Advocacy 2021

This new posting 8-2-2021 is for my grandson as he writes his college essays.

Hey Gaga, I’m writing my college essays and I’m thinking about writing it about you teaching me how to code and I wanted a little bit of your story and what you did for the White House.

Shared by Friend Jannie Fernandez NCWIT Director, K-12 Alliance and TECHNOLOchicas: Culturally responsive-sustaining Computer sCienCe eduCation: A FRAMEWORK

Posted this here:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/186340069473357

  • I dream a world where those who touch our future daily.
  • Have the power to make decisions for their learning spaces.
  • I dream of bringing spaces of possibility to the outdoors.
  1. Fifty-eight years ago MLK changed the course of history with his aspiration.
  2. Eleven years ago I was given the opportunity to change student lives through aspirations.org.
  3. I dream of giving that opportunity to all to create a website, write an app and communicate their dreams in this digital world.
  4. We are all a slave to our own ignorance, freedom is earned through education.
  5. I dream of changing the course of history by helping teachers innovate away out of the unprecedented events of 2020.

I wrote a letter to my son on his first day of teaching in 1996 “A Few Words for New Teachers.” Two decades later my other son is teaching, so I read it again and all so true.

I read it again on this 2021 MLK Day and dream of the words changing history.

  • Help your students to make the right choice, to listen, to work, to study, to have the self-discipline to take responsibility for their education.
  • Help your students to love learning as much as you do. Keep caring. That is what students see. That caring will motivate achievement more than all the laws, materials, money and lessons around.
  • Don’t hurry, be patient. It takes time to learn. Keep your motivation alive and have fun teaching.

I dream of all teachers having the power of computational thinking to help the dreams of their students come true. This is why I continue to be a Champion of Change for Computer Science Education. I dream of walking from the West Wing to the Roosevelt Room as I did in 2016 along with all the eight years of still caring champions who are still changing our future.

____________________

For my digital history as see: www.build-a-brain.com, https://buildagarden.edublogs.org/ and my first coded 100% in HTML: http://teachertech.rice.edu/Participants/knorth/index.htm

The letter to my son along with all my other editorial are posted at: https://knorth.edublogs.org/editorials-published/

You have just graduated and should be prepared for your job as a teacher.  But my heart cries. I fear you are living in a naïve world, as do all those who have never taught the unmotivated, undisciplined student day after day. I fear you will get discouraged by the criticism of the public, politicians and parents who blame you for their child’s failure.

But, please don’t take responsibility for the student’s failure to learn. It will kill your motivation to teach, students learn and parents provide the encouragement and intrinsic base for learning. Help your students to make the right choice, to listen, to work, to study, to have the self-discipline to take responsibility for their education.  Help your students to love learning as much as you do.  Keep caring. That is what students see. That caring will motivate achievement more than all the laws, materials, money and lessons around.  Don’t hurry, be patient. It takes time to learn. Keep your motivation alive and have fun teaching.