2016-17 Same School but New Role

As I reflect on this past academic year I think wow it’s gone by fast. Is it almost over?

It seems like yesterday I was hired and walked into my Grade 3 classroom at Jakarta Intercultural School  (JIS) for the first time. To make it even sweeter, my daughter is in the classroom next to me, my oldest daughter loves it in the Middle School and my wife @susijava99 is our newest Bahasa Indonesia teacher at JIS. Very grateful and fortunate.

The first few months were a blur. Fast paced, exciting, tiring and so beneficial to me as an educator. Loads of PD. Discussions. Challenges. The great Grade 3 team I work with were awesome, helping me out. Listening when I needed someone to listen. I learned so much from them and other leaders at the school. As well as my personal learning network- PLN. Invaluable to have folks to bounce ideas and frustrations, challenges and ‘wins’ off of. Small moments in time add up to experiences to reflect on.

So here I am about finish Grade 3 and get back into the ‘tech’ stuff as a Digital Literacy Coach. This is pretty exciting in many ways:

• Firstly, I get to work with everyone. How fortunate is it that I get to help out students, teachers and the wider community.
• Secondly, I get to work with a pretty awesome tech team. How cool is it to learn from and with others who are passionate about things you are too.

So Ive started to think about approaches to my new role. I thought the best place to start is to go back to the job description so I have chosen  the following three criteria to focus on and assess on December 1 2016.

Pedagogical Leadership

• co-planning, co-teaching, co-assessing units of student which authentically embed 21st century literacy skills

Success Criteria:

• Contribute to the development and implementation the JIS  Digital Citizenship Framework (in draft form now) based on Common Sense Media Standards.
• Attend PLCs as required and understand how technology might enhance learning in the units of inquiry
• attend the Learning2Asia conference in Vietnam in October and embed big takeaways in our learning. I have been to four L2Asia conferences over the past 7 years and have taken away so much. I believe that this year’s theme “Reimagine Learning” will help me to reconnect with other educators trying to promote thinking differently in the way we learn with the kids, and continue to develop a growth mindset. I can clearly see the connection of using design technology and design thinking and how I can apply this to the JIS dreams:
  • Harnessing the potential of technology to enhance and liberate learning.
  • Providing real, collaborative processes that provide authentic learning.

As part of my new role I see myself as more than the ‘tech person’ but a leader in helping others try new ideas to enhance learning. It is also a great follow up to one of the best conferences I have been to and presented at  Unleashing Learning in Melbourne last March.

Curricular Leadership

• Leading the exploration into new areas such as robotics, application development (code), virtual environments(Minecraft)

Success Criteria: 

• Develop the Maker area (aesthetics, programme, agency)
• Identify areas of authentic connections that promote digital citizenship ie: blogging for an authentic audience, Common Sense media Digital Passport, design skills, programming (Raspberry Pi) and coding
•  Introduce (and convince) the leadership team to promote and support the culture of Digital Badges for professional development opportunities for the JIS community as a means of recognition. Using open badges  by the Mozilla  Foundation allow for many possibilities for students including earning badges  for after school activities or contribution of leadership roles. Parents and staff may also earn badges f
  

  Learning2  Badge

  or a variety of reasons to recognise achievements or participation.

To find out more check out the video below by Michael Boll @autismpodcast 

Team and Collaborative Leadership

• Working with staff to develop and promote use of 21st century tools for efficiency and productivity in their jobs

Success Criteria: Provide ‘just in time’ support to the JIS community. This might include parent/teacher workshops, cohort unconference sessions or the creation of a  ‘JISTech’ blog to promote and celebrate  the use of technology to enhance learning at the school. Great Techexpectations is an excellent example of school’s technology blog by @klbeasley and her team at United World College South East Asia in Singapore. Just in time in class support is essential. One model I’ve used in past years as a tech coach is based on Kim Cofino’s Collaboration Cycle.  It’s a post I often go back to and read. I like the freedom it gives both the coach and the teacher/student. Its differentiated and empowers the learner. I like how the emphasis is teamwork and that both teacher and coach are facilitator of learning.

Collaboration Cycle by @mscofino

Bring on next year.