Dania Borrero

Upon my thoughts as a teacher, reflecting on what I have done the first half of the year, and what I can do to be innovative and engaging, I begin to plan for the second half of the year... on the first day off of my winter break.  WHY CAN'T I JUST ENJOY MY TIME OFF? I am ambitious, I am reflective, I crave professional growth, and I honestly like planning! I have begun to read "The Innovator's Mindset" by  @ gcouros  and I realized that I have dwindled my sense of wonder and creativity in my own teaching, that I am not the type of teacher that is encouraging my own student's creativity, and curiosity. There are a few students that enjoy my class, and there are a few that don't, and some that just go through the motions.  I had ideas of changing the way my course is run by creating a student-centered, peer-teaching, sharing classroom. I thought it would be a great idea to show my class grabber videos on the different sub-topics we cover in...

Being a teacher, friends and family see my schedule and think I am one lucky person to have such an amazing schedule. Who wouldn't want every major holiday off, one week off for thanksgiving, two weeks of for winter break, one week off for spring break, and two months off for the summer? I cannot say that I don't appreciate and feel blessed by having those days off. I cannot say that it is not a nice benefit of being a teacher, but it is not why I am a teacher. People may also think that the schedule of teacher may be the best there is, but what people do not realize is how much teachers actually work. Only the ones that live it, or the ones that live with teachers, understand what it truly takes to be a teacher. Granted, there are those that work only between the doors going in and going out of the school building. There are teachers that do the bare minimum and get by just fine. On the other hand, there are those teachers who are truly passionate, want to be better, and gro...

In a "teacher's" world at the end of 2015, we are called and challenged to change the way we teach our students, in order to develop future leaders of the world that is going to look far different than the one we currently live in. As I sit and proctor students taking midterms, I realize that what I have just done, because of the directive of only what has been done, is in no way shape or form, encouraging students to be creative, innovative, or forward thinkers. I have asked them to remember what they have learned, answer questions on a sheet of paper, and apply it to a scenario that means nothing to them, but a grade on a test.  A self-imposed (and not so self-imposed by the message others in the field are sending)  challenge proposed by our future way of teaching is not overcome due to my own limitations based off of norms for what has been required when giving students midterms to test their knowledge. What would accomplish meeting and surpassing that challenge w...