Getting Me Thinking

Last night I read an inspiring blog post written by my school district's Director of Instruction, Elisa Carlson.  Elisa has been a huge fan of what I've been doing with my grade one class this year and I can't thank her enough for her support.  While I am a very self motivated person having her support has meant more to me than she will ever realize.

Elisa's post got me thinking about why I do what I do.  I've always been one to do my own thing but the longer I'm in the profession the more confident I am with the reasons for my choices.  As I've said several times before  I'm on a constant search to improve my teaching.   I am loving Twitter so much because it has linked me up with like minded individuals.

To many I'm a total learning geek but I truly love what I do.  I love that challenges that each day brings me. I love that my job is not always easy. I love that I am making a difference in not only  my life, but in the lives of those I teach.  Being so "out there" with this blog and my tweets on twitter has been a bit scary for me, but it has given me a place to use my voice.

Another blog that got me thinking today is one written by Jonah Salsich.  He talks about how many educators are afraid to do exactly what we are teaching our students to do - take a risk, try something new, change our thinking.  He talked about how professional development as we know it isn't really working.  I added to the conversation with the following comment.

I’ve just stumbled onto your blog via twitter and this blog post really reasonates with me. Why do you think that some of us are self motivated enough to truly put ourselves out there and take risks to learn new things while others are so afraid to make a change? I don’t believe that the professional development we have with people talking to us works. We all come in with are own agendas of things we want to learn. For me Twitter has been the best professional development I’ve discovered. I often feel as though I am learning from truly brilliant people. But I am a self motivated learner and I thrive on learning new things so for me it’s been a no brainer. What we really need to do is find a way to make others self motivated too, both our students and our staff. I feel I do a lot to make my students thrive on intrinsic motivation but it’s a lot tougher with my colleagues. You’ve certainly got me thinking and I thank you for that.

As I get ready to start my second term with my class I am thinking not only about  things I can do for my students but how I can also help motivate my colleagues too. I appreciate reading posts that make my head spin and I want to thank both Elisa and Jonah for that.  There are a lot of exciting things in store for me in 2012.

Engaging the Digital Learner - a Look Back

On Thursday Sept 29th, I had the privilege of attending a workshop put on by my school district entitled "Engaging the Digital Learner". The key speaker was Chris Kennedy of the West Vancouver School District.  Chris inspired all of us with his stories of what is happening in his school district. He talked about how every staff member is receiving digital training, how all his principals are blogging, and how every student has a platform to write and share with others. It was truly inspiring.

During the session we had to turn and talk with our table about how we are doing with digital literacy.  I was happy to report that I was feeling pretty comfortable with it.  I shared how I've started blogging with my grade one classroom, and how my grade one students have their own individual blogs as well.  I think I surprised my table - mainly upper intermediate teachers with their administration - with what I was doing with my grade one students.  I was trying to show them that the age of the child is irrelevant, we all can be digital learners.  Of course as comfortable as I am with what I'm doing now, there is still so much more I could be doing.

To attend this workshop I needed to sign up with a buddy.  I'm really glad I went with my good friend and work colleague.   However, I really wish one of my administrators was able to join me too.  I am super charged to use technology as a tool for learning with my grade one students and I'm doing everything I can to charge the rest of my staff.  But it's not easy.  Having an administrator as equally charged as I am would go a long way.

There are still four more sessions and I can't wait to attend them.  In the mean time I will continue to share what I'm doing in my classroom with anyone that will listen.  I will continue to support those on my staff.  I will (and have) arranged to get more technology into my school - even if it's just on a short term loan - to hopefully (fingers crossed) inspire more people to help me convert more staff members to the benefit of technology in our classrooms.  My ultimate goal is convert everyone on staff to the benefits of using technology for learning, because really that's where the world is heading.

Until the next session, I'll keep learning and sharing.