York Learns

“How might we create,develop and share our culture of school Innovation ?”

Every year cohort members ask me what my action plan is. For many years it has been Cohort 21 itself. The creation and growth of this learning community has been some of the most rewarding and interesting work of my career. Everything I learn from this community I take back to the York School and apply it. An important part of my job as Director of Learning, Innovation and Technology is to support and develop the staff at the York School with their use of  21st century tools and pedagogies. An important part of this strategy lies with how I celebrate the successes and failures that the faculty experience throughout the year. Building a culture of Innovation starts with a culture of Learning.  Last year @gnichols initiated his #BVGLearns campaign. His great idea was meant to build a culture of sharing among his faculty.  Once I saw it in action I quickly started using it at the York School nd  #Yorklearns was born. Shortly after  @ddoucet started #LCSLearns, @egelleny #VCLearn and @shelleythomas #RidleyLearns. More schools are coming on board all the time. This year I took that “sharing” idea a step further by trying to take this largely invisible conversation and make it visible. I found a company called www.tweetbeam.com which helps manage Twitter conversations for conferences and purchased their tool. I bought small TVs for each of the staff rooms at both campuses and put up this  slideshow in each of them. The cross-pollination of ideas and sharing has been contagious since we put them in and has also given many staff a new reason to join Twitter. Since starting this in September we have over 1000 #Yorklearns tweets! I created this Infographic to help guide teachers on what and how to Tweet.

twitter at york

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then came……. One Awesome Thing

I think this idea game from the GAFE Conference that was held at Greenwood College School in October. It was in their demo slam that I got thinking about how powerful it would be if every teacher had to share “One Awesome Thing” they were particularly proud of back with the community. I am lucky in that all the teachers meet with me and my team every two weeks for 40 minutes so I can get something like this off the ground quite easily. The deck below represents the efforts and pride of 68 York School teachers who each shared their One Awesome Thing. It is a celebration of risk taking, creativity and innovation.

This year has really taken off with respect to sharing and celebration. I could not have accomplished it without my team of @ashaikh and @TimCooper.

 

 

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