Saturday, January 6, 2018

Back on Line Up With Educational Posts for Teachers and Administrators

Hello everyone,

I know that it has been a while since I last posted anything on my blog.  Once I retired from my post-retirement work with the LA Chamber of Commerce, I thought that my education consulting days were gone.  I never stopped reading and thinking about how to improve teaching and learning, but I felt like I no longer had a purpose for sharing my beliefs and views with others.

Out of no where came an opportunity for me to work with a close friend, Daniel Gumarang, to help support Chinese educational graduate students who were coming to the USA for one month to visit American schools and learn what they could about American educational instruction and innovation.  This gave a great opportunity to continue my work with young teachers to be.

Having done this for just over two years now, some exciting opportunities came my way.  First, I was asked twice to go to China and speak and meet with teachers and administrators to discuss changes that are occurring in American educational systems for K-12 schools.  The first time, I went for one week to Beijing and met with educators at several schools to discuss teaching and learning.  Even though a translator was necessary for communication to occur, this was an incredible experience.  When I was invited back, with my wife this time for a two week stay, I was ecstatic.  This time my visit with educators took me to Beijing, Shenzhen, Dongguan, and Xi An.  Not only was I introduced to many very enthusiastic and intelligent educators and school leaders, but my wife and I got the opportunity to see some of the most incredible sites in the world.

From these two visits came an offer to help open a new school in southern China.  A major electronic company was supporting the creation of this new school, and wanted it to be a 21st Century School that is preparing kids to be able to live and attend universities anywhere in the world, not just in China.  The offer that was made to me was so exciting that my wife and children pushed me to take the job offer.  On May 31, 2017, I met with some very important Chinese educational leaders, and on July 15 I started my current position as the Academic Principal of Tsinglan School in Dongguan, China.

I will share more about this adventure that I am currently in the middle of over the next couple of months.  But more important I want to share on my blog some of what I am learning about teaching and learning, and some of what I am helping faculty and administrators at this amazing school learn that will propel this school to success through out the 21st century and beyond.

Just when I thought that my love of education had no further purpose, a purpose has been provided to me, and I am so happy to be able to use my 48 years of learning what it means to educate kids, and how to educate kids to hopefully, help to make the world a better and smaller place for all of us, whether we are citizens of China or the USA.  Afterall, we are all citizens of Earth.