5 out of 5 Stars for The Relevant Educator

A few of the biggest ways a university could prepare a teacher is in keeping them updated on technology, pedagogy, and how to be relevant. What some schools lack could easily be found in The Relevant Educator by Steven Anderson & Tom Whitby. It is insightful for any 21st century educator wanting to be a game changer.

Being an ELT in China, I found this book to be filled with vital information related to the tech plan (possibly BYOD) that I'm starting up at our private Chinese school.  Though the Great Firewall has blocked Google, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook, this book pushes me to find other methods of communication and teaching that Chinese and foreigner teachers alike can use (when we FTs are not on our VPNs, of course). 

With no Google, we have Bing and Baidu. No Twitter means using China's copycat Weibo. YouTube can be replaced with YouKu, Tudou, and a few other sites. Social media here also has WeChat and QQ while 人人 could possibly find its place in the circle. Whatever platform it takes for our admin, teachers, students, and stakeholders to embrace, Anderson and Whitby have guided me in a better direction in how to lead our community with relevance.

What about you? If you've read this book, what did you think? If not, have you read any of the Corwin CE Series?

(Since our school's head principal told me today she trusts me to begin an after-school technology club next semester, the next Corwin CE book I am devouring is Mark Barnes' Teaching the iStudent. More to come soon about this!)