EDU638 Graduate Students as Guest Bloggers

I am blessed to teach a graduate course at Freed-Hardeman University.  The course title is Instructional Design and Improvement.  The students in the course are striving to become instructional leaders, school counselors or obtain a higher degree such as an Educational Specialist. Each graduate student has been challenged to create a blog post that inspires the world of education.

Their assignment comes from the quote by George Couros “What if every teacher tweeted one thing a day that they did in their classroom to a school hashtag, and they took five minutes out of their day to read each other’s tweets?  What impact would that have on learning and school culture’ and this post by Clive Thompson Why Even the Worst Bloggers Are Making Us Smarter. 

When we share our ideas with others, whether they are good or bad, it changes the way that we think. An instructional leader is charged to challenge the thinking of staff, to be a motivator, to be a learner, to listen and then to lead.  An instructional leader is no longer in the office behind the desk with paperwork to complete but an integral piece of the learning environment. 

We have learned in our class that principals are responsible for developing school climates and cultures that support the very best instructional practices.  An instructional leader should forge a partnership with teachers with the primary goals of improving teaching and learning. 

This assignment provides these students a platform to share ideas and in turn impact learning and school culture.

The assignment:  To be a leader in schools, you need to be a learner first. Where are your examples?  What story will you tell as you motivate instructional leaders by communicating through a blog post?  Use your precept (quote) as your beginning point and ignite a passion for leading as a learner.

There is a rubric that sets the parameters for the assignment.  The rubric high points are listed below.

• Ideas and Content: The student has many original ideas and expresses them clearly. The great majority of ideas are related to the subject matter. (50 points)

• Writing Quality: Posts are well written, and are characterized by elements of a strong writing style. The content demonstrates that the student is well read, synthesizes learned content and constructs new meaning. (50 points)

• Community: As mention in red above...

• Use of Enhancements: The student greatly enhanced their post using video, audio, images or other add-ons. (50 points)

Our first guest blogger debuts this Tuesday.  I know you will enjoy their examples.  See you at the edge!