Blog 3.0 – Episode 1: Channelling our Inner Teacher Champion

ATTENTION: Please note that this blog post was started a week ago… I have had many learning moments over the past week while getting back into blogging, and I have greatly enjoyed the hours I have spent contemplating, researching and generally (or in some cases, specifically) reflecting upon what it means to be a ‘teacher’, where I hope we look to head with our mindset shifts, and how we engage with our students and fellow colleagues. That said, I have also learned that it makes more sense to break a blog post into several more manageable posts so that the timeliness is just that… timely! Advice I’ll adopt between this post and my next… 🙂

From last Monday morning…

As I sat on the GO Train this morning on my way to what will undoubtedly be more than an interesting and memorable 3 days at SAS Canada’s HQ in downtown Toronto, I thought about Seth Godin’s most recent blog, “The next one or the last one?”

 

(You too can start loving his blog like I do by clicking here! His previous one to that was also pretty cool – about why candidates hope you won’t vote at all) and then said to myself,

“I’m making a choice, a choice to do something ‘special’ and not just good enough to get me through the days.”

I feel like this statement (which, as an anecdotal aside, I pretty much said aloud while on the aforementioned GO Train… poor 1st year uni student cramming for his GMS midterm…) could be the mantra for any forward-thinking, innovative and engaged facilitator, and I think it also sums up the Cohort21 experience: we make choices as educators to consistently seek out new and often exciting/challenging opportunities that force us out of the repetitive potentially just ‘good enough’ routine Seth hones in on in his blog. When we challenge ourselves (by choice), we grow. And when we grow, we shift our mindset… and once that mindset is-a-shifting, well then the world can shift too. Pretty exciting stuff for an early-morning GO Train ride!

So, when I arrived at SAS Canada with the IT crew, and well before it was technically open, I decided to make my second choice of the day—to follow-through on my first new actionable for the 2016-17 season—to blog (anyone who joined us for the first TwitterChat of the season last week knows that I made that commitment public – and I will be blogging weekly for the foreseeable future).

ASIDE: For anyone out there who is not familiar with SAS Canada (and don’t worry if you fit that category – neither was I until a couple of years ago), it is a company dedicated to developing statistical analysis systems/software (hence the acronym SAS) and then solving data-related problems for companies (aka clients). I first heard about SAS when I got involved with STEM Fellowship’s Big Data Challenge for High School Students. This competition gifts secondary students with the opportunity to work with, manipulate and analyze sets of data – BIG data. For anyone unfamiliar with the term ‘big data’ (same disclaimer applies about this as my earlier one for SAS), check out this site which has a fairly comprehensive explanation about what defines big data via the SAS US website, or this site which comes courtesy of SearchCloudComputing (Hint: it’s not the font size!).

So, one might ask, if blogging is your new actionable, what are you current ones all about?

If asked, I might say:

1. Action Point 1: Increasing and improving the meaningful nature of PD at my school (this was tied to my original action plan from my first year in Cohort21)
   • Subpoint 1: increasing colleagues’ use of social media for ongoing learning (i.e. twitter as a PLN)
   • Subpoint 2: departmental action plans – initiating, overseeing & providing support for departments, as well as structure for forming, initiating, executing, reflecting, and re-structuring plans as a part of the Design Thinking Model.
2. Action Point 2: A Foray into Big Data (Science & Analytics) for the purposes of competing in the Big Data Challenge for High School Students
3. Action Point 3: Providing educators and students with access to opportunities that enrich their experiences in K-12 in meaningful ways, but also with a look toward how best to prepare them for next steps. (This is a large chunk of this post’s focus.)

This just in: it’s lunch time and I read a great blog via the Twittersphere – about getting addicted to learning posted by @pluggedportable (David Carruthers). It’s so true! If Cohort21 hadn’t got me hooked, and if I hadn’t been fostering this addiction since being introduced to it over 2 years ago, I never would have kept saying yes to being involved with all things Big Data and then would never have been a part of this crazy-cool course (sidebar: I’m amidst at least 1 employee/analyst from all major banks in this course… clearly the financial sector sees how vital analytics on this kind of large scale is!)… and this crazy-cool course is going to lead to me being able to certify my STEM students (and maybe more!) in SAS Programming 1: Essentials, which will lead to students leaving my school with a professional certification, and well that leads to so many awesome off-shoots it’s really not worth stating them…

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WHO AM I KIDDING?!!! Of course it is worth it… that’s the whole point, isn’t it? The reward is not only for us as educators, but it’s for our students (obviously), the school (bonus!), the community (which gets enriched by how prepared our students are and how much change they will impact upon said community), and the world… because really isn’t that our goal? To be the change we wish to see in the world? (Apparently there is some debate if this saying originated with Gandhi or not… either way, it’s a good one!)

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And I really think that I would not have spent today doing something ‘special’ if it was not for this mentality that always knew I had (or maybe, ‘wanted to have’ is better phrasing), yet was not comfortable taking until Cohort21 came into my life. I say this not because I want this to be a promo piece, but because I want to highlight this theme of CHOICE that we encounter daily as educators.

Everything we do in life is a choice. I have discussed this concept with many colleagues and my students, especially over the past couple of years, and I know @gnichols mentioned ‘Challenge by Choice’ at our 1st F2F, so I feel like it’s timely to mention it yet again. When I consider how uncomfortable I was with being uncomfortable (aka being in my growth zone) when first starting out on this reflective journey a few years ago, I think it is worth reflecting on the choices I have made, the choices we have all made to get to where we are in our individual journeys, and in our collective Cohort journey this season. As I reflect, it makes me appreciate the Cohort21 mentality all the more.

I think some memorable choices we can all make as educators involves the concept of being a ‘Teacher Champion’ for our students and our schools… and perhaps taking a page out of SHAD’s new Teacher Champion program, which recognizes teachers who mentor (‘champion’) student applicants from their school, might be one way to jump-in. Last year was the first year of this recognition program and I dove-in when the opportunity presented itself. I was excited that SHAD was publicly indicating that they see value  in the extra steps teachers take to foster students in their growth-mindset development (I have been mentoring students in the SHAD application process for over a decade now). I appreciated the acknowledgement, but mostly appreciated the fact that SHAD as an organization is recognizing the hundreds of teachers willing to make sacrifices for the growth and development of our Canadian student population (even if only through their specific lens).

So, where else in our teaching life can we become ‘Teacher Champions’?

If you are teaching Gr. 7-12…

1. SHAD – as I’ve already mentioned, the Teacher Champion program is an actual thing… so it’s a great starting point.

• where do I start?
  • ask me! I’m totally one of the champions for teacher champions! No question is too silly… all answers will be honest!
  • check out the website www.shad.ca
  • canvas your school teacher population for SHAD alumni AND don’t forget that there may be students in your midst that have also gone so I’d get them to rally the troops
  • ask your colleagues if they have any students (this year or last) who they think would be good for the program (need to be well-rounded overachievers who are interested in thinking outside of the box; or those that you think might make good Cohort21ers if they were old enough!)
  • tweet or post a link to this prospective parents promo video from SHAD (features my Program Director from this past summer at UWaterloo – Rob Gorbet – Chair of KI (Knowledge Integration – something very VERY Cohort21esque that might interest those of us who mentor students in the university selection/application process))
• who should apply?
  • students currently in Gr. 10-12. Honestly, I think the program is best during the summer between Gr. 11 and 12 because of the academic content students have covered, but many of my students end up applying in Gr. 10 so that they can apply again in Gr. 11 if they don’t get in, and then they often get in during their first attempt, so they go! And it’s still AWESOME… new SHAD tag line is “Join us for the month – that last a lifetime!”
  • students who do well academically, but it helps if they are intrinsically motivated (or you see potential for them to become so)
  • “But, Elissa, you said that this was something for Gr. 7 and up teachers, yet students have to be in Gr. 10 + to apply???” … yes, I did. But, that’s because I firmly believe that getting students excited about these kind of opportunities early-on can help them see value in learning in the lead-up years. I always have students who attended SHAD the previous year give a presentation to the entire school community Gr. 4-12 so that sparks happen early on!!
• what is the deadline for students applying for the summer of 2017?
  • not yet… not until the end of this month in fact! (Nov. 28th, 2016)
  • it’s a lengthy application, but it’s doable, and even if a student can’t get it done in time, there are often students who get in after the deadline (this is not to encourage lateness, but if there is a student who a school doesn’t identify in time, it’s still worth applying – especially if the student is in Grade 10 or 11 right now – if they don’t get in this year, they can re-use much of the application for next year and work to improve upon it!)
• why SHAD?
  • because it’s the student version of Cohort21!!! Seriously… it’s crazy cool (maybe it will even be the focus of one of my upcoming posts…)
• I don’t have time???!!
  • yes, you do. Find it. If @ckirsh ‘s post on reflecting hit home, I encourage you to harness that motivation and consider applying it to something like SHAD. Pick one student this year and then build upon that. My lofty goal is 4 successful applicants this year, but realistically I’ll be pleased with any applicants who see the process through regardless of their acceptance. Best advice: Start small.

2. Big Data Analytics

• I know big data is important. So important it will likely replace the importance of IT in the late 90s, as we delve into data privacy laws, rights to data, even one’s own data, and the concept of using data for the ‘greater good’ (think Albus Dumbledore). But if you aren’t convinced do some research, or check out some of the links I’m providing below…
• If you are just getting started with big data (or haven’t started yet, and aren’t really sure what it is all about), I’d recommend watching the following TED talks – they’re inspiring and also kind of explain it is terms we can all understand.
• Kenneth Cukier – Big Data is Better Data
• Tim Berners-Lee – On the Next Web
• and my personal favourite – Hans Rosling – The Best Stats You’ve Ever Seen
• If you understand the importance of and potential impact of big data, but don’t really see how it fits into what you do with your Grade 7 Phys-Ed class or your Grade 3 class or your Grade 11 English class, that’s when you ask someone who knows how it does, or experiment to see if it does. The reality is that it may seem obvious to some of us that there is a natural fit for data in the maths and sciences at a higher level, but there is actually just as natural a fit in middle school Phys-Ed where talking about self-esteem and image can fit in with social media profiles like a charm (and social media often works on the premise of utilizing big data), at the primary/elementary level, big data can be introduced during statistical units of math. It will be at basic level, but if we start structuring even one task between Gr. 1-6 to focus on data analysis of the now and future, we start making a shift as to how students view data and how they approach and think about logic-based problems. When it comes to the more senior levels of study, I think of the way an English class could incorporate a grammar unit into data mining on twitter, or the way the same class could analyze the relationship between reading and online blogging, or look for patterns in their own classroom blogging first.

For K-6 Educators…

1. Big Data Analytics – Continued from the last blurb… If we can wrap our heads around it, you can be sure our youngest students can as well. I know students learn about estimation in the K-6 curriculum, so why not the basics of data analytics? Maybe connecting this to libraries and how we have physical libraries and virtual ones would be a start? Perhaps enriching the math unit that touches on basic statistics, like averages/means with a few big data problems might be interesting… especially if creativity is encouraged.
   

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   Now, given that I teach primarily Gr. 10-12 students, I would never profess to know how/if this will work, but if anyone is interested in trying something like this – I think it would be neat to have students discuss how to solve a larger world-wide problem using both design thinking and big data analytics. That is essentially what the high school challenge does! So, feel free to give me feedback, or approach me at the next F2F so we can discuss it further!!

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2. Destination Imagination – a competition that blends the arts and sciences together at all grade levels (including early learners ages 2-7), and is focused on empowering youth to make positive global changes and contributions. It is a great way to encourage creative thinking processes, which is an attractive selling feature, I think! Thank you to @lbettencourt for introducing me to this … check it out if you haven’t heard of it before – it’s not too late for this year, but you will want to try and start your teams before the winter holidays!

There is much more I wanted to put into this blog, but the reality is, in waiting to try and get a ‘finished’ product, I’ve not almost outdated the blog itself. I am reminded that sometimes we have to just jump in and then refine later! So… I’ll leave you with this final thought…

What are you going to choose to do to make today memorable?