Reflection: Two steps forward, one step back
It's important to look back on the learning that has taken place so far as sometimes having some time to mull things over produces clarity. I have seen some growth this fall as for personal learning and have some key takeaways- some from my personal inquiries and some from classmates'.
Areas of Personal Inquiry
Takeaway 1: Recreating a Reading Culture
The research and fact-finding I did when comprising the Reading Culture blog post has been important to me. It has shaped my thinking now to have gone through and analyzed that year (2018-2019) of targeted reading interventions. I am able to see now in 2020 that when all of us teachers worked as a team with one goal in mind, we truly could create a culture and common mentality to everything we did in our isolated classrooms. Don Vu's Pillars of Reading Culture reminded me so well that the Celebration of books is key. (See below for YouTube video as a reminder).
This is something I had forgotten that our Action Plan for Learning Committee set forth as a key indicator of Reading Culture those years ago-- visible evidence of students' joy of reading. Let's celebrate books! The joy of reading is key for student engagement and sustained practice and, thusly, informs their progress as a reader. With this thought re-awoken I ask myself, "What can I do now to support the joy of reading within our school once again?" and "How do I need to pivot my strategies for these Covid times?"
Takeaway 2: Creation and importance of a PLN
After reading my post on PLNs and engaging in the comments of my and my classmates' blogs, I cannot help but juxtapose the natural PLN structure that my district has set up between my two roles within the school. As previously stated, the TL group in my district is a strong, collaborative body who are approachable, available, and supportive to each other. In contrast, there are a few of us P.E. specialists in the district and not only do I not have a rich collaborative, supportive community with them... but I don't even know who they are. I have never met any other P.E. specialist within my district. This makes me feel isolated. And at the same time, this makes me feel thankful that my TL community is so strong.
At the beginning of this course I joined Twitter with zero expectations of enjoying it or gleaning anything from it. My expectation was to understand how the platform works, and then once this course ends I would delete my account. However, I have been loving it! A question I have, however, to anyone who reads this: who do you enjoy following and why? I'd love to add some other handles to my community. Social Media has become such a cool way to see behind the curtain of so many creative minds -- authors, illustrators, etc.-- and what I have enjoyed about Twitter is that it's a concise vehicle to share their thoughts. The brevity required with Twitter makes every word count. I can easily say that I will be staying on the account and continuing to develop my PLN.
Areas of Learning from Others
Reading the blogs of my classmates has helped shape my thinking. Linda M has opened my eyes to ways to enhance a whole-school Reading Culture. I can relate to the challenges she has faced and am interested in the solutions she has found throughout her inquiry. The adult modelling of reading is one great strategy she highlights. She even pointed out using media icons as advertisement such as ALA Celebrity READ Posters.
Mrs. B-G has inspired me to set up a Virtual Library Learning Commons MS Team with sections for teachers to view with lesson and project ideas for info literacy and digital citizenship. Students could access it too (on a different channel) and they could even view read alouds or author/illustrator news! What a cool idea!
It's been exceptional to learn from each other as well as from my new Twitter PLN. Our job as TLs doesn't come with a manual as it's an ever-changing and so different day to day depending on our context. Some of us need help coming up with ideas for endless prep classes, some of us need help knowing how to showcase things at a staff meeting, and other for knowing how to start a collaboration relationship with teachers. I think the best part about reading each others' blogs has been knowing that I am not alone with some of the challenges I face. Thanks, guys!
(Referenced above. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F13GPtReZuY&t=251s)
Work Cited:
American Library Association. (n.d.). Daveed Diggs Poster. Retrieved November 08, 2020, from https://www.alastore.ala.org/content/daveed-diggs-poster
Buyco-Galloway, S. (2020, November 07). Mrs. B-G's enchanting journey into the mystical world of learning commons. Retrieved November 08, 2020, from https://buycogalloway.blogspot.com/
(2020, September 11). Retrieved November 7, 2020, from https://pixabay.com/illustrations/unit-team-group-fist-bump-hands-5559160/
Teacherlmei, P. (2020, October 12). LIBE 477B: Getting Them to Read for Pleasure. Retrieved November 08, 2020, from https://transdisciplinaryinquiry.wordpress.com/2020/10/03/getting-them-to-read-for-pleasure/
Initially I had similar feelings about setting up a Twitter account for this course. I had actually created an account years ago as part of the new teacher cohort in my district when I first began teaching, and I had not used it since. At the time, I was unable to see the benefits of it, but over the past couple months, like you, I've been learning to love it! One part that has been beneficial for me is following other teachers in my district. I've found so many great local resources I previously had no idea about, I've learned about some great innovations and ideas for tackling all things covid related and it's helped give me a greater sense of community as I connect with local teachers in my area. I've also found a lot of great resources by following my local libraries, as well as other libraries. @sc_library and @calgarylibrary have both been great resources. I've also found it beneficial to follow @edutopia @diversebooks @googleforedu @educationweek
ReplyDeleteThis is a good post that reflects back on your learning from phase 2 of our course. I appreciate the way you demonstrate the power of a PLN by including your learning from classmate’s blogs. I also appreciate your honest reflection about Twitter. I am glad you are finding it useful. Following the right people is key. I agree with Laura’s comment to start with local TLs. I often then “mine” the list of people they follow for ideas.
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