Everyone’s faces were lifted into smiles and bright eyes at the end of our first F2F hosted at Bayview Glen Independent School. It all started long before we met each other in person: each participant was tasked with an Online scavenger hunt that lead them to get to know others through partnerships, solving riddles, and a Google Hangout. While not everyone made it through the entire scavenger hunt, it was a huge success as its successes and challenges communicated the ethos of Cohort 21: try it out, take a risk, and learn from it regardless of the result.
This ethos was explained in the context of the Cohort 21 Action Plan, where the emphasis is not on results oriented research, but rather of experimenting diligently and responsibly in an area that has meaning to both the individual participant and their students, and to the school as a whole.
We then learned about the Cohort 21 Tools of the Trade: Diigo, Google Apps for Ed., Twitter and WordPress. All of the participants were signed in ahead of time, so each of these sessions were oriented towards obtaining the first of three Cohort 21 badges. Again, exploring how might our participants experience some of the contemporary practices of education in order to filter them into their own classes.
Finally, we wrapped up with a moment of reflection. It was an opportunity to blog about their day, their experiences, hopes and aspirations.
I encourage you to check out the blogs that have been published just less than a week afterwards; they speak volumes to the level of engagement and expertise, as well as enthusiasm and energy we have in this year’s Cohort.
Here’s the End of the Beginning!
