Vision 2020 Blog

2018 has been an exciting first year in our Innovation Project - Vision 2020 ! Have a look at how much we have accomplished so far: We began the year with our 1st Maker Summit during our In-Service. All our teachers engaged in it either as facilitators or as participants of a series of hands-on and maker learning experiences with the purpose of giving you guys a taste of what maker-centered learning could look like in our classrooms. The 1st Maker Summit was also the kick-off of Vision 2020. Over 2018, an important step was taken in the realization of our innovative Vision for 2020: Our team of Course Coordinators partnered up with our Innovation Mentors to design Maker Activities to be incorporated in our courses. Since then, many teachers have been exploring the creative possibilities of maker-centered language learning with our students. Our Facebook group is sizzling with new activities and projects being shared by teachers every day. Right after our In-Service and Mak...

It’s been a little while since I last posted any news regarding our innovation project, Vision 2020. Some of you may know that I had to be away for medical reasons in early April, but I have already come back after a very successful recovery. (Yesss!) And let me just say this: visiting our Facebook group and following all of the great things you guys have been doing with your students was absolutely delightful (and I’m pretty sure it contributed to my speedy recovery <3) How amazing to see the innovative spirit of Vision 2020 going strong ever since our 1st Thomas Maker Summit ! I am writing this very short post to let you all know that I’m happy to be back and that we will soon resume the Vision 2020 project  activities. Before I end this post, let me just give you a taste of what’s been happening and what’s to come. As you know, the first year (2018) of the project is devoted to developing and nurturing a climate and a culture of innovation , as well as leadership for...

On January 24th, 2018, we held our 1st Maker Summit. The purpose of the event was to immerse our teachers in Maker-Centered-Learning experiences, which required them to manipulate technologies, tools, and even methodologies, such as Virtual Reality apps and glasses, Osmo kits, Stop Motion and Green Screening video tools, as well as Design Thinking. Here are some of the things we hoped to achieve with these immersion experiences. We wanted our fellow teachers: to have the student experience by diving in the challenges right from the start. We wanted to give them space to tinker, to play with the tools being used in each experience; to reflect on the hands-on, immersive experience and the difficulties, challenges, successes, and insecurities that surfaced. We wanted them to connect to those feelings that arose while they engaged in each of the experiences together with their peers; to identify possible opportunities for the use of those technologies, tools and methodologies in ou...