- The purpose of education is to ignite the passion for learning and sharing about the world. Students should have the ability to find and explore new ideas. Teachers ask, “What is BEST for the student?”, but with in their guidelines. Guidelines that they feel are set by the school administration. Guidelines that teachers feel the need to ask permission to be creative and teach students in an innovative manner. School leaders need to create an atmosphere in which teachers are encouraged to be risk-takers and try new things. A community where teachers, students, and school leaders are finding questions about their wonders and passions, and then finding the answers. In reducing the fear, more teachers will attempt innovative ideas and design thinking. The teachers need to get to the point of doing what is good for the kids, instead of waiting for permission.
- As a curriculum coach, I am embracing change by encouraging the teachers to be life-long learners through professional reading. I have an endless list of professional reads from the last 12 months. The more I read, the more inspired I am. As I read, I am sharing these books with teachers whom I feel would benefit from the reading. Another change that I have made is the interaction and development of my PLN on twitter. A year ago, I was not on twitter. A new administrator encouraged me to give it a try. I slowly tried it out and it didn’t take long to get connected and stay connected. I moved to another new campus this school year, where I have spread my interest and inspiration that has come from Twitter. My current administrator has taken off with Twitter in the last month and is tweeting about our school daily! I have convinced several teachers who had never seen the benefit of Twitter to try it out. They are slowly building a PLN and are starting to share with other teachers on their team. Lastly, I am starting to blog at least once a week. I had tried last year, and it fell through. I am picking it back up with #IMMOOC! I am excited for the ideas and interaction. The time to reflect on my learning as I lead is going to be beneficial to me as I move forward in leadership.
- If I were starting a school from scratch, the school community would need to have a climate and culture that understands that design thinking and innovation is not just another thing done at the end of a unit, or when there is time. Design thinking and innovation is embedded into the lessons. The standards are not separate from the engagement and thinking, it is intertwined. I would take out the way that all students must do the same thing, at the same time, in the same way kind of research and lessons.
- New teachers entering the field of education think they must learn the traditional way of thinking, before being innovative. I have seen this in the last several years as a mentor and coach. Then there are the teachers on the other end of the spectrum, who are traditional and do not want to try anything new. As a coach, I have found I have to encourage both the newbie and the veteran. It is okay to embed innovation and passion into their classrooms. I would like to ask the questions mentioned in the live chat this evening of all the teachers I work with, ” What cool idea would you like to do 5 years from now?”, ” What if you did it now?”, “If the rules were gone and you just had standards, what would you do?”. I believe the answers would be inspiring and change the way teachers see their purpose for teaching. It would challenge teachers to do what is best for the students.
Monthly Archives: February 2017
Coffee Chat Edu
As I venture out to new ways to grow my PLN in and out of my school district, a co-worker approached me and said, “Let’s do a Coffee Edu!” That is all it took for us to start brainstorming dates, times, places, and needs…and we were ready for our first Coffee Edu in our area.
First, we both researched Coffee Edu. The participants of a Coffee Edu meet a coffee shop and lead the discussion for exactly one hour. We read comments and posts on twitter and online. The more we looked, the more we wanted to do the Coffee Edu. The chance to network with other teachers in the district while sharing the engaging and positive learning experiences was very appealing to both of us.
We decided to call it Coffee Chat Edu to make it unique to us and our area. We chose a local Starbucks that was easily accessible and has a large seating area. We made a sign to set on the table and offered free Starbucks for the first four individuals who joined our Coffee Chat Edu!
We picked a date a month away, and each took a task for getting the word out for the new event in the area. She created a poster of sorts, while I created a commercial using Animoto. We each tweeted out our poster and commercial each week leading up to the event. Our district technology and communication departments sent the information to teachers as well.
My colleague was able to attend a Coffee Edu in Austin, Texas to gather first hand knowledge of how it works. She came back with pictures, energy, and ways to make our Coffee Chat Edu successful!
Yesterday, we met at the local Starbucks and anxiously awaited educators to arrive and share in our very first Coffee Chat Edu. We had topics ready ahead of time to guide the discussions if there was a lull in the conversation, or it started turning into a gripe session. We had a small turn out for our first Coffee Chat Edu, but it was amazing. We bought the first four a Starbucks of their choice and enjoyed conversations. We did not have to guide the discussions, the participants naturally shared and kept it positive.
My co-worker and I acted as facilitators and kept the conversations going by encouraging everyone to share. The time went fast as a variety of the topics were shared from technology to curriculum. Each person explained how they were using the technology in our schools for our students. They were also excited to share their new instructional strategies to keep students engaged. The teachers talked about how even though we were all in different roles in education, we all had so many ideas to share and unique things being done in our district.
After everyone left, my colleague and I decided that we were glad we stepped out of our comfort zone! We have started planning our next Coffee Chat Edu and look forward to more exciting conversations about education in our district.