{"id":144,"date":"2015-04-24T04:16:02","date_gmt":"2015-04-24T04:16:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/lesliemcbeth\/?p=144"},"modified":"2015-08-19T18:45:33","modified_gmt":"2015-08-19T18:45:33","slug":"moving-forward-looking-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/lesliemcbeth\/2015\/04\/24\/moving-forward-looking-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Moving Forward, Looking Back"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Bikes\"<\/a>

Battle of the Bikes: Speed vs. Sturdiness<\/p><\/div>\n

Today I went for my first long bike ride of the season. I’ve been riding all winter long, so despite the fact that the thermometer was hovering around freezing, it felt downright balmy compared to the -21 that I rode through in January. \u00a0My commuter bike is currently in pieces in my backyard as I await a new drivetrain (the result of riding on winter roads), so\u00a0I’ve been riding my Cervelo Dual, a tri-bike.<\/p>\n

Although both bikes have their advantages, the Cervelo is distinct in its speed. She’s fast<\/em>. Whereas my commuter, an old Puch steel-frame from the 1970’s that I call Penelope, is sturdy and takes the rocky winter terrain of Toronto’s streets with ease, the Cervelo makes every bump in the road reverberate through my arms and legs. The Cervelo is light and has gears, which make hills a breeze, while Penelope has the advantage of a luggage rack to carry my clothes and gear. The Cervelo has aggressive geometry and is best experienced from the aerobars, while Penelope\u00a0provides a good posture for seeing what’s ahead. Both bikes perform the same function, but they do so differently.<\/p>\n

If I were to compare my experience with Cohort 21 and the action plan process, it’d be the best of both bikes.<\/p>\n

The Cohort itself is small enough to be nimble, yet it has a sturdy frame that provides the important structure to navigate from. As facilitators, we were able to make changes to the program based on both the needs of the members and our own experience and interests, building on a framework that has been tried and tested over the past several years.<\/p>\n

With the help of a network of peers, I felt like climbing over challenging points in the year was easy – like having gears. When I got stuck, I’d tune into Twitter and see what others were talking about. I’d read a blog post by @ddoucet<\/a> and be inspired by the changes he was making in his school, or see\u00a0a post from @egelleny<\/a> and see that be inspired\u00a0on how she tackling bringing Twitter to teachers at her school. Sometimes I’d get stuck in first gear and not have the energy to post or even think about my action plan. But, the blogs of other members were like a luggage rack that was piled high with ideas for me to carry with me both in my action plan, and in my day-to-day classroom practice.<\/p>\n

So, today as I was biking and thinking about my final action plan post, looking back and looking forward, I realized that what Cohort 21\u00a0has really done for me is to coalesce all of my experience, interests and education to-date in a meaningful way that has refined\u00a0my teaching practice and my solidified\u00a0my confidence in my expertise in two areas.<\/p>\n

I started off the new year with the goal of using online tools<\/a> to build a PLN within my school. But, after\u00a0looking back on the Design Thinking workshop and meeting with Edwin<\/a>, my Vice Principal of Teacher and Staff Development, I realized that perhaps the most valuable aspect of Cohort 21 that I should bring back to Greenwood is Design Thinking<\/p>\n

Running the Design Thinking workshop also led me to tweak the way that I was presenting Design Thinking in my classroom. I realized that I could be using this framework even more to help students solve problems, and in particular in the Grade 11 Green Industries class, I needed to let the students empathize with their users and define their own problems, rather than having me provide this information for them as I had in previous years. These small changes have led to big improvements in student’s projects this year.<\/p>\n

I was recently invited to give a TEDx Talk at the YMCA Academy. The topic of the event was “The City As a Laboratory.<\/a>” Putting together my talk (with the usual advice and\u00a0encouragement from @gnichols<\/a>)\u00a0made me realize that I actually am<\/em> an expert in Design Thinking and in designing experiences that use\u00a0the city as a teaching tool to have students apply DT to real world problems. For some reason, prior to facilitating the Design Thinking workshop, I didn’t realize explicitly that this was an\u00a0area of expertise for me, I just thought of it as\u00a0something I’ve always done or been interested in. Being a facilitator has allowed me to finally pull together my former life in the non-profit design world with my current life as a teacher. I am incredibly\u00a0grateful for this experience.<\/p>\n

With all of this under my belt, I have been working on a three-pronged approach to bring Design Thinking to teacher growth and development at Greenwood:<\/p>\n