Today the weather has been perfect for our visit to the beautiful Havergal College campus.
Question 1: Why have I joined Cohort 21? What are my professional goals for the year?
I joined Cohort 21 to have a community of like-minded educators as I settle back into Canada in a new city and a new school after having spent much of the last 20 years overseas. Cohort 21 will also give me an opportunity to network with educators from other CIS schools. My goals for the year are to:
- implement a comprehensive and intentional transition plan for the Deputy Head Role;
- work with key stakeholders to develop/refine teacher and staff professional growth, performance accountability, and evaluation processes;
- develop and maintain a culture of collaboration, reflection, and professional growth to support best practices and innovation in teaching and learning; and
- develop my own Personal Professional Learning Network (PLN) and engage in prioritized professional learning.
Question 2: What feels both urgent and important for me and my school at this moment? What are some of the questions I have moving forward?
Being new to both my school and my role, I have a long list of things that feel urgent and important. For instance, building relationships and getting into classrooms is crucial for me to build a solid foundation as I settle in. Generative AI feels like it is bubbling up as a priority for which I could find much support in the Cohort 21 community. Our school community seems to be looking for AI guidelines. This most strongly connects with the two pedagogy strands, although I would want to focus on both Junior and Senior schools.
Some of the questions I have for myself and others related to advancing our understanding of AI include:
- How might I/we invite and encourage diverse perspectives about how students and teachers might use AI? (e.g. task force, student focus groups, etc)
- How might I/we create safe spaces for students and teachers to ask questions and experiment?
- How are other schools (including post-secondary institutions) incorporating AI, and what lessons might we learn from their experiences?
- How might we leverage AI to empower and engage students?
- How might we leverage AI to promote student self-assessment and reflection?
- What professional learning might I benefit from personally?
- What professional learning might our faculty need or want?
I am excited to be able to lean on the Cohort 21 community as I – and my school community – wrestle with these and other questions related to AI.
So glad you joined Cohort 21! Looking forward to your posts.
Hi Amy, thanks for your post. I think by joining Cohort21 it is a wonderful demonstration of the type of leader you are going to be at your new school. It shows your new colleagues that you are committed to PD and I’m sure you have impressed those people getting to know you by taking on this extra workload.
Amy, thanks for your post! I definitely connected to the portion that mentions Cohort 21 as a fantastic network of like-minded educators. I returned back to Canada after 10 years overseas and Cohort has definitely been that network I was craving upon my return. I think you are asking relevant and important questions regarding AI and I hope to chat with you about these ideas in the future.
@afoley I would love to share the Growth and Development Plan that we have implemented here at the York School over the last two years. Since we share the same role I would love to collaborate and hear about your plans for professional development this year and how you plan to implement / roll it out.
I would love to connect soon! Thanks so much for this comment. I have been doing a lot of thinking – and asking questions – around professional growth and development, as well as evaluation. I would appreciate being able to pick your brain a bit…
Warmly,
Amy
@afoley – What a list of questions and goals. Like you, many of our schools are engaging in discussions around AI and the opportunities and challenges it poses for students, teachers, parents and our community members. We have an AI Learning Team/Task Force and would be happy to share what we’ve done. @gnichols and @adamcaplan are leading the way on this for Havergal. Garth has held workshops/discussions through CIS and CAIS and they may provide connections with others so that we can learn and explore as a collective rather than in silos. Industries outside of education and our students are using it – there is no doubt – In our department (HC-X) we have a course called Digital Wisdom that looks at technology, emerging tech and our relationship with it. One of our units is devoted to AI and generative AI is of interest, being used by students but also questioned. Happy to share any insights but I love that you have considered student voice through a focus group – I believe their voice in this is so important. Would they be able to join a task force or learning team? I think their involvement is integral so we as educators and learners can see their perspective and model inclusive life-long learning. Can’t wait to hear more!