Mr. Geoff Bodnar
Email: [email protected]
Telephone: 250 870 5110
Personal Education Philosophy excerpt:
As educators, we need to constantly assess quality, to assess our contributions and to assess the immeasurable values that mean the most to our students. Ignoring something because it cannot be counted leads to faulty models; finding out what truly is important to us all, our passions, ensures that the education system will forever promote and uphold these immeasurable values.
“The ability to self-organize is the strongest form of system resilience. A system that can evolve can survive almost any change, by changing itself” (Meadows). If our education community can recognize these important mechanisms, the notions of symbiosis and self-organization, we can continue to make the necessary changes to embrace our constantly changing economic, ecological, cultural and pluralistic society.
In my experience dealing with a variety of students, colleagues, teachers, administration officials and school leaders, I have been reminded time and again that it’s not age that will define an initiative but rather enthusiasm. “Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul” (Meadows). All education communities have the potential to celebrate diversity, to acknowledge the meaningful, experienced, wise and also fragile (physical/mental) stakeholders who are capable of contributing equally. Through this act of mutual hearing, students who are traditionally disenfranchised – the organizationally oppressed – begin to show up, think and imagine in bold and provocative ways. It affords people to be heard.
Similarly for the education community to work effectively students must too be given the opportunity to be heard. With this in mind I am committed to giving all students a sense of ownership over their own learning and allowing them to be heard. Energetic and passionate, I am acutely interested in students’ way of thinking, their passions, their way of reflecting, and constantly strive to give them opportunities to reach their potential. I identify very effectively with all students’ intrinsic worth and right to learn and grow in a positive and trusting environment.
Everyone should have a right to learn, no matter their income or position in life. Students today ought to be fully instructed in 21st Century skills allowing them to compete in our global society. Skills outlined by Tony Wagner, Innovation Education Fellow at the Technology & Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard, as Critical Thinking and Problem Solving; Collaboration Across Networks and Learning By Influence; Agility and Adaptability; Initiative and Entrepreneurship; Effective Oral and Written Communication; Accessing and Analyzing Information; and Curiosity and Imagination. As an educational leader I am working relentlessly on these skills myself and strive to model these skills by embracing new technology and media arts in my daily work. In conclusion students need to be allowed to discover their true talents, skill sets and potential in a trusting and nurturing environment and I will do everything possible to allow this to happen in my classroom.
G. Bodnar
As educators, we need to constantly assess quality, to assess our contributions and to assess the immeasurable values that mean the most to our students. Ignoring something because it cannot be counted leads to faulty models; finding out what truly is important to us all, our passions, ensures that the education system will forever promote and uphold these immeasurable values.
“The ability to self-organize is the strongest form of system resilience. A system that can evolve can survive almost any change, by changing itself” (Meadows). If our education community can recognize these important mechanisms, the notions of symbiosis and self-organization, we can continue to make the necessary changes to embrace our constantly changing economic, ecological, cultural and pluralistic society.
In my experience dealing with a variety of students, colleagues, teachers, administration officials and school leaders, I have been reminded time and again that it’s not age that will define an initiative but rather enthusiasm. “Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul” (Meadows). All education communities have the potential to celebrate diversity, to acknowledge the meaningful, experienced, wise and also fragile (physical/mental) stakeholders who are capable of contributing equally. Through this act of mutual hearing, students who are traditionally disenfranchised – the organizationally oppressed – begin to show up, think and imagine in bold and provocative ways. It affords people to be heard.
Similarly for the education community to work effectively students must too be given the opportunity to be heard. With this in mind I am committed to giving all students a sense of ownership over their own learning and allowing them to be heard. Energetic and passionate, I am acutely interested in students’ way of thinking, their passions, their way of reflecting, and constantly strive to give them opportunities to reach their potential. I identify very effectively with all students’ intrinsic worth and right to learn and grow in a positive and trusting environment.
Everyone should have a right to learn, no matter their income or position in life. Students today ought to be fully instructed in 21st Century skills allowing them to compete in our global society. Skills outlined by Tony Wagner, Innovation Education Fellow at the Technology & Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard, as Critical Thinking and Problem Solving; Collaboration Across Networks and Learning By Influence; Agility and Adaptability; Initiative and Entrepreneurship; Effective Oral and Written Communication; Accessing and Analyzing Information; and Curiosity and Imagination. As an educational leader I am working relentlessly on these skills myself and strive to model these skills by embracing new technology and media arts in my daily work. In conclusion students need to be allowed to discover their true talents, skill sets and potential in a trusting and nurturing environment and I will do everything possible to allow this to happen in my classroom.
G. Bodnar