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Showing posts from February, 2020

Connected Learner and Coach (Reflection 1 EDCI 325)

Welcome Back! My professor asked us to indicate our Twitter use very early on in our EDCI 325 course.  I identified as a user, but not exactly a part of my everyday life. At the time, I had limited use and truly only tweeted and engaged on occasions that I wanted to appear connected with technology.  It was more for show and not for learning. I can now say that because of this course, I see how my PLN communities (all thanks to Twitter) will be invaluable resources for my next adventure in the world of education.   It began with the mandatory book study and what was seemingly the least time-consuming assignment that I had been given.  I’ll read a chapter or two a week, give a couple of short responses, and that piece of the course would be an easy thing to check off.  Boy, was I wrong! This assignment created a playground for me in my professional learning and keeps leading me to new and exciting opportunities.  I have been engaging with expe...

Digital Citizneship: Encouraging Positivity to Progress

Hello all, When I consider the new coaching role that I will take on next year, Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard is speaking to me in new ways.  Yes, you read that right, no more classroom teaching for me next year, but I'll save that for another post.  On Friday we went through a data-meeting using the 5  Why's  Protocol.  It was amazing to me after reading this chapter and noticing now how many people went to the negative observations first.  Rather than focusing our energy on the good, we focused on the bad.   This observation reminds me that I want students to focus more on the "dos" then the " don'ts " as the Heath brothers and the ISTE standards for digital citizenship recommend. I want students (and teachers) to have a "solution focus" and not a problem focus.  How many of us have been guilty of going down the rabbit hole of negativity?  And how helpful has that been?  This growth mindset ...

Bright Spot

February 5, 2020 Happy Wednesday, "Shouldn’t our mindset and work be rooted in creativity and innovation and not just in best practices?" ~Raymond J. McNulty This quote is the optimism that I seek.  The question is, do you have the freedom to create and redesign lessons & curriculum using the "new practices"?  I am lucky, I do.  This time to collaborate and innovate meaningful learning experiences for our students is a must. As a nation, we must do better in the world of education.  To do this, we must relook at how we are running things and change, adapt, and grow.  As educators, we cannot resist change but encourage big moves to be made.  We need to prepare the next generation in our country so that they can have the knowledge and skills to be positive citizens of the world. We need to be innovative.  We need to enlist coaches and teachers that inspire connection, reflection, and support change.  Katie Novak, Chip Heath, and To...

Mavens, Connectors, Salesman, Oh my!

Happy Sunday! I am thankful to my growing PLN and have seen many examples of mavens, connectors, and salesmen.  In my newest learning network, Jaime Donally has been all three for me.  Not only have I been reading her e-book to participate in a "slow chat" but I have engaged in some of her live chats on Wednesday nights around AR/VR/MR resources.  She has a way of connecting with her audience and is persuasive in her mission to use technology in innovative ways.  Donally has clearly gathered a lot of information on this topic and is spreading the word using online tools (thank you Twitter, such an efficient way to hear the message!)  The infographic below explains how information can spread so quickly using Twitter and my new passion for using this resource to grow my PLN. At St. Albans City School, I find myself playing the role of a maven and connector often.  This year I am not the literacy leader (I have been in the past) yet I find myself sharing ...