Cohort21: An Adventure Distilled

Before the excitement starts to settle and give way to culminating task immersion, marking and reporting, I am taking a moment to distill the mess of ideas buzzing around my mind after my year as a Cohort 21 participant.  These conversations began at the final F2F last Friday, but as I have discovered about myself this year; I am a slow thinker, I like to mull.  On my bike into and home from school this week (which is where most of my good mulling occurs),  I had so many more thoughts about the experience; in an effort to invest more time in documenting & acting on my professional growth I’m going to share them here:

• Finding your voice.  We often talked about the value of ‘finding your voice’; both students’ and teachers’.  The skill of story telling emerges in design thinking, PBL (project based learning) and effective instruction.  In talking to my own children’s teachers this year, I had the good fortune to have insight into how this evolves from an elementary teacher’s perspective.  As I reflect on my own journey, I feel that somewhere along the path I have lost a bit of my own voice; and I see it happening to my students in their ability to confidently express their own opinions in a big-data world.  I would like to work on this both personally and professionally as a way of enhancing ‘creative confidence’.  From what has become a much-used reference guide; Tom & David Kelley’s ‘Creative Confidence’:

“If the scribbling, singing, dancing kindergartner symbolizes unfettered creative expression, the  awkward teenager represents the opposite: someone who cares—deeply—about what other people think. It takes only a few years to develop that fear of judgment, but it stays with us throughout our adult lives, often constraining our careers.”

Two steps I intend to take are to register for IDEO U’s online course in Storytelling for Influence  https://www.ideou.com/products/storytelling-for-influence  and also to register with a local neighbourhood technology & design school ‘The Cube’  for a workshop on how to improve my WordPress blog.  https://thecubeschool.ca/wordpress-workshops/   Blogging may also become something I work into my students process. The idea of a ‘20%’ project that continues throughout the year in my MYP Geography class and ends as the culminating task is something that @mbrims and I talked about at the final F2F and I think blogging could be a great way of enhancing student voice.

• The power of active listening.  I learned so much about this from watching my incredibly talented facilitator @ddoucet as he listened actively to each member of our team as we shared ideas, successes and failures; he always picked up on the positive and then reflected that back with encouragement and ideas for building on and pushing our learning. This served as excellent modelling of the value of PLCs (Professional Learning Communities).  In the final F2F, Cohort alumni @MrsGanley emphasized the value of connection in PLCs like Cohort21 with this quote from Brene Brown:

“I define connection as the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued; when they can give and receive without judgment; and when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship.”

• Leading from the middle.  I had never heard this phrase before Cohort21; @adamcaplan brilliantly facilitated a conversation at the final F2F highlighting the importance of shifting teachers’ mindset from “my” students to “our” students. From this perspective, teachers are multifaceted leaders taking intentional steps to bring everyone forward together.  This article summarized this mindset beautifully:  https://medium.com/@sandeeteach/8-ways-to-lead-a-mindset-shift-for-teachers-327dc0544f39

 

• Diversity of Thought & the Innovation Agenda.  In the final weeks of Cohort21 Season 6, the ‘next steps’ on my learning journey have become more clear.  Prior to starting Cohort, I was unsure if it was aimed at a humanities educator like me.  I felt somewhat ill-equipped to be part of such an ‘innovative’ conversation.  What I now recognize, is that the future of education requires diversity of thought.  Two talented students at my school just organized a panel discussion last night focussing on ‘AI: The future or now?”  I was encouraged to hear from a panel that was both gender diverse and discipline diverse; the recognition that the humanities have a vital role to play in the evolution of education from an ethical, moral, thinking and questioning perspective gives me a fresh take on my purpose in the classroom.  Going forward, my professional goals for the 2018-2019 school year will include participating in conversations around our school’s innovation agenda; I would like to determine and work on areas of intersection with the humanities.