Showing category "Education" (Show all posts)

Realizing Potential

Posted by Sarah McCann on Thursday, July 26, 2012, In : Education 
Thinking about potential today, what encourages people to reach their full potential, how to structure accountability so that people will be active in realizing their potential and what things discourage potential. It somehow reminds me of the 11 people who came together in my graduate program. There was something special in the little over a year I spent with the others in my class. We somehow became coherent as a group, working separately, but connectedly toward social justice and realizing...
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At What Are You An Expert?

Posted by Sarah McCann on Wednesday, January 25, 2012, In : Education 
I facilitated part of a workshop at Baltimore Clayworks this past weekend. I started the session by asking participants what they were an expert at. My stipulation is that everyone is an expert at something. Even youth are experts in their own experience, but more often than not that expertise is ignored, devalued and discredited. I knew that young people were taught not to value their own knowledge, but it surprised me how many of the adults in the room also had an incredibly difficult time ...
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The Beauty of Teaching

Posted by Sarah McCann on Monday, July 18, 2011, In : Education 
I have been coordinating summer camp this year so I had not been in the classroom as a teacher until this morning. I have to say, I have missed it. There is something really amazing about teaching. Being the one to set up circumstances so that my students are successful is an amazing role to have. It is making sure students achieve much more than just a completed project, it is making sure they are successful in their relationships with me, with each other, with the materials they are using. ...
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We Are Missing More Than Money

Posted by Sarah McCann on Sunday, March 27, 2011, In : Education 

In consideration of the 1,600[i] public school supporters from Baltimore who demonstrated in the rain in Annapolis on Thursday, March 11th, 2011 protesting the proposed budget cuts in education spending, I felt it necessary to reflect on the event and how it relates to the state of education. I found myself immediately questioning what effect this demonstration would have on education even if successful in preventing cuts in spending.

It seems that every year in Maryland there are threatened...


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Force Feeding Knowledge at the Cost of What we Know

Posted by Sarah McCann on Friday, February 25, 2011, In : Education 

Last fall, when I was brainstorming a new project with one of my classes, a student of mine summed up all the ideas that we had and articulated what the project would look like. I said that it sounded right and the rest of the group agreed and I told him he did a really good job in his paraphrasing. He stretched his hands wide and said, “Yes! I am not stupid in one of my classes!” It was an amazing moment and I am glad that he was able to feel this way in my class, but it also made me c...


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On Consumption

Posted by Sarah McCann on Wednesday, March 10, 2010, In : Education 
This post was inspired by a conversation I had last night about finding the things that we need to do in life, how education often confuses this process, and the inherent ability of people to learn. I was speaking with someone in the video game industry who will be coming to do a workshop with my youth program and we were talking about how he got into the field. He said that video games were one of those things that consumed him - that he wanted to know more about, wanted to know how they wor...
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Compulsive Education is Not the Same as Learning

Posted by Sarah McCann on Thursday, February 25, 2010, In : Education 
How and what we learn has nothing has nothing to do with school. Learning is about choice. People are naturally curious and will seek out the things that they need and want to know. If allowed to follow these paths, their education will be rich and meaningful. Unfortunately, very few are able to learn in this way. Compulsive schooling requires that students learn what is in the curriculum, whether or not it applies to their lives. It punishes creativity and often critical thinking (students t...
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This blog will address issues of communication, art, and life from my point of view. It is a means for me to keep writing, thinking critically, and finding meaning in my life and work.