Continuous formation

I mentioned it in yesterday's blog post and realized I hadn't discussed it before. I had done a presentation on line with Lync and although Lync does do recordings, the presentation was pretty dynamic with questions coming from the participants.  In order to make the presentation efficient for folks who couldn't attend, I used Present.Me to not only show the slides but also show me as I discussed the content. Well, it turned out that Present.Me was a big hit amongst the faculty (not like that wasn't my ulterior motive, eh?)  The Physical Education department used it in the Middle School for the student presentations on health topics almost immediately. I've found this introduction-by-stealth to be the best way of providing faculty with new ways of looking at information.  Giving them a link or even doing a video on a new application really does work... not surprisingly (thank you Dewey) actually showing them how it works in a context pushes their thinking and doi...

So on Monday morning (Family Day holiday here in Ontario), I ran across the following tweet: @principalspage: Can you teach someone how to teach? And I replied with the cliche @sig225 You can lead a horse to water... Much like any skill, you can teach (or, more specifically, go through the motions since teaching should imply learning) anyone anything.  I've sat in an audience being 'taught' many times but unless I not only hear and engage with the material and then bring it to some meaning in my own life (and that can be academic, personal or social) that I haven't really been taught it.  The teacher can try all they want, some of the responsibility lies with the student. When it comes to teacher education, and in this I include both pre-and in-service, we've all sat in PD and even when energized by the information we don't adapt our teaching style even if we know student learning would be improved. In part it goes back to a quote from Dylan Wiliam t...

Well I've spent a considerable amount of time responding to the feedback on Wallwisher; the students have definitely found it convenient to have a space to voice their concerns.  While I began it as place to talk about improvements to our OneNote Binder system, the students definitely did not feel limited to that initial suggestion.  At all.  Questions ranged from OneNote, to Outlook, to Windows 8 and then into the history of OneNote.  And a few diversions into internet memes.  Okay, I put my share of wood on that fire in my responses. And I thought it important to respond to each note -- they were asking legitimate questions, good questions, that they either hadn't heard the answer to yet (and for sure IT has been sending a consistent message on many of their issues) or we weren't even aware of the problem. I have to say that Padlet provided a great space for this... as moderator I could edit notes to add my comments and group notes around similar themes as ...

I heard this twice yesterday. From two different sides. Both were about venturing into a different space. I have my feet in two distinct camps, that of the IT Department and that of the faculty.  And I heard the exact same words coming from both. It's too far to walk. It wasn't laziness that prompted them to say that... there's something more.  There's a reluctance to engage with "the other".   They aren't (or don't) like us . And so I push, and I prod; I josh and I cajole.  And I try to make it seem so that it's not so far.  But it was a good reminder that the issues of professional development and technological growth aren't limited by our budget or by our policies but rather by the individual, personal feelings (and perhaps, fear) we have for the other. Image by    ClaraDon

One of the adaptations to the schedule that began last year at school was the addition of an hour of "meeting time" available every Wednesday morning.  Now, it is often consumed by department meetings, a (incorrectly named) PLN and faculty meetings, I do occasionally get some time to do some large-scale PD.  So far I've had two 20 minutes sessions.  To be fair, doing PD in front of the entire faculty is not particularly productive -- they are all at different levels in terms of pedagogy and technology that there isn't a lot of common ground to build on.  And what I'm not all about is wasting their time showing TED talks -- they don't need inspiration; they're already an extremely motivated group, eager to learn. This time, I thought I would go over Microsoft Lync .  Now, Lync is not particularly well know; as a form of introduction it's really similar to Skype or MSN Messenger (and in fact, it's on the way to being merged with Skype).  It's...

I had a nice conversation with a colleague here ... chatting with teachers in the summer is always fun because everyone is relaxed but at this time there is also the anticipation of getting back into the classroom, so there's a great energy. He mentioned my new job and said something like "it's a great opportunity for you to bring your vision in to the classrooms." And I had to stop him... because that's exactly the opposite of what I want to do with this job. Sure, I have a vision of what classrooms should look like -- but I'd much rather help teachers bring _their vision_ of what their classroom should look like. There are a multitude of ways to make teaching and learning better (and I'm not going to define what that means at this point) -- and if I just march on with what I think is best, it's not going to initiate any real change in the classroom. Change has to be personal, individual, differentiated. It has to come from whatever space the ...

When I was interviewing for this position, one of the things I wanted to make clear was that when it comes to teacher-change, I wouldn't proceed too aggressively until I had dealt with the issue of time-and-space. Teachers at our school are extraordinarily busy; they wear many hats (teacher, coach, club leader, service trip organizer, residence staff ... and then they have lives) and tend to be over-scheduled during the school day. Yes we get great holidays but during the time we're in school, it's an 8-5:30 day followed by planning and marking overnight, not to mention the evening and weekend responsibilities as part of our academic and co-curricular components. So, if we're going to ask these folks to think deeply about their practice, we need to find the time by making their present work easier and more efficient. All those situations where they run in to an impediment, when they don't have the information they need at the time they need it or if they have to...