WEBINAR on connected leadership

Viv Hall from 'The Connected Learning Advisory' organised a webinar on being 'a Connected Leader'. She was supported by Karen Melhuish Spencer from CORE Education.  

My part in the Connected Learning Advisory presentation for Connected Educator Month was to talk about 'What does a Connected Leader look like?' 

Ideas:

Reach our for your own professional leader/ learner support. Model growth for others. The power of connections both online and offline for professional learning. Networking locally is great, but networking globally even more powerful. Model connectedness for students and colleagues. Make connections, taking risks and dive into being connected to empower yourself.

Stephen Lethbridge 'In your role as a connected leader, what do you do to support/ model/advocate/facilitate e-learning?'

Ideas:

Don’t talk about e-learning in the sense of electronic - e for effective. Being connected need to be effective before digital - why before how. Widen connections outside education, follow people who you don't agree with outside of education - Dissonance is just as important as finding like minded people. Hire teachers via Twitter and reading their Blogs. Try to walk the talk of connectivity. Tools to get connected: todoist, slack, ifttt

Justine Driver 'What attributes do you think you need most, to make this role successful? 

Ideas:

Growth mindset to connect strategically using digital technologies to improve student learning, systems that promote. Collaborative - collective wisdom & collective action - the right people are the right people in the stream/conversation. Echo Chamber effect - Filters the stream, doesn’t necessarily go along with group think to keep the conversation going, asks WHY? To what extent do the communities that we are involved in challenge our own thinking. Questions & adds value to create dialogue in whatever platform - Google +, facebook, twitter. A digital resident - models citizenship in online forums - makes connections. We also need to ask who is not connecting with us? Whose voice is not in the room and how to get people engaged (hence the reason for this webinar)

Rachel Boyd 'What’s in it for me’ about being a Connected Leader?

Ideas:

Connection regardless of distance. Exposure to alternate views different to local Principal/AP/DP group. Exposure to experts. Development of conversations & connections via shared interests. Ability to ask/answer questions. Opportunity to grow self - self directed learning. Find out what is/isn’t working for others. Gain a world view - external to your school. If you have ever felt like “an island” this is the place for support.

Annemarie Hyde 'How do you encourage a reluctant teacher/leader to get connected?'

Ideas:

Online connections lead to face to face connections and rich conversations. Mentor new folk and encourage people beyond their first step. Connect with them, help, respond to tweets. Challenge educators/ leaders to be online. Important to have an online presence now for jobs. NZC asks us to be connected and actively involved.

You can listen to the Webinar here.


My Storify:

~ “Leaders make decisions that create the future they desire.” - Mike Murdock ~

A 'handshake' with some of my favourite bloggers... (an EdblogNZ challenge - Wk 2)

One of the EdblogNZ challenges for this week is to find two bloggers I admire at ULearn15 and take a selfie with them to post on my blog, although the [hidden] rebel in me made me choose four bloggers instead...

Sonya Van Schaijik (an eFellow of 2011) is a person I admire immensely. She is a connected, multi-talented and inspirational educator. On her blog, she always reflect effectively,  is constantly thinking about her 'where to next' and inform about her education experiences. 

The following three bloggers are my fellow eFellows of 2014. They (with Bec, Ben and Rowan -who are not active bloggers) have inspired me throughout our year of research/inquiry and... they still do! 

First up is the amazing Anne-Louise Robertson with her blog 'A Box of Thistles'. I enjoy her transparency, short and to the point posts with outstanding content.

Tim Gander cover relevant topics in his blog, 'Future Learning' and it is full of practical posts, applicable information and great ideas. 

Although a 'sporadic blogger' (as Vicky Hagenaars refers to herself) I do like to read her thoughts on her blog 'Vix Voice' as she has so much knowledge to share... 

~ "Memories of our lives, of our works and our deeds will continue in others" 

- Rosa Parks ~

My education question/ challenge/ wondering... (an EdblogNZ challenge - Wk 2)

Buzzwords in education... 

We had/have: '21st Century Learning', 'Future Focus', 'Modern Learning Environment', 'Modern Learning Pedagogy' and were more recently introduced to the [new] buzzword 'Innovative Learning Environment'

Does all these words not describe what we (as educators) are already doing.

Educators are aware that there is a new meaning for 'knowledge' and that students should be actively involved in their learning, rather than being passive recipients of information. Is this not why we give our students agency? 

I am aware of the differences in 'Personalised' and 'Individualised' learning, but does it really matter which one is being used in a learning environment?

It is my perception only, that everything I do should be about my learners. I believe that a teacher who knows his/her students well, know how to integrate learning that will benefit a students' individual needs. I certainly want my students to achieve success by making learning enjoyable and meaningful.

Do we need to refer to these buzzwords at all?

~ "Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn." 

- Benjamin Franklin ~

Observe, Reflect, Plan and Act

I've attended (virtually) another successful collaboration between Sonya van Schaijik (host of TeachMeetNZ) and Matt Esterman (host of TMSydney) as part of Connected Educator Month.

A great line up of educators presented on:

1. Being Cybersmart - Fiona Grant
2. Project Based Literacy Learning - Isaac Crandell-Tanner
3. Critical Friendships - Ros MacEachern
4. Flipped Learning in Early Childhood - Hannah Dodd
5. TMSydney - Matt Esterman

Reflection:

I value the opportunity I have to learn from other educators and hearing what they have been doing and implementing in their learning environments. I truly believe that you will not grow if you only have yourself as role-model and to be honest, these people have challenged my thinking! 

So, what's next for me?

1. Working on empowering my students to be [more] connected and to be confident decision makers when blogging. (Thanks Fiona!)
2. To connect with my 'Critical Friend' (Thanks Ros!) and to be an effective one.

My Storify:

Presentation:

~ "Observe and reflect, and become a little wiser every day." - Doe Zantama ~

Blogging: What does it look like for me... (an EdblogNZ challenge - Wk 1)

EdblogNZ is setting a blogging challenge as part of Connected Educator Month. There will be three challenges set in each one of the levels every week. 

The three levels in this challenge are:  

1. Absolute Newbie (e.g. “I don’t even have a blog set up yet”)
2. Casual Blogger (“I blog occasionally when I remember or feel I have something useful to say”)
3. Blogging Legend (“I blog regularly [at least once a week] and have great interaction/ contribution on my blog from commenters”)

I'm choosing to write a post on the challenge 'Write a blog post about why you blog professionally and some of the things you blog about. Share it using the #EdBlogNZ hashtag so the newbies can get further ideas to blog about.'  in the 'Blogging Legend' level.  Not that this is something that I see myself as, but the topic for this challenge was relevant to me.

Why I Blog:

• to grow professionally
• to share my experiences and knowledge
• to express ideas
• promoting my work
• sharing knowledge and [hopefully] make a difference
• to keep a record to look back on to view my professional and personal growth
• to remind me of the ideas I once had and to help me re-evaluate them
• to reflect on my practice, setting goals and to clarifying my thinking

flickr photo shared by langwitches under a Creative Commons ( BY-NC-SA ) license

What do I blog about?

Here are a few:

• All my PL&D that I can tag with the RTC's (now the PTC's) to enable me to show with evidence that I meet the criteria to be a fully registered teacher
• Personal view
• Motivation
• Choice
• Goals
• Reflection

I do sometimes feel blogging to be a huge 'challenge', as I take way too much time thinking about how to put all the thoughts I have in my head into a post. In the end though, I feel a sense of accomplishment after expressing my thoughts, which makes the whole process all worth it.

~ "To Blog is To share, To connect, To create, To inspire" - Anonymous ~

On Change, Fear, Risks and Trust - #CENZ15 launch event

A connected educator interview with Grant Lichtman on helping school teams to develop a capacity for change in a rapidly changing world.

What is the book '#EdJourney' about?

It is a story about many schools, what innovation means and how to overcome problems. There are conversations around education change, but the system [around education] has not. 

My 'take-away':

The biggest barrier for change and innovation is the fear of taking a risk. Gaining comfort with change is hard. Asking to do things that we are not sure about is uncomfortable. It's about having conversations, about what we want to do and to look at what is holding us back.

It is necessary to talk about risk in education and to step out of the comfort zone. Educators should take risks to grow professionally and being able to challenge each other. This might help with doing things different in the future.

Ways to overcome 'fear'?

People connecting, reaching out to each other for ideas and help. Get a shift from discomfort [with observations] to wondering why other teachers hasn't come and visit me in my class. Make teaching goals public with each other, give and receive feedback and get comfortable with that.

What if every teacher is part of a "cognitosphere"? 

We fundamentally changed how we learn and knowledge evolves. Schools are creating learners for the future. Look at what takes place in the classroom - teachers and students are co-learners. What flows through is knowledge and we are in the business of knowledge.

You are not a group of one, when connecting with others on twitter and through other on-line communities. No one is on an island anymore. Educators are willing to be contacted and talk about issues. Most educators want to see change take place, encourage people to start trying things. 

It is 'difficult' getting people to commit, as they are good at thinking, but posses a fear of taking the first step.

The most common risk is to allow ourselves to very simply ask the question of what constitutes great learning. Once this has been identified, make a promise to find what is best for our students. The resources in schools are not many, but powerful. Resources are time, space, money, people and knowledge. Aligning the resources with the vision is important.

When looking to next year, remember that there is no cook book recipe that works for all schools. School that are successfully changing how they 'do' learning for their students, creates value. Support the vision by using the five resources (as mentioned above). Articulate and communicate your unique individual aspects. Always think 'How is what we are doing powerful, how are we helping our students our place'?

Define what you want for learning outcomes, it is not just ticking boxes for a strategic plan. It is important to get on the pathway; look first at what great learning looks like. 

Feedback requires a culture of trust. How do we build trust?

We build trust by being in the room together (parents, students, community, teachers) by asking questions and solving and tackling problems together, rather than doing it in our silos. It's about going on the journey together!

~ "Change can be scary, but you know what's scarier? Allowing fear to stop you from Growing, Evolving and Progressing." - Mandy Hale ~