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Welcome to you Cohort 21 Blog. This journal is an integral part of your Cohort 21 experience. Here you will reflect, share , collaborate and converse as you move through the C21 Action Plan process.
This is your first post and an opportunity to share a little bit about yourself as a learner and leader. Please respond the to the following prompts below:
1) Reflect on your own personal learning journey and K-12 education. Identify one learning experience that you can point to as having made a significant impact on some element of your own growth and development. It could be that teacher and subject that really sparked significant growth or a trip that opened your eyes to a whole new world or way of thinking or a non-catastrophic failure that you learned so much from. Briefly describe the learning experience and identify the various supports, structures, mindsets and relational ingredients that were put in place by the teacher or facilitator that directly contributed to your growth and success.
I can’t think of one learning experience, in particular, that was an ‘eye-opening’ moment; rather, it was a collection of experiences along my educational journey that allowed me to flourish. This was likely due to having many supportive teachers who genuinely had an interest in teaching, were personable, and valued me as a learner. Further, whether it was teamwork-building in gym class, dissection in biology, or debates in philosophy, a variety of learning experiences offered the opportunity to consider perspectives and ideas that were new to me at the time. In this way, there were many ‘ingredients’ to my own growth as a student.
2) What is the one Learning skill (MOE) or Approach to Learning (IB ATL) that you feel is MOST important in this day and age? How do you intentionally build it into your curriculum and develop it in your students throughout the year?
A skill that all students in any course should be developing is collaboration. Not only do students need to learn how to work with and alongside people in a respectful manner, but they should also be developing an understanding of differing values and opinions, especially those that are different from their own. Moreover, critical thinking is one of the most important aspects of modern life, particularly in a media-driven age. I aim to build collaboration into my curriculum by having daily discussions. Sometimes, these discussions will be short elbow conversations or quick Flipgrid responses, while in other instances, this might take the form of a student-lead class discussion.
3) Insert an image below that best captures the essence of that Learning Skill or ATL. (Click on the “Helpful WordPress Video Tutorials” link in the left hand sidebar to learn how to insert it)
Image from Google search, keyword: discussion
So glad you joined Cohort 21! Looking forward to your posts.
Great post! I also find it hard to pin down one major learning experience tht shaped me- each one I have had as been built on ones previous. I often marvel at the timing of some lessons I learn – even more so now than when i was first starting out and everything was all so new.
Collaboration and critical thinking are key! If those are your top skills you are in the right place for some awesome PD.
Welcome to season 8 and I canm’t wait to learn along side you this year!
Cheers,
Tracy
Thanks, Tracy. Sorry we missed you at the first face-to-face session; it was a fun day where I met some great educators!
Thank you @bblack
I, like you, had many great learning experiences in my education. How lucky are we! It’s good to know and recognize those moments as educators ourselves. What was so special about those times? I like that you use the word ‘valued’. I have noticed this word in a few different posts. It’s such an important part of education and I see it in my own children. When they’re heard they feel validated and are open to learn.
I’m looking forward to discussing this moments further with you.
Welcome to Cohort!
Wendy
Thanks, Wendy! In our small group discussions at the first conference about our teaching practices, ultimately, many of those conversations boiled down to just that: valuing students. Rapport building is so important. I once heard an educator say that students don’t learn from teachers they don’t like, so I feel the onus is on us, as teachers, to foster those relationships and ensure that students know they are valued as individuals and learners.
With the way you support collaboration, do you ever explicitly teach or talk about what good collaboration looks like? This is something I am trying to build more into my teaching this year, personally. Would be curious if you are already further down the path at this point.
It was nice to meet you the other day at the conference, Celeste! Good question. I’ve been aiming to have my students engage more with each other each class through discussion. My hope is that building a meaningful foundation in communicating will lead to better collaboration. I do speak about what good discussion looks like, and my school also has a discussion based program that engages students in thoughtful discussions. With that in mind, I could be more mindful of looking at the bigger picture of collaboration on its own; thanks for the consideration!