The IB Learner Profile: Being open-minded and reflective about the perspectives of others

I had a long conversation with someone at school today about why I blog, and whether the different people who read my blog get a positive or negative view of me and of what we are doing at our school when they read the things I am writing about.  It's all a matter of perspective I suppose, and in general I would say from the people who have read my blog and then spoken to me in person and from the comments I have received on the blog and through Twitter, most people find it interesting and useful and think we are doing great things at school.  Of course not everything I say is positive, I try to be balanced and write about the things I am thinking about and experiencing and not all of those things are positive, but on the whole I feel I have grown as a person and become more reflective through writing down my thoughts and getting feedback from those who read them.

Through my PLN I have come in contact with school principals who blog about their school.  Immediately after the conversation I had today,  I read this blog post from George Couros, a principal of a K-12 school in Canada, about why he blogs.  George lists 12 reasons why he blogs and I would have to say I agree with all of them.  A blog is so much more dynamic than a newsletter - it allows comments and feedback and is truly a dialogue as opposed to a monologue.  I know that not everybody may agree with some of the things I write, but if they give me their comments then I have another perspective and can rethink my ideas and grow as a teacher as a result.  Another blog post I came across today was Shelly Terell's interview with Patrick Larkin, a principal in Massachusetts.  Here he explains how he uses social media to connect with members of his school community.  The important message I get from both George and Patrick is that as principals they are blogging and using other social media because they want to model this for their teachers and students and because they want to improve learning and communication at their schools.

The IB Learner Profile encourages all learners at the school to be open-minded and reflective.  I am always happy to have feedback and to hear from others with different perspectives from me - actually I really love hearing all these different perspectives and I guess that is why I blog.

Photo Credit:  Typing at Night by Modenadude