Written by 
The end of my second set of Twitter workshops signified another shift in my action plan. This most recent series of workshops focused on advancing the power and usefulness of Twitter via Tweetdeck. I found my attendees were very excited about the layout and the opportunity to customize columns.
And while I still have some follow-up one-on-one sessions to do over the next couple of weeks, I am very pleased that at this point I have assisted over 10 staff members with either setting up Twitter and/or harnessing Twitter/Tweetdeck for professional growth and development purposes.
I really took Celeste Kirsch’s comment to heart from my last post – I checked out her professor’s blog about how to inspire colleagues/faculty to change, and as I read each of the 5 key points, I thought “I hope I presented it in that manner” or “I think I embodied that idea”.
From the Literacy Teaching and Teacher Education site, under the heading of Implementing Change, Cathy (the Professor) Miyata presents 5 key points from Ross Cooper’s writings:
1. Be contagious
2. Involve as many stakeholders as you can
3. Empower those with strengths that compliment yours
4. Evoke emotions
5. Be experiential
I further explored what Ross has to say, and found there was a pre-emptive point he makes, for the purposes of this post, I will call it Step Zero:
0. Gauge the readiness of your system.
As I reflected upon this article I realized, I am contagious. Literally. I’m sick all the time. But am I contagious? I hope so. I really hope so. And I did try to involve the stakeholders. I definitely empowered a few staff members with complimentary strengths, evoked emotions, and was experiential. But, where the biggest hitch always comes is before the beginning – it is always the Step Zero. Was my system really ready to change, and if not, how long does one sit by and wait?
While under the premise of not implementing change overnight, as per Ross’ article, I also feel sometimes ripping off the band-aid allows us to change. Otherwise the band-aid becomes permanent. And we all know band-aids can’t be permanent! They breakdown just like the aptly named ‘band-aid solutions’ we hear about in all facets of our world. To this point…
Sometimes change happens in unexpected ways. And sometimes the movement aligns in an equally unexpected yet synchronous manner. Both are true in regard to my action plan.
Some of you may recall that my original “goal” was to use Twitter with my students to enhance their engagement and subsequent learning and understanding. After a great 3rd F2F and a number of inspiring chats with people like @ecunningham and @lmcbeth, I realized that my action plan was actually about increasing growth mindset within my school community, and that I actually probably needed to start with the faculty. Further to this “Twitter is only a vehicle” revelation, I also recognized that I should not measure my success based upon 100% participation (I tend to be an all or nothing kind of individual–something Cohort 21 has really helped me work on!) by my colleagues and administration.
As I look back on my journey to date, I find the most exciting moment for me and my action plan is not a presentation or workshop or even a passionate debate or conversation I had with a colleague, rather it was the moment I heard through a text message that I had inspired a colleague to use Tweetdeck with her students… And it was working. Working to promote their growth mindset development.
I had two immediate thoughts in succession:
1. Hey wait a minute, wasn’t that what I wanted to do originally? Oh man, how did she get that past administration or have the courage not even to ask and just do it?!!
2. Hey wait a minute, wasn’t that what I wanted to do originally?!! Wow! That’s kind of cool… According to her message she is thanking me for inspiring her to use Tweetdeck. So maybe it was the correct tactic to approach improved growth mindset amongst faculty and then have it leak through to initiate a positive impact on student learning… Maybe I should talk to her about how she did this and what she is doing… Maybe she can help me do this either later this year or for next year!
And I did just that. I texted her back and we are setting up a date for hopefully this week. It might not happen before our last F2F, but that’s not really the point, is it? The point is that it will happen. (Update: it actually happened later the morning I drafted this post – Monday – and it turns out she did get stopped just like I did with the Admin, but she was using it to promote social awareness and positive output from social media with her social justice unit in English – so cool!!)
Clearly, my first reaction was from a place that pre-dates a growth mindset, but a place I believe resides in most of my colleagues (and perhaps every educator’s mind in some small, dark place)–a place rooted in fear. A culture of fear creates stagnation in education, and because of the sometimes perceived lack of job security, I believe that culture was quite deeply seeded at my school. Deeply enough that I reverted to it–and it has been a long time since I have reacted, even inwardly, in that fashion. However, I believe this culture is changing. This coworker did not keep her new, exciting progress to herself–she shared it with me! And it gives me hope. It helps me believe what I so badly want to believe: our school can achieve a community rooted in growth mindset, not fear.
Thus, much like Harry Potter chooses good over evil from his sorting hat début to his perceived self-sacrificing end, I choose growth over stasis. And I choose to keep fighting for it. It is worth it!!
(If you think the Harry Potter reference is too much, it probably is, but works so nicely, I just couldn’t resist!)
While this is not my final blog post, I just want to thank everyone in the group–it has been such a great experience, and I really feel my journey is only just taking off… So much more to come! (And given that my final post with a link was supposed to be up yesterday, then if this is the final post, please note I will add the link asap… just need to finish the presentation first!)
Hey Elissa,
I really liked your previous post but this one too! I haven’t used #Symbaloo before but I am definitely going to check it out.
I honestly think that Twitter is the first step toward self-directed professional development! What a gift you’ve offered to your colleagues. Having you to guide them and learning and sharing together is a great way to keep people inspired and motivated to keep the learning going.
I think it’s great to use strategies that people are familiar with to provide the context for introducing a new, and sometimes perceived as scary, tool – your sticky notes idea was a fantastic way to introduce Twitter. Going the other way, have you seen this video Email in Real Life? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTgYHHKs0Zw
Derek,
Thanks! Yes, I agree, and I think slowly we will hopefully move in that direction! I loved the email-related video and I might show it this Friday at our staff meeting as an icebreaker/way to make sure everyone reads the email the admin will send that usually is spoken at our meetings. Have you tried using the Work Front thing the email is an ad for? Just curious! Thanks for your feedback!
Oh, and definitely check out Symbaloo for making webmixes — only hiccup I’ve had thus far is trying to embed it in WordPress!
Thanks again, for this feedback and all of your support throughout the year!
-Elissa