{"id":98,"date":"2015-10-27T19:53:32","date_gmt":"2015-10-27T19:53:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/christinaschindler\/?p=98"},"modified":"2015-10-27T19:53:32","modified_gmt":"2015-10-27T19:53:32","slug":"back-to-the-beginning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/christinaschindler\/2015\/10\/27\/back-to-the-beginning\/","title":{"rendered":"Back to the Beginning!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The first face-to-face session of Cohort 21 (2015-16) has come and gone! \u00a0It was a great day of meeting like-minded educators and getting familiar with the toolkit for our year long learning experience. For me, it was like I was back at the beginning of my Cohort 21 journey, this time with keen eyes and full of excitement for how it all ends as I have been there once before. \u00a0While I wish I had found the inspiration for this blog post in time to correspond with all of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.backtothefuture.com\/\">Back to the Future<\/a> references floating around this last week, I realized that my second year of Cohort 21 has a lot in common with one of my favourite movies. \u00a0Here are a few thoughts on the Cohort 21 experience and our first F2F session, inspired by quotes from this movie:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/christinaschindler\/files\/2015\/10\/Im-back-from-the-future.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-102 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/christinaschindler\/files\/2015\/10\/Im-back-from-the-future.gif\" alt=\"http:\/\/quotesfans.com\/best-back-to-the-future-quotes\/\" width=\"245\" height=\"180\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>I&#8217;m back from the future!<\/strong><br \/>\nJust as Marty McFly and Doc Brown went back in time &#8211; more than once &#8211; I&#8217;m thrilled to be back with the Cohort 21 program, this time as a Coach. My experience this year began as I remembered all of the amazing people I met last year at the first F2F session. \u00a0A year later, I&#8217;ve met another group of truly engaged educators who are each inspired to make a difference in their classroom and teaching practices. \u00a0Since last year, I&#8217;ve also had plenty of time to reflect on all of my learning and growth as well as the ideas and experiences of others through their blogs and the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Cohort21?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor\" target=\"_blank\">#Cohort 21<\/a> Twitter feed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/christinaschindler\/files\/2015\/10\/Where-were-going-we-dont-need-roads.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-101 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/christinaschindler\/files\/2015\/10\/Where-were-going-we-dont-need-roads-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"http:\/\/quotesfans.com\/best-back-to-the-future-quotes\/\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><strong>Where we&#8217;re going&#8230; we don&#8217;t need roads<\/strong>:<br \/>\nOne of the best parts of this year-long PD is that there are no defined, set pathways to the experience or the learning plan in Cohort 21. \u00a0You will have the opportunity to explore new ideas, engage with educators who you may never have met if it weren&#8217;t for this program and take all of this learning back to your school to challenge\u00a0the teaching and learning program at your home school. \u00a0Where you go next is up to you!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/christinaschindler\/files\/2015\/10\/I-guess-you-guys-arent-ready-for-that-yet.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-103 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/christinaschindler\/files\/2015\/10\/I-guess-you-guys-arent-ready-for-that-yet.jpg\" alt=\"http:\/\/quotesfans.com\/best-back-to-the-future-quotes\/\" width=\"236\" height=\"384\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/christinaschindler\/files\/2015\/10\/I-guess-you-guys-arent-ready-for-that-yet.jpg 236w, https:\/\/cohort21.com\/christinaschindler\/files\/2015\/10\/I-guess-you-guys-arent-ready-for-that-yet-184x300.jpg 184w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 236px) 100vw, 236px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>I guess you guys aren&#8217;t ready for that yet. But your kids are gonna love it!<br \/>\n<\/strong>There are two parts to this quote and you may find yourself amidst one or both parts at some point throughout your Cohort21 experience this year.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>I guess you guys aren&#8217;t ready for that yet<\/em> &#8212; Are you ready for the challenge of thinking about your teaching in a different way, encouraged and inspired by the ideas of other like minded educators at independent schools across Ontario? \u00a0I know you are as you&#8217;re already a member of Cohort 21! \u00a0What you may find though is that you encounter ideas that are &#8220;ahead of their time&#8221; for you right now. That&#8217;s okay! \u00a0Keep them in mind for a time when you are ready to embark on trying that new tech tool or design challenge. \u00a0The future will be waiting!<\/li>\n<li><em>Your kids are gonna love it!\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0While many teachers are not always ready to try something new (we want the first try to run &#8216;perfectly&#8217; right?) our students love to try something new with us! \u00a0They will jump in and check out a new edtech tool and they will almost always teach us a few things in the process, reinforcing how a love of learning enables us to grow in our classroom experiences together. \u00a0So, while we may not be ready, our students are&#8230; that&#8217;s a good enough reason to take the risk and try!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/christinaschindler\/files\/2015\/10\/Great-Scott.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-106\" src=\"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/christinaschindler\/files\/2015\/10\/Great-Scott.jpeg\" alt=\"Great Scott\" width=\"180\" height=\"178\" \/><\/a><strong>Great Scott!<\/strong><br \/>\nThis phrase reminds me of those lightbulb moments when we have a breakthrough in our teaching or learning&#8230; we can&#8217;t wait to tell others about it! \u00a0Well&#8230;Great Scott&#8230; do it! \u00a0Blog about your ideas and your questions as you will find many other members are thinking the same things. \u00a0I found it challenging to share my thinking in blog form last year&#8230; but in persevering through the experience of posting on this blog, I&#8217;ve learned that the conversation that arises as a result is the greatest reward for the risk&#8230;. another Great Scott!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Well&#8230; that is likely plenty of the Back to the Future references for one post. \u00a0I hope you can see what is ahead in your future with Cohort 21 &#8212; a year of learning and growth that will change you forever!<\/p>\n<p>p.s. If you&#8217;ve got some free time, here&#8217;s the appearance that Doc Brown and Marty McFly made on the Jimmy Kimmel show, October 21, 2015!<\/p>\n<p>[youtube]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Q0VGRlEJewA[\/youtube]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The first face-to-face session of Cohort 21 (2015-16) has come and gone! \u00a0It was a great day of meeting like-minded educators and getting familiar with the toolkit for our year long learning experience. For me, it was like I was back at the beginning of my Cohort 21 journey, this time with keen eyes and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,4],"tags":[10,14,9,11],"class_list":["post-98","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-edtech","category-face-2-face-sessions","tag-blogging","tag-edtech","tag-growth-mindset","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/christinaschindler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/christinaschindler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/christinaschindler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/christinaschindler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/93"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/christinaschindler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/christinaschindler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/christinaschindler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/christinaschindler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/christinaschindler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}