Urgent vs Important
What happens when they are both? Or which one takes hold of you on a given day? For myself, at the centre of this is most likely, anything to do with my students – they are always important and at times urgent as well. So the matrix points us to DO. As an educator, to delegate is a tricky one since I’m not sure who that would be? Balancing that with your own family becomes a tricky matrix but a necessary one. At this point in time I’m also writing my research proposal for my PhD exploring educators involvement in a collaborative interdisciplinary course and any influence it may have on their teaching practice. Using a Practitioner Inquiry lens the hope is to uncover what influences may occur and/or how to improve on our pedagogy of teaching and learning. So time, while always a limitation for educators, is an area I was looking to reflect on more deeply and one of the reasons to join Cohort 21. I was also encouraged by past work I had observed (in my own school and others), and the tight knit group of people that grew out of their time together. So to come full circle, I feel that Urgent vs Important fluctuates or ebbs and flows depending on many factors. This will be something I hope to continue to reflect on as we move forward.
Pedagogy & Wellbeing Grades 7-12
Over the past year or so, a group of educators at our school have been designing and implementing a new course called Digital Wisdom. I chose this strand as it matches some of our goals for this course. Digital Wisdom is part of Havergal’s Strategic Direction 2020+: Future-Proofing the Next Generation, specifically developing students’ skills and strategies in navigating the digital world we all inhabit.
The framework of concepts and experiences for this course were co-constructed with many educators from different subject areas and grades, throughout the Junior and Upper schools – truly an interdisciplinary collaboration. The course will focus on identity building, perspective taking and the challenges and opportunities our students experience in person and in the digital spaces in which they engage. It integrates elements of blended learning, as well as our wellbeing and DEI programs. This strand explores pedagogies, assessment strategies and learning tools that can support student wellbeing and academics so it seemed to be the most logical fit for this course. It also will place us within a group of educators who can lend a critical eye to our work and lots of opportunities for learning!
So glad you joined Cohort 21! Looking forward to your posts.
Hi @jadams – Great post here, and I love this: “This will be something I hope to continue to reflect on as we move forward.” The notion of balance in the complex role that you occupy (an educator who is, at the same time, innovating, delivering, iterating and (re)launching courses) is a tricky one indeed. In your reflection, consider how things that are important, and focussing on these, can actually reduce and help mitigate the urgent items that arise. By focussing energy on important elements in your role, you can / will have a great foundation upon which to handle urgency.
Consider this blog post: https://seths.blog/2016/01/deconstructing-urgent-vs-important/ Of course it’s from Seth Godin, but one line that stands out to me is:
“If you take care of important things, the urgent things don’t show up as often. The opposite is never true.”
Thanks Jeff, and see you soon,
Garth.
Digital Wisdom… wow… so intriguing, @jeffadams! Hopefully we have a chance to connect at some point on Saturday as I would love to hear more about this. How involved in the course is your school’s Teacher-Librarian? If you haven’t connected yet, I bet they would provide a wealth of knowledge relevant to the subject.
@dneville might be as intrigued as I am, as a fellow librarian 🙂
Hi Nicole:
One of our teacher librarians was involved in the initial imagining of this course but it is a great idea to keep connecting with different areas of the school on this. We continually reach out to departments in different ways – it is one of the guidelines of HC-X (the department in which this course sits) in order to collaborate, connect and learn from each other. Time is always a factor in how well we all do this but it is one of the parts that I love about it. Thanks for the comment!
Hi @jeffadams,
Great post. I am particularly interested in the Digital Wisdom course. Just curious what grades the course is being implemented in? You mentioned collaborating with the Junior School, is this something for the littles as well? This quote, “The course will focus on identity building, perspective taking and the challenges and opportunities our students experience in person and in the digital spaces in which they engage. ” caught my eye especially in the current climate we are all teaching in currently. Looking forward to learning more Jeff!
Take care,
Lisa M.
Hi Lisa!
It is for grades 5-8 at the moment. The first students took the course last year and some are now in their second year (or already completed it). Happy to share anytime – thanks!
Jeff! This course sounds fascinating! I love that it was developed through “interdisciplinary collaboration” and that it will allow students to focus on multiple perspectives. This is such an important skill, generally speaking, but perhaps especially in the current social climate. I wonder to what extent an emphasis on perspective will allow students not only to empathise with others, but also to see the value in their own knowledge, experiences, and viewpoints. Empowering stuff! I look forward to hearing more about this journey!