connected – Page 3

August 27, 2014

Thinking about coaching

I’ve been thinking a lot about coaching (what it means to be an Edtech coach, a learning coach, a sports coach, are they different?) this week. Mostly in relating to professional development for teachers. I think a lot of us know where we want to be, or what we want to do, we just need someone there to help us get there, and make sure we’re doing it while following our school’s vision.

One of the best things about life is change, and my job is constantly evolving. In order to keep up with this, I need heaps of PD, and I’m reading as much as I can. Currently I’m reading this book.

amazon.com

I’m trying not to think of myself as “just” an Edtech Coach, but as a learning coach. While I don’t have the whole skill set yet, it’s something I’m working on.

One of the most important concepts that this book made me reflect on, and I use in my EdTech job is the importance of trust. Moving to a new school means the first thing I have to do is build those relationships with teachers. I’m going to a lot of meetings, listening and supporting, and finding out what they think should be happening. By listening and then acting, I’m hoping that the teachers will know that I have their backs when they want to try something, so that when I want to encourage them to go somewhere new in their learning journey, they’ll know I support them.

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I think it all goes back to the sense of community and connection. If we all feel like we are connected, and we are trying to do the best for learning (students’ and ours) then we need to be open to some direction. Any kind of peer coaching can be helpful.

Getting into classes this week was amazing. So good to see happy kids, and inspired teachers doing their best. We’re starting individual student blogs in the next couple of weeks, working on class blogs and storytelling apps this week. All in all an exciting time to be working with teachers.

June 20, 2014

Being a part of a community

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It’s been two weeks or something since the last post, and this quotation has been floating through my mind.

During my studies in environmental education Aldo Leopold was someone I always admired, but it’s pretty easy to admire someone like this. I’m trying to think about connections and the importance of “preserving the integrity” of the communities of which I’m a part.

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During the summer break I’m going to be working hard at preserving the integrity of my community. I need to continue to focus on blogging, just in order to keep reading, and reaching out to my community of like minded people. So I’m asking for help, how do the rest of you keep going during this time, who do you connect to, and how do you connect (especially if you live overseas)?

April 30, 2014

I want to be passionately curious

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Working with Mel and Nathan over the past couple of weeks has been a great example of what COETAIL is all about. We’re connecting, sharing ideas and experiences and as a result learning more about each other and ourselves. I’ll be writing a blog post soon on the experiences and results of us changing an Acceptable Use Police to an Empowered Use Policy, and so far the experience has been great (thanks google drive).

I’ve been reading lots of the other students’ blogs, and learning more about digital citizenship, and how people deal with concerns like cyberbullying, data loss, and just fear of the unknown. Many of my fellow COETAILers show passion and curiosity where there might be fear. So my wondering for this week is how do we create people who are passionately curious?

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As a teacher at an inquiry based school, how do we cultivate this in our students. Beyond being passionately curious ourselves, how can we encourage students to take risks and jump into things safely?

Online we have access to heaps of data, but how do we use this? Do we use it to reinforce our own beliefs, or learn something new? Do we use this to find people like us, or meet people who will challenge us to learn something new?

One of my reasons for living abroad is to make myself an “other” to live and experience in a place that is not my own, and where I won’t always feel comfortable. I do this so I can learn more about myself, but also reinforce the idea that we are always constantly learning, so I should never really feel uncomfortable.

Again, I guess this goes back to Jeff‘s idea of always being comfortable being a beginner. If I am happy always being in a learning state, I am always going to learn more. But how do we help our students achieve this goal (or should we)?

With Mel and Nathan, I’ve rekindled some passion for digital citizenship. Working with new people has inspired me to think a little different about how we use devices and what our expectations should be. Connecting with others is a wonderful opportunity, and the world wide web allows us to easily make these connections. Sometimes I think we have to give up being scared and just be curious about the experience we are about to embark on, sometimes I think it’s healthy to be a little worried about the “what if” scenarios. But ultimately I want to be able to replace the fear with curiosity.