It’s been a while….I just want to say thanks folks
Its been a while since I blogged here. For the last year Ive been blogging on my COETAIL blog but this is home for me.
Its crazy to see 2013 coming to an end. Its time for me to reflect on my learning. The great people Ive learned from on and off line. The connections Ive made and made stronger when meeting peeps face to face at events. I appreciate the help, guidance and mentoring that my professional learning community has given me. Its pretty awesome. Some still don’t get it but that’s ok. They will. I remember hearing Ja
biz Raisdana or @interepidteacher talk about how he carries around his learning community. He learns form them. With them. Thats pretty powerful. He motivated me to do the same. I mean who wouldn’t want someone to lean on for support now and then right?
Id love to mention those in the twitter chats like #pypchat, #kinderchat and #satchat #satchatoc. These are fabulous learning communities. Too many people to mention but if you follow these hashtags you’ll be sure to connect with the best educators in the world.
And for those who don’t have a learning community ….. remember what Mr T said: I PITY THE FOOL!!
See you in 2014 (and yes that is my action figure…)
The Learning Journey 
Thanks for inviting me to #pypchat. It helps to be invited as it makes it less intimidating to jump into a strange online community. You also invited me to #satchat which I haven’t gotten to yet, but I haven’t forgotten the invite…so eventually!
Happy 2014!
I’ve heard a lot of great things about COETAIL. I’d be interested to see how you use all of that in 2014 :). What advice would you give administrators with a budding tech program? First steps?
COETAIL is great! Mainly due to the community is encourages and supports. Advice? Id say make tech about the learning, support your techno innovators and empower them to be change agents.
Hi Janet
I think Coetail professional development would be a great start for teachers interested in help with 1:1 integration. It’s a big commitment though. The course lasts for 15 months (5 courses each comprising 6 weeks each of learning). The teachers have to have some inner motivation or they won’t be very happy. Coetail does provide school based face to face instruction for cohorts and they might even be able to fly out an instructor to your school, depending where you are and how many students are at your school. Otherwise, the school can do the online Coetail format. There are a number of schools who have their staff in the online Coetails.
Otherwise, I think mentoring is one of the best ways to develop teachers. I wonder if there could be any PD time given to teachers to learn something in Tech of their own choosing. Then, partner them up with mentors etc. etc. for the day. I think some of the best Tech learning is on a “as needed” basis. We can’t learn it all and it’s the most interesting and relevant when it’s for something directly at hand. For example, I might want to try having the students publish their writing on Storybird.com (digital story telling) Is there someone there that can walk me through the steps? You could have a PD day like an “Unconference Day” where teachers ask for things they want to study and then teachers volunteer to show them how…
There can also be a lot of learning by the watercooler but teachers need time to have those conversations.
Hope some of this helps!
Vivian
Vivian
Well said. I think going coetail as a school would need some clear leadership vision and commitment for sure. Im still working on getting a cohort at my school, start with small steps. ‘Speed dating’ is a good way to share tech ideas quickly. Check out Kim Cofino’s blogpost on Speed dating.