I have got me a wolf pack. A small, rogue wolf pack, and a pack none the less.
This week I went to the 21 steps course it chch. Day one was preaching to the converted, day 2 was very useful nuts and bolts stuff – I wish there had been more time spent on this. Important points for me school (as I saw it) was
1) students have to have ownership of both their devices and the program – even if they/families contribute $1 a week, there has to be some buy in. Otherwise the value will not be perceived. This sticks with me in some ways – a favourite saying that was on my supervisors door was ‘to always remember the value of things, not their price’. Sometimes, value needs to be linked to money, if it is too cheap people won’t see it as valuable, and for the majority of families cost will not be a factor if they can see a value in the program
2)Parents need to be informed – we are very behind in this regard. So I am hopefully taking some steps to get this ball rolling.
3) At some point, you just need to make a decision, and of course give all the support possible, but staff need to be on board. I see this as we expect our students to learning something new every hour – surely teachers should be at least learning a new skill a week. But this needs to be modelled from the top down and supported by a few staff willing to take on proof of concept tasks (I liked the point of proof of concept rather than ‘trial’ or ‘pilot’ – it was noted these might indicate failure where as proof of concept is more positive)
4) We are behind – but at least we are moving.
And to my delight I now have a wolf pack in my workplace that are already making steps towards integrating technology – and these ripples will hopefully soon start some waves. And it has made me get of my arse – I had let excuses stop me from keeping myself where I like to be.
Get howling
on the #hackyrclass front – this week was a get to know your learners theme. I guess this is already a big part of my focus – I often find myself chatting instead of ‘teaching’ in class – but as a new staff member it has been really important for me to get to know my students. I am going to continue with the growth mindset idea, and I’m starting some new units this week (why why why even with the most careful planning do I always end up with 3 classes finishing, testing, marking and starting something new all at once?) and will try and focus on Solo taxonomy in these units.
Have fun
ibpossum takes on tech 