Thursday, February 11, 2016

Cruisin' Together

The Transform Session for February had two main areas of focus: taking risks and collaborating with others. Both risk-taking and sharing my journey & ideas with others were vital to my growth as a classroom teacher, and they continue to be essential to my growth as an instructional technologist and a leader today.

With an upcoming External Review from an AdvancED team in March, I took a few minutes to inform teachers about what that team will be expecting in regards to technology use in the classroom. The three technology "look fors" found on the ELEOT fit nicely with my message to teachers throughout the school year: technology as a resource, technology as a tool for creation, and technology as a means for student collaboration. We also examined some of the other keywords found on the Effective Learning Environments Observation Tool (ELEOT), including one descriptor that really stood out to me: "Take risks in learning." What does that look like in the classroom? How can we model that as teachers?



Teachers watched a great video that was shared by Sean McComb at FETC this year, and it reminded many of the way we feel on the first day of school or when we try something new in the classroom. Though you wouldn't want to feel anxious, nervous, or apprehensive walking into your classroom every day, we discussed the importance of regularly taking some risks that push beyond the comfort zone in order to grow. One teacher commented, "I like the idea of taking a risk to make the lesson more meaningful and engaging for students." True transformation of teaching and learning requires a dedication to incremental change and challenging oneself despite the risk of failure. As teachers, we are sometimes the worst about modeling the importance of risking failure and learning from our mistakes!

Next, I shared "Obvious to you. Amazing to others!" which was discovered by colleague Tamara Cox and posted to Twitter. The bulk of the time spent in this session was then spent developing an idea, activity, or project highlighting one of the ELEOT descriptors and sharing that idea onto a Google Slides presentation for teachers across our district.

Here is just one of the grade level shared Slides presentations created by my colleague Kristen Gunter.


My teachers really seemed to like this session, and one commented, "It is really helpful to see other ideas from teachers across the district, and it felt like I accomplish a lot in a short amount of time today. I loved the Google Slides template that allowed us to type in and share our idea easily." Another teacher commented, "I like that the teachers from the entire district are able to share ideas with one another. It is always nice to get new and fresh ideas!"

As a teacher of teachers, I always strive to motivate or inspire those I serve to take action toward improving instruction, while also building in time for my teachers to "learn by doing." It made me smile to read the following comment: "This session made me think about where I am as a teacher and helped me to realize how important it is to continue growing, improving, and trying new things in the classroom to increase learning. Though I may not always know how things will turn out, it is so important to be willing to take risks."

I am so incredibly fortunate to love and admire the teachers I serve! #lovemyteachers




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