to transform education through communication, care, and the belief that every student deserves to dream big and the opportunities to explore those dreams. I believe that there is a better way of educating the people of this world.  I think I chose this Masters program because of this belief.  Up until this point I couldn’t quite put my finger on why I didn’t want to do my masters in administration through a traditional state university, I grew up 5 minutes away from one the top ranked ones in the US, Michigan State University.  What I realize now is that I knew that, however acclaimed the school was, they were going to teach me how to run a school, efficiently yes, productively yes, but in an innovative, no.  I would become knowledgeable about the factory, industrial model of education that we have been utilizing for 100+ years. I believe it is important to look forward to where we want education to go, how l...