Heidi Hayes Jacobs

I was fortunate enough to have attended a PD (professional development) session today, put on by ASCD (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) Manitoba. The guest speaker was a woman named Heidi Hayes Jacobs, who is an internationally renowned author and education leader, specializing in developing 21st century approaches to teaching and learning. The topic today was 'Curriculum 21: Upgrading Curriculum and Assessment', and the day just flew by! There were a lot of really deep and meaningful questions asked of those in attendance, such as "What year are you preparing your learners for?". It was argued that if we continue to do things as we've been doing them over the decades, we will not be preparing students properly for their future (i.e. this year's preschool children will be the Class of 2029!). She really asked some tough questions that made me think... but she also provided a lot of examples of tools we can use to better prepare our students for their future, where they take more ownership of their own learning. I came away from the day with my head swimming (and almost overloaded!) with ideas on how to do this, but something she really stressed was that we can't revamp everything at the drop of the hat - we need to pick one or two things, and start from there. Having said that, I know of one tool for sure that I will begin to use in the coming months with the class, and I'm excited (and a little nervous!) to try it - it can be scary getting out of your comfort zone of how you've done things in the past, but the payoff can be huge. The video she showed us to end her presentation with (the link is included below), is a good illustration of how by thinking differently, we can help to change things for the better - enjoy!