Tag Archives: reflection

Coming Full Circle: Reflections on Technology and Connectivism

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spiralPhoto by Jim Moran

Two years ago I went to an OTF and ECOO sponsored conference called Expanding Our Boundaries. When I attended that conference, I was relatively new to the world of web 2.0, social media, and theories of connectivism and constructivism. I know that for a fact because I have a digital record of it. Here’s my blog post from February 27, 2009.

It’s amazing to me to read how giddy I was about learning about hashtags and Twitter’s potential. I was a recent convert to Twitter, but still pretty much “new” to it. I had been blogging sporadically for about a year, but I was just starting to see what a valuable tool it was for my own reflection and professional development. (Boy do I get that NOW!) I was also particularly silly about the fact that Will Richardson had responded to two of my tweets.

Then if you go to the next post, I had to find a blog post to read and comment on in my own blog and then tweet about it. I also put in a video that I recorded that morning, and to my delight I can see people I now know like Zoe Branigan-Pipe! How amazing is that?

So today, because I’ve been lucky enough to form great connections with people like Doug Peterson, Cyndie Jacobs, and Brenda Sherry, I’m back at the very same conference with Will Richardson, but this time I was a panelist on last night’s discussion about social media in the classroom. I’ve been able to help other teachers who are newbies like I was, and I’ve been able to connect with people who I follow on Twitter.

Today’s most amazing moment came when Will was showing everyone how people shared links in Twitter and found that George Siemens was about to start an Elluminate session with his class so Will just clicked the link and had George talk to the entire room about Connectivism. I tried to record it on my iPhone, but it didn’t turn out very well. It was a pretty incredible moment for teaching the power of the network. It was also pretty fun when George tweeted some hellos to us.

It’s astounding how much can change in two years. Truly astounding. It’s hard to imagine a time where I didn’t have a network of brilliant and talented people who help me solve problems and provide me with inspiration. It’s equally hard to imagine a time when I didn’t actively reflect and question my own pedagogy. I feel very lucky to be where I am right now. I’m can’t wait to see where I’ll be two years from now.

“Coming Full Circle” is probably not an accurate title for this blog post, because nothing is being brought to a close here. It’s more like a spiral. You get the idea.

Wow.

Deep breath.

Let’s keep learning!

Don’t smile ’til Christmas

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grumpyPhoto credit

At the risk of jinxing myself, I’d like to take a moment to talk about kindness. Why might I be jinxing myself? Well, I had some great classes this semester, and I suppose it’s possible that my personal philosophy about kindness may go out the window if I have a group of hooligans next semester, but one can hope…

This year I decided that one of the things I would very conscious of was being kind to my students–even when I didn’t receive kindness in return. That may sound easy, but oh, there are days. . . . Basically I felt that for some students, kindness from a teacher was the only form of kindness they received all day. And I also thought that it was important to remember that students (like all people) might have very challenging, stressful, terrible things going on in their lives that have nothing to do with me. Now some may say that I’m a push-over, but I don’t really think I am. I still expect students to earn their marks and I expect certain standards of behaviour, but when I deal with those issues, I don’t think I gain anything by being sarcastic, or negative or domineering.

The bottom line is, if I scare students into behaving, I may have a quiet orderly classroom, but I’m not going to have a positive learning environment. I went to a Marcia Tate workshop where she discussed brain-compatible learning, and felt pretty vindicated because she shared statistics that showed that when students were under stress or feeling anxious, they aren’t able to learn effectively. So I think we should do everything we can to help students to know that they are respected and cared for, and that they can take risks without fear of humiliation or being centered out.

I figure, if the worst thing a student can say about me is that I’m a push-over or a softie, I can live with that. I don’t think it’s true, but even if it is, it’s  better than living with the thought that I caused some student unnecessary pain or humiliation because I felt I had to maintain the upper-hand in some power-struggle.

Teachers coming out of teacher education programs get a lot of advice about “not smiling until Christmas.” If I could give some advice, I’d say:

Don’t let anyone try to tell you what type of teacher you need to be, and never lose sight of the big picture.  We are not factories churning out widgets. We are human beings trying to help other human beings learn, and they can’t learn if they feel threatened.

 And now, I’m going to record some of the notes I got from students at the end of their exams–not because I’m trying to boast or because I think these notes make me candidate for teacher of the year, but because soon I’ll be faced with a new group of students, and I’m going to need these reminders to get me through the tough times. I also want to add, I marked their exams before I read any notes! And I will resist the urge to correct the spelling and grammar.

Thank you Ms. Barker for a wonderful english class. This is probably one of the classes I will most miss from this semester, and perhaps even this year. I really liked the use of technology and I liked the way you taught us. Thanks. Good luck next semester. -Alex

Thanks for an amazing semester. You did an awesome job with this class and I feel I have learned so much from my experiences here. you made getting up for this class every day enjoyable. I can honestly say although I’m glad to be leaving high school behind me, I’m sad to be done with this class. Thank you so much for everything you do! -Sara

I don’t think you should change anything about yourself or improve your the best English teacher I have ever had. I learned a lot being in your class and I love you as a teacher.-Shannon

Usually in my English class I wouldn’t get involved because I felt my opinion didn’t really count. But you showed the entire class it’s perfectly fine if you don’t understand the text or have an opinion that people might not agree with. In college we as adults need to know where we stand in life. You taught the class to be unique and to stand up for what we felt is right. I will never forget the second day of class having us decide to agree or disagree to questions that really mattered. Those questions got us thinking not only in the answer but what we believed. Thank you for showing not only me but the teachers and students that English can be fun again. -Celine.

And now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go get some tissue.