WEEK 1 BLOG

WEEK 1 BLOG

 1. Hello everyone! My name is Abukar Bashir. I’m from Atlanta, Georgia. I have been an educator for the past 5 years. Since graduating from university, I have been living and working overseas with various US government contractors to teach Saudi Military personnel. I have worked with the Royal Saudi Air Force. I now work with the Royal Saudi Naval Force. My goal is to complete this master’s program, thus equipping me with necessary knowledge needed in today’s technology dominated world. My long term after finishing this program is to eventually become a curriculum developer.

2. Number 6, Creative Communicator, stands out to me when I examine the ISTE requirements for students considering what I often teach. Students use the platforms, tools, styles, formats, and digital media suited to their aims to express themselves effectively and creatively for a range of purposes. (ISTE) I think this is significant because I believe that many schools and teachers often fall short in this area. We become engrossed in STEM and forget that all elements of learning require creative thinking! Being creative means thinking outside the box and questioning the way we typically think. I use a Zoom game with my acting students as a fantastic exercise for this reason. Channel surfing is what it is known as. I used to play this game when I gave classes in person, but the Zoom platform has improved it. Each student is given their own topic and channel number. They might be anything, such as Animal Planet or the news, for example. When I call on their channel, they are required to do that subject and continue until I tell them to stop. They perform using improvisational acting, which is performing without a script. Zoom allows students to express themselves and use their creativity as if they were on TV.

3. Mark Gura (2016) writes about how we should create a goal for our students. The specific questions he asks are “what do we want for our students? How do we prepare them for life in an even more challenging world?” (Gura, 2016, p. 11). He discusses many different issues we have going in the world like national debt and global warming. My lesson I wanted to create is centered around saving the planet and global warming. On page 17 of his book, Gura mentions students being “creative in response to a focused challenge,” and this flows perfectly with my lesson on saving the planet (Gura, 2016, p. 17). Without students using creativity in their response to a given prompt, they will likely not answer the prompt in the most appropriate and accurate way.

Citation

1. ISTE standards for students. (n.d.). Retrieved January 12, 2023, from

https://www.iste.org/standards/for-students.

2. Gura, M. (2016). “The Creative Process”. In Make, Learn, Succeed:

Building a hi Culture of Creativity in Your School (pp. 24-26). International Society for hi Tech in Ed.