Question 1:
I joined Cohort21 for several reasons, the simplest being I’d heard good things about the PD experience and the community of educators it exposed participants to and so I wanted to experience it for myself. The more complex being I needed to be challenged. It is easy to get stuck in the day-to-day workings of one’s mind and to be surface-level challenged by ideas during an in-school PD session, but I felt like I needed a deeper experience, a timely thought-provoking, brain-stretching deeper dive into education and professional development. I feel like I got a lot of that during our first Cohort21 meeting where I came away with my head spinning but my wheels turning too. I desire a network of people who in the short-term, are interesting to talk to, who I can connect with and who will support me in my personalized action plan but in the long term will help me challenge my thinking and be there to bounce ideas off and be a support network as I move on in my career. That is why I joined Cohort21.
My Goal
Over the next few years, I will be developing an outdoor education program for the Ashbury junior school. While I have been involved in outdoor ed experiences with students in my career here at Ashbury, there has never been an official program. I plan to use my Cohort21 professional development experience and the network of people to help me develop this program. I find it very cool that some of the people I started my career with and with who I have led trips and started outdoor education programs in the past will be here to help me on this professional journey.
Question 2:
I originally chose “Leading Change through Well Being”, but the fit didn’t feel right so I switched to “Pedagogy and Well Being 7-12”. I think the Pedagogy and Well Being 7-12 choice will be better for me as it aligns better with my goal as Outdoor education relates to well-being.
So glad you joined Cohort 21! Looking forward to your posts.
@llamont thank you for sharing your thoughts and goals! What an exciting and challenging opportunity for you to develop the outdoor education program at Ashbury. No doubt, the work you do will connect with and positively contribute to student wellness. I’m really looking forward to learning about all the developments in your program throughout the year!
@llamont01 Lindsay, I am so glad that you got so much out of your first Cohort session- and that was just the warm-up! It;’s great that you were able to move through the expert groups so easily so that you could find the right fit for you.
Congrats on your outdoor education program development! Being in such a position will really give you space to affect the student and faculty experience and culture in so many positive ways! You have defiantly come to the right place at the right time. Not only are you tapped into the amazing network of this year, but the whole network of the 9 seasons before as well.
@llamont Love this post and I really like that you switched Strand Groups: “I originally chose “Leading Change through Well Being”, but the fit didn’t feel right so I switched to “Pedagogy and Well Being 7-12”. I think the Pedagogy and Well Being 7-12 choice will be better for me as it aligns better with my goal as Outdoor education relates to well-being.”
I think that living at the programming level is a really good way to get the most out of this Cohort 21 Season. OE certainly plays a key role in wellbeing and in DEIJ as well, and I’d love to talk more about this with you, as I have been doing some thinking about this myself – currently at my school, we do not have an OE program, and I think that we can/ should.
With @gvogt, @ddoucet on this blog, I am certain that they can provide some great networks to plug into. I am also on the board at ISEEN and can plug you in there as well!
See you soon,
Garth.
Hi Lindsay,
I enjoyed reading your post and learning about your goals this year. Your students are going to get so much out of an outdoor education program. This is a wonderful initiative! I look forward to seeing what you come up with for your school.
Warmly,
Jenn
@llamont Lindsay, your goal should be a good starting point to consider your “How might we question” in the upcoming session. In doing so, feel free to reach out to Cohort members to get their insight and help you craft your question to be specific to your goals and the needs of your school.
@llamont
Happy new year! I hope these past two weeks have been ok for you and your family.
We are looking forward to connecting this weekend. If you have a free moment before Saturday; create a 2nd post that answers the following 2nd F2F reflection questions and post your HMW question.
This will be really helpful to your coaches/facilitator in their support of your Action Plan. It should not take more than 5 minutes so don’t overthink it. We just want to pile on the support and the blog is the most efficient way to do it.
1) What was the process like in coming up with your HMW question at the last face-to-face? Where did you land? Share your first attempt so we can see where your action plan is headed.
2) Who should you talk to next to help guide your inquiry? In order to answer your HWM question, what voices and perspectives need to be consulted? What did you learn when you talked to them?
3) Why are you engaging in this line of action and inquiry? What important unmet need sits central to your question?
See you Saturday!
Justin