During the #DLMOOC journey, I learned several things I plan to add to my practice. The one that hit me the hardest was a post by Justin Cook, a leader at the Ontario Alliance of Christian Schools. He states “In order to make culture, we must immerse ourselves in culture with the right postures: critically evaluating and cultivating the cultural gifts history has given us and creating new culture that is inspired by a vision for flourishing.” The overall take-away for me is that schools should have a “story” that guides the students’ learning. Each student weaves strands into the story narrative with the work he/she undertakes. Traditionally, we have often called this focus a “mission statement,” but I much prefer the idea of storytelling.  Peoples (at least until recently) passed many aspects of their culture to future generations through storytelling. Once schools identify their story, they will be able to develop a culture in support of it.

I will be reading Justin’s post (and others he has done) many times, because I glean something new out of each re-reading. A link to the full post is below:

https://plus.google.com/117354818094642376860/posts/ANpuLPLcLSD