Defining literacies

This statement from the USĀ National Council of Teachers of English is interesting:

“Active, successful participants in this 21st century global society must be able to

    • Develop proficiency and fluency with the tools of technology;
    • Build intentional cross-cultural connections and relationships with others so to pose and solve problems collaboratively and strengthen independent thought;
    • Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes;
    • Manage, analyze, and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information;
    • Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multimedia texts;
    • Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments.”

Not much there is “traditional” literacy, but all are so important now!

 

It’s all about your attitude

I came across this blog post last week. The author Jeff is writing about someone else who inspired him with the suggestion that so much of the issues in our schools could be prevented or reduced if everyone started with The Golden Rule – treat others as you wish to be treated. So that student who you find incredibly irritating because they are forever asking the same question 5 minutes after you explained it to everyone else – if you were in their shoes, you would want to be treated with patience and respect, so rein in the growls of frustration and be your best self.

Jeff also notes that to grow beyond the most basic application is to recognise that we are not all the same – sometimes people would prefer a different approach than we ourselves like, so perhaps should we go that one step further andĀ “twist the Golden Rule just a bit, moving from treating others as we would want to be treated to treating others as they would want to be treated”.

This is a thought-provoker for me – how do I treat my colleagues? My students? My family? Am I behaving they way I would want others to act towards me? Time for some self-reflection.