Skip to main content

One final reflection..

It is hard to believe that this is my final reflection and an end to the coursework to obtain my ed-tech specialist endorsement.  For three years I have been working towards gaining expertise and knowledge and skills and an understanding.  My pedagogy has shifted, my focus too.  When I began this journey, I intended to work towards becoming a STEAM teacher.  I wanted to teach kids about technology.  Now, I will be working mostly with adults as a coach and I have never felt more prepared than I do right now.

Not only has a pandemic ravaged our world, but our roles in education have also shifted and changed in an instant.  It is only because of the last three years of graduate courses that I have taken that I have felt solidly prepared for this challenge.  

If you had asked me two weeks ago how I was doing, I might have said awful.  This is a very different response for me because typically, I am lighthearted and energetic and positive.  For a while, I was not.  I was scared and hopeless and unsure about everything in my life.  Now, I have embraced this new normal.  I have provided professional development opportunities for my colleagues and teammates, and have walked parents and students through this new world of remote learning.  And you know what, we are all doing okay.

There are some things that I wish we would've been able to teach our families ahead of time, but mostly my students were prepared.  Because I have been integrating pedagogies and practices

Student-focused, universally designed learning is at the forefront of our minds as educators right now.  Students are no longer sitting right in front of us so we need to design curriculum that follows the principals in UDL to engage our students.

Although I slipped into negativity, I remembered that focusing positive was more productive and that I needed to look more at what was going right rather than what was going on in remote learning.  It worked, I changed my approach, and here we are in week 3 of remote learning with a feeling of productive lessons and activities designed for ALL students to access.  Timely and meaningful feedback can be provided and you know what...students are ACTUALLY learning.  And so are we.  As educators, this zone of proximal development was uncomfortable at first.  Now, we are thriving.

Things are going really really well.  I have finally figured out how to balance family and work at home.  My colleagues have embraced the format that I proposed and we are all on the same page (something that I haven't seen in the five years I have been at City School) and we are collaborating more than we ever have before.  All of 4-6 literacy is working together to achieve a common goal.

 As the world navigates the COVID-19 pandemic, we know that this is a challenging time for many and unprecedented times for us all.  But, I am realizing now that there are many silver linings and I have the skills and knowledge to create positive change for our school family.  I have committed to being this leader in making our world a better place.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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 ...

September 5, 2021

I have three schools in my life this school year! I am the library media and ed tech specialist at Fairfield Center School and the librarian at St. Albans City School.  I am finishing up my first week of my second library media specialist class at the University of Vermont and my third week in this split role in elementary education.   Both of these schools vary greatly in size but both serve grades PreK-8. And still I am attending the University of Vermont! ๐Ÿ’š๐Ÿ’› This gif is what I feel like my husband, family, friends & the registrar staff at the UVM must be saying about my school career there. ๐Ÿ˜‚  I have been going to UVM since 2002.  19 years.  And I think everyone is still waiting for me to be finished with my learning there.  What maybe they don't realize and most educators do though is that our learning is NEVER done.   My journey has been formative and truly exciting. For the first 14 years of my career I was a classroom teacher...

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...