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Climbing my way up…the Cohort21 Mountain…trying to be brave.
Just returned home from TO to a house full of girls, giggling and sharing funny stories. It reminds me of my afternoon, where we spent the day sharing insights on various projects we each proposed to take on as our action plans. Lots of laughs, sharing and collaborative work today. It reminded me of the quote above. Getting to know new people and learn all about their classes and schools is very interesting and enlightening.
One of the reasons our house is alive is our new exchange student from Australia, Chelsea, that arrived while I was at the conference. This young lady is quite brave, as she departed her home, she knew it was the last time she would see her friends, school, coaches and home because her family is moving from one area of Australia, Melbourne over to Sydney. She is venturing over to Canada to see snow, spend Christmas with us and get a true Canadian experience. When she returns, she will start a new school, join a new trapeze club and then start to build new friends. It makes me pause and think about my day and my tasks and how at times I feel overwhelmed and wonder if I’ve bitten off more than I can chew, and then I put it in perspective and think about Chelsea. She is here, not afraid, looking forward to the adventure she is about to embark on..I think I’ll take a lesson from her and just enjoy the fun!
Now that phase 2 has begun, I’ve left with an idea I think I’ll pursue, but I still have a bit of hesitancy that maybe I should be more broad and not integrate my idea into the classroom. Is it crazy to take on such a bold initiative when I really don’t know the program that well? Maybe I should play it safe and just, well, play? I have a stubborn streak I believe is inherited from my European family side, which makes me want to brave the challenge and see where it leads me. After all, for me, really seeing the benefits of most software comes from real integration within my classroom. Off to integrate Twitter into the class I go…bravely.
@glgodkin Thanks for a great day yesterday. I’m am glad we got you sorted out on twitter and you feel more comfortable with the Cohort 21 toolkit. Thanks for sharing thoughts on being “brave” and taking risks. Looking forward to working out your action plan with you.
Be brave! I think if you make a attempt and at the end of the year say “well that didn’t work” you are so much farther ahead than “I wish I would have given it a try.”
You’ve reminded me to “be brave” too!
Thanks!
Hi Geri-Lee,
Students are a great form of inspiration for sure! But know that Chelsea’s bravery probably isn’t without fear and hesitation too. It’s just taking that first step. One of the things that we encourage our members to do is to take that first step – maybe it’s too narrow, maybe it’s too broad, but if we’re weighing the two words in Action Plan, I would always put more weight behind “Action”. Only then can you really find the answers to your questions.
Like Chelsea’s (hypotheically speaking) fears – she didn’t know how she would react on her first day, until she stepped off that plan…
Here’s to taking flight!
garth.
Geri, I’m so impressed with your openness and vulnerability with this post. Have you taken any steps forward with this Twitter plan since November? I know that the end of the year is bonkers, so if you have some downtime during this break, I hope that you are able to do a little bit of thinking and planning around this.
You might find this source helpful in your reading and research:
http://www.teachhub.com/50-ways-use-twitter-classroom
Hi Celeste,
Sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner…have recently been ill but also extremely busy. We start midyears this week and the trip to TO is falling at a difficult time for us I’m afraid. I’ve decided to focus on the OneNote stuff I started instead. I read through some of the sites from the link and loved it. I have been hitting my students hard with different technology programs and felt I should probably let them get more comfortable without throwing more at them. They aren’t as tech friendly here in Ottawa as I’m used in the Toronto area. It is difficult to force the changes as quickly and frequently as I like. I took on the initiative of trying OneNote classroom and have been developing my classes this way this year as a lead teacher. I’ve trained several staff members and some students in how to create their own books and it is slowing taking off. I think concentration on the tools it has built inside would be a better use of my time at the moment. I think I’ll work on the Twitter over the summer and definitely use the ideas one of the teacher’s suggested from the link you sent. Thanks very much. G
Looking forward to seeing some of the Cohort 21 communication tools in action – I am hoping that you can demo a few of these at one of our PD mornings in February. In the mean time we can certainly develop some Twitter goals, perhaps it is easier with just starting with posting photos of students in action – be brave!
Cheers
Brian