Friday, March 21, 2014

#ASCD14 My Reflections: Russell Quaglia Keynote Session


Moving Forward With Our Greatest Resource; the Students 
or 
Student Aspirations the Key to Unlocking Schools Potential

 Let me start off with saying, this may have the best keynote I have heard in a long time.  To be honest I didn't know a lot about Dr. Qualglia before ASCD.  When I saw his name on the keynote list I had to do a little research to learn more about him.  Any research I could have done would not have prepared me for his talk.  I left that hall inspired and challenged.  I can not wait to see the recorded version of his talk.
Qualglia talked about student aspirations.  Dictionary.com defines aspirations as " strong desire, longing, or aim; ambition, and a goal or objective desired."  Aspirations defined by Qualglia "ability to dream and set goals for the future while being inspired in the present to reach these dreams."  It's not that students have no aspirations; it's more like teachers not paying attention to student's goals and dreams.


Qualglia shared his Aspirations Profile matrix.  
  • Hibernation:  Has goals for the future and puts no effort into the present
  • Imagination:  Sets goals for the future but does not put forth the effort to reach those goals.
  • Perspiration:  Works hard in the present but has no goals for the future.
  • Aspirations: Sets gals for the future and puts forth the effort in the present to reach those goals.
The question is how we do we move students? Answer; we build self-worth which is advanced by
  • creating a sense of belonging,we want students to be part of a community, while also keeping their individual identity.
  • Heroes:  We  (teachers, educators) are heroes to our students whether we want to be or not.  The question is will we be a good hero or a bad hero?
  • Sense of accomplishment:  we need to recognize student successes, even effort.
We need to do what ever it takes to move our kids along.  Kids come to school curious and excited to learn. However, research shows the longer they stay in school, they become more disengaged from the learning process.  New teachers come into the profession excited and ready to change the world.  In no time they are like a lot of seasoned teachers, merely going through the motions almost zombie like.  

Quaglia challenges us "to reflect on why you get up everyday, to never stop learning from students, and send more time with kids on where they;re going and less on where they are coming from.  All hopes and dreams we have for our students, ourselves, and our children are within our reach, and I challenge you to do it now."

 My tweets from the session:
 Mar 16
Common sense is being replace with common knowledge.
 Mar 16
We are a hero to kids. Whether we want to be one or not. Our choice are we going to be a good a good hero or bad hero.
 Mar 16
Aspirations: the ability to dream and set goals for the future while being inspired in the present to reach these dreams.  
Retweeted by 
 Mar 16
1st part of the journey is creating self-worth
 Mar 16
Be a part of the community but be an individual
 Mar 16
We are a hero to kids. Whether we want to be one or not. Our choice are we going to be a good a good hero or bad hero.
 Mar 16
So true: No matter what staff you have there are always asses in remission.
 Mar 16
Love the honesty of We need more honesty in education.
Retweeted by 
 Mar 16
Lots of lip service given to citizenship as part of education, but how is this translated into daily practices?
 Mar 16
Only 50% of students think teachers care if they if they are absent.

 Mar 16
Engagement: The delicate boundary between interest and opportunity. We provide opportunity but are lacking in interest.
 Mar 16
Kids come to us curious as hell and then it goes away...staff come to use curious and then it goes away. Why?
 Mar 16
stop asking kids what they want to be ask them who they want to be.
 Mar 16
We have an achievement gap? No we have an expectation gap.
 Mar 16
We should and we must deal with out students differently .Our past is not how we should deal with our students future.
Retweeted by 
 Mar 16
Totally inspirational! Thank you
 Mar 16
That was awesome! The challenge has been laid down. Are we up for it?

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)