This is the time of the year school becomes difficult. For those who are struggling to stay motivated, hear me.
Our mindset about ourselves will influence our success with online learning. I can't tell you how many students I have chatted with who, once they reframed their thinking about school, began having incredible success. So, how can we change our mindsets or a least think about them? Let me give you some examples:
When we see repetition and trends in our children's thinking, behaviour, or mindsets, start the discussion with "What do you think about …..," " I am noticing ……, what is going through your mind or heart when …… is happening?" Our mindsets are a piece of this puzzle of how we interact with situations in our lives. We all need a non-judgemental and trustworthy individual who notices us and is willing to have dialogue about our lives. I am not writing about right or wrong mindsets, I am writing about noticing how we think. Halfway through each semester can be challenging for our students. Now is the time we can encourage students and give them a chance to release anything which is tied down by a personal mindset. I am writing as one who needs to notice my mindset and constantly reframe it. You can do it Summit Trails! (Reference: Dr. Alia Crum, psychologist at Stanford University)
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Yesterday my family and I were having some fun at the dinner table by flipping phrases we use routinely. My kids are in High School and University, so you can imagine the laughter around rearranging words. We hit the phrase "Thanksgiving Day" in our ramblings and instantly said, Giving Thanks Day. Hmmm, that stuck with me for a while. It seems rudimentary, I know. But, it reminded me of what this day can mean for us. I don't have to "recap" the struggles we have had as a province, nation and ultimately the world. I can sometimes focus on ideas and opinions swirling around me and take my "eye" off my community circle. When I say "community," I refer to my everyday life and the people in it. My family connections are also not just blood-related, but those who are family by relationship. It is easy to fall into deficit thinking, asking ourselves: What is wrong with the world? What is wrong with the people around me? What is wrong with me? Not only viewing our circumstances negatively but potentially ourselves. For me, "Giving Thanks Day" is a reminder to draw out the elements in my life where I am thankful. Sometimes we think the little things don't matter. Well, when I get a sliver in my hand, the pain affects my body instantly. How can something so small bring so much pain! However, sometimes I can miss focusing on the small things in my life that also bring me great joy. Today as I wrote down my gratitudes, the list was long! But, I must say, the gratitudes completely overshadowed deficit mindsets vying for my mental space. Giving Thanks Day is a reminder that we need to be people who give more space to gratitude and bring joy to someone else who needs it.The world focuses on data these days more than ever. From education to medicine to sleeping, we are tracking, tracking, tracking. Why? Is it the insatiable need to understand ourselves, our culture and where we are going—sounding like sociology? Yes, because it is. The study of ourselves. At the educational level, we use data to inform our decision-making. Specifically, we are moving from an accountability model to an assurance model. What is the difference? One speaks to the side of evaluation, and the other expresses on the side of confidence. Either we constantly give ourselves a report card or start using data to reveal trend metrics to bring out a level of confidence in the WHY of our goals and strategies for improvement. You don’t have to be an expert in digesting and communicating data. In what ways can we do this? First, we need to understand the difference between qualitative and quantitative data. Qualitative data can be observed and recorded. This data type is non-numerical. This type of data collects observations, one-to-one interviews, conducting focus groups, and similar techniques. Quantitative data is usually collected for statistical analysis using surveys, polls, or questionnaires sent across a specific population section. The issue is often not the data but how the data uses and the perception of an organization. I appreciate leaders who are putting out their ideas and lived experience to help us in our day to day learning.
Below you will see a link to an online article. Here is thing, you may think you have it all together and hour online program is working just fine. I encourage you to read articles like this with open palms (as it were). Where are you on the providing the best program for your students? Sometimes we fall into the adult direction of developing an online experience or process which is most advantageous to teachers. Sometimes we forget about the overall experience of the student. Wait!! I thought this was for the student? Depending on the job that you have, these last six months you might have felt slightly underwater. If you're an educator, and reading this, I am shocked that you have time! LOL. If you're like me, you are trying to stay ahead of the wave that is COVID-19. In my career I have had some challenging experiences, but I have never faced something like this. I'm not talking so much about the pandemic anxiety or about the stipulations we need to follow, but rather the amount of change. I've seen an entire school division embrace change in a magnanimous way. If we can change for the health of students and families this fast. Why can't we change for the good of students and families pedagogically? Has this been difficult? Yes. Are we learning how resilient we are? Yes, most definitely. Does this show us what can occur when everyone pulls together for a common purpose? Oh boy yes. I am proud of you teachers and administrators! Hang in there everyone. You will be remembered for the love, care and sacrifices you are making for students. Now for all of us who are cracking this nut of ONLINE Learning. Please read this article, send it to those who need it. It is a quick starter for teachers who are just getting going with online learning. The question was posed to TCEA Member "We are looking at creating guidelines for virtual professional development - how long? how many breaks? best practice? etc. Do you have resources you would recommend?"
The response for learning for adults was surprise to me. We actually do not have a great attention span for online learning. Naomi Harm CTO/Technology Director/Technology Coordinator • Innovative Educator Consulting As a great balanced approach for virtual professional development that I've been delivering for years, has always been around an hour for a targeted grade level span group with a specific targeted learning outcome and supportive tools and resources that teachers can immediately walk away with to create and implement into their teaching and learning practice. what's important also that during this one-hour session it's not just a sit and get, it's vital that the participants are engaged and at least three to four activities that they can reflect, contribute to and have a voice to showcase their understanding of their learning, and also afford them the opportunity to ask questions to strengthen their insight. That's also a great healthy brain-based balance approach for adult learners but even more so for students. You can also deliver quality virtual professional learning activities in 30 minutes too, again it depends on the purpose, the targeted learning outcome, and the meaningful activities that you want to cover in that 30 minutes without feeling that you're rushing through too much information. What we are seeing nationwide is when it's over an hour It's just too much for even adults to pay attention Yet if it's a great brain balance approach that with about every 10 minutes there's an activity for the attendee to be involved with to create, to make, to reflect, to showcase their learning the engagement factor will maintain and they can make it through that hour. if you have more questions I'll be glad to converse with you or can even provide you some supportive documents. Here's an updated 2020 collection that I refer to and focuses on creative strategies and best modeled deliverables for virtual professional development for educators. 1. https://teachingstrategies.com/blog/support-virtual-professional-development/ 2. https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-04-16-how-to-integrate-online-professional-development-into-your-school-s-pd-culture 3. https://www.edsurge.com/research/guides/how-teachers-are-learning-professional-development-remix 4. https://www.techlearning.com/news/strategies-for-virtual-professional-development 5. http://www.activelylearn.com/post/transform-pd-best-practices 6. https://www.edutopia.org/article/making-teams-more-collaborative Collaboration Tools to Engage All Learners 1. https://www.commonsense.org/education/top-picks/best-student-collaboration-tools 2. https://www.teachthought.com/technology/12-tech-tools-for-student-to-student-digital-collaboration/ 3. https://www.cambridge.org/elt/blog/2020/03/24/using-online-collaboration-tools/ 4. https://www.gettingsmart.com/2020/02/6-collaboration-tools-that-take-learning-beyond-the-classroom/ 5. https://tutorful.co.uk/blog/the-82-hottest-edtech-tools-of-2017-according-to-education-experts 6. Blended Learning Innovative Ideas ebook https://read.bookcreator.com/Cfm7kRgnZSR4KJzYXXnUJezaQeo1/HRiqyRNKQgeEJLWjtMkVgw Right now, more then ever during this turbulent time with COVID-19, schools are asked to continue the work of educating students. Sometimes, however, we forget that our teachers are no different than the families they teach. Our teachers have the same worries, concerns, anxieties and troubles. We need to remember the state of mind of a teacher and be sure we are supportive and not overwhelming them. We don't want our teachers to be paralyzed by giving them a task that appears to large for them to digest. This sounds like some of the students I have taught, as well! What do we do to allow students to tackle tasks which they see has mountainous? We chunk it, and we give them the big picture.
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David SmithAuthor
Principal at Rocky View Schools (Summit Trails High School) TopicsArchives
October 2022
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