BLC09 - Bob Pearlman

It was great to hear Bob Pearlman, director of strategic planning for the New Technology Foundation in Tucson, Arizona. New Tech high schools are revolutionary in the way they are designed and the way the way the school day is organized. Students participate in project-based learning, create e-Portfolios, and manage their own learning and personal development.
You can read more about these schools by going to Bob's website. You will find video clips depicting these schools.

BLC09 - Howie DiBlasi

I attended a workshop presented by Howie DiBlasi. He talked about the need for schools to change to meet the needs of the 21st century learner. There were so many ideas that Howie presented to us. His websites are chock full of resources and will take time to go through.

Here are his websites:
Howie DiBlasi and Tools for the Classroom

BLC09 Benjamin Zander

I feel both energized and overwhelmed after attending Alan November's "Building Learning Communities" conference in Boston last week. So many wonderful ideas were shared, so many possibilities, yet I feel the need to step back from all of this and give myself time to process.

It was a wonderful conference that featured the top names in educational technology as presenters. Alan also brought in many interesting keynote speakers as, one of which was Benjamin Zander, conductor of the Boston Philharmonic. His speech was about possibilities. It was one of the most motivating speeches I have ever heard. Who would ever imagine that one could sing "Happy Birthday" with passion, yet that's what we all did!

Benjamin compared his experiences with coaching an orchestra to teaching. He spoke of education as the opening up of new categories, not the transformation of information.

Benjamin talked about thinking outside the box - seeing the possibilities. He used the 9 dots example to demonstrate this. If you're not familiar with this, go to this website. If you are having difficulty solving the problem, you might want to ask yourself: What assumptions am I making that I don’t know I’m making?

Benjamin relishes in making mistakes. As a matter of fact, he celebrates each one by enthusiastically saying, "How fascinating". He sees mistakes as learning opportunities.

It was a wonderful 2 hours. Benjamin left us with his thoughts on how you should lead your life. He asked us to remember:
• Life is all invented.
• There's a world of possibilities.
• Rule #6 (Don’t take yourself too seriously.)

If you'd like to listen to Benjamin speak, there's a 20 minute presentation you can view at Ted Talks. It's worth watching and is sure to leave you feeling energized!