My Course Engagement Reflection

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During this course I had to lead parent learning at the school, as well as practice a new-to-me activity framework. While I had run parent tech academies at our school, I had never tried using a Thinking Routine or activity framework within it. This was beneficial to the presentation and also to help me prepare for future parent learning.

Parents are, and should be, participating members within the school community. And there are a variety of ways to make that happen - including parent technology education.

Our parent tech academies and parents have benefitted from the use of activity frameworks as it has made for richer conversation and deeper understanding.

✅ Starting and Growing Your Professional Learning Network

Being given the (forced) opportunity and time to continue to build my PLN. It's not always easy to take or make the time to build or improve your own PLN.

I learned about and followed new Twitter handles allowing me to expand my network.

By growing my PLN, I was able to make more connections, took the time to actually sit down and find like-minded others, and learn from them. I have since been able to help others grow their PLNs and have shared my findings/learning with others.

Reflecting on the digital citizenship action that is currently taking place in my school and analyzing how it can be improved.

I looked at our Responsible Use Agreement through a different lens to reevaluate the effectiveness of what we already have and how we can improve it.

As tech leaders, we examined and rewrote our Responsible Use Agreement for students and teachers. It should help address some of the issues that have arisen and clarify expectations for all stakeholders.

This was my chance to experiment with and build my toolbox for better and different types of coaching conversations.

I had some initial coaching conversations with colleagues and began building up coaching in my school.

This was the starting point for getting coaching going and to begin being seen as more than just a coordinator and also as a coach.

✅ Leading the Digital Shift: Technology for Leaders

Adapting and making the program work for the situation you are in. I was having a difficult time applying this course, but was able to adapt the ideas to Distance Learning.

I revisited our school technology vision and validated it's usefulness in the current times. I picked it apart and connected the different parts to the new plan for distance learning.

After revisiting the technology vision, I shared my findings with the other tech coaches. We talked about how applicable and useful the vision is.

✅ Coaching: From Theory to Practice

Having the support to establish my coaching cycles with those that have requested coaching.

I observed, had conversations, listened and asked lots of questions to help my coachees begin reaching toward their goals.

This was a very significant course and gave me the direction and focus for coaching multiple colleagues while also reflecting on what was working or not.

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A key takeaway from the course or an “aha” moment

An example of something I did during the course

The impact that the course had on me or community stakeholders

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2 Projects I worked on: • helping to change the focus of a unit to provide more student agency • creating a physical and digital badging system for use in a grade level unit and creating badges for the school Makerspace

Digital badging and it's uses in the classroom. I think it can be a very effective tool and one that might help teachers connect with more learners.

For both examples, students have been much more engaged in their learning while still covering necessary concepts. The badges have also proven useful throughout our Distance Learning adventure.

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