Education Nation and The Human School
MSNBC's Teacher Town Hall meeting, on Saturday, kicked off this week’s 2nd Annual Education Nation Summit. The "town hall" meeting was great for best practices and making teachers feel like they have a voice. Brian Williams, Tamron Hall and Rehema Ellis did a great job making it look like a prime time venue. Melinda Gates did a wonderful job discussing the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and its role to help give teachers a voice to elicit new pedagogy. With the use of technology, like the Teacher Wall that was a result of last year’s 1st Summit, they can get a better handle on what teachers are saying with real time opinions, best practices and ideas on improving our education system.
One thing I was disappointed with in regards to the guests at the Teacher Town Hall meeting was that I didn't see any government representatives; they were to come later in the week. Every town hall meeting I have seen is always joined with a government official of sorts.
At first, I was quite concerned about what was going to come out of this meeting/ As I watched the media throughout this past week, I have seen how others are beginning to interact and discuss topics with the use of humanism and results orientated based pedagogy that have already taken place around the country. We need to continue to strategize and find what works for the children in each of our communities, but that flexibility needs to exist so that the job can be done right.
We seem to be getting closer to a solution. We need to pull together and make our schools a place where we look at the whole child and remember that they are human. A child who is not happy is not going to learn well, if at all. The Hawn Foundation, founded by Goldie Hawn, has partnered with Scholastic to create Mind Up and they believe this as well.
The Hawn Foundation states that "MindUP™ improves individual student learning and wel lbeing in and out of school by helping them develop
self-awareness, respect for their peers, and engagement with the world – all of which helps them grow into better citizens who are more skilled in the constructive management of stress in pressure-filled environments." They are taking the school institution and adding the human connection. We are all human and to be human is multifacited. They are taking that idea and teaching to the whole human being.
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