Interconnectedness and My Day in 4A

One of my six professional and personal goals this school year stems from a school wide goal centered around interconnectedness – how are the people, places, and programs at our school interconnected? By understanding, appreciating and seeking interconnectedness we can support a unified community.

Many paths can be followed to understand and support the connections throughout a community. I have chosen to follow a path that will help me to better understand how and if the connections between the schedule, specific curricular programs, and daily interactions with numerous faculty help support the developmental needs of students in the Lower School.

This is my approach and these are some of the questions I am pondering:

·            I will be attending a full day of school in each grade level (JK-4) in our Lower School. My ultimate goal is to reach all 16 classes! This will enable me to experience and “feel” a day in the life of each age group.

·            Prior to each visit I will read Chip Wood’s Yardsticks, a Responsive Classroom classic that reviews the developmental milestones of children ages 4-14.

·            Some of the questions I will ponder on as I observe: do the social, academic and emotional expectations embedded in our programs match the developmental stages for each age group? What does it feel like to transition from class to class, teacher to teacher, subject to subject, place to place – throughout the day?

·            My reflections will take many forms, from narratives, direct answers to questions, dialog and much more…as I too will be learning in this journey, and experimenting with different reflection techniques.

This week I had the opportunity to start this journey in a fourth grade classroom. I have already had many exciting interactions with 4^th grade so far this year: First, observing them brainstorm, create, advertise and play “foosball” for our day of play; second, a wonderful day long adventure to the Chesapeake Bay to learn about, as well as how to protect this important ecosystem.  Third, just a regular day in 4A! This is the letter I wrote to the students and teachers:

Dear 4A Students and Teachers,

Thank you so much for welcoming me into your class today. I had a blast and learned so much! Some people know that Latin American folk art is a passion of mine so what a pleasure art class was, and I learned a new word, "stylized" using things as symbols in your art. In math I was so impressed with how Mr. Taylor stretched your minds pushing you to explain the process you used to solve your problems, "talk me through that," "What did you DO to get the answer." And how cool were some of the problems you wrote that others will be able to solve via email. I can't wait to read your Spells, and will see if Arsenal does beat Manchester United or one of you makes the Olympics or becomes the greatest athlete in the world. I am sorry I missed the "recipe" as I too wanted to write a Spell on how to become fluent in Italian, which is a goal of mine. I was very proud of my assist on the soccer field, but I am glad you made the goal Emmy. But most of all I was so impressed with your incredible husky behavior. You were all kind and respectful every single moment I was with you. 

Thank you – I had a fabulous day, please keep up your hard work!

Dr. Isabel

Blog as Portfolio

George Couros’ session on “Blog as Portfolio” brought my initial web 2.0 goals full circle. Creating an eportfolio was at the top of my web 2.0 goal list over a year ago. For better or for worse, it fell straight to the bottom. I understood it; I found it necessary, but I just wasn’t ready to develop it – there was still too much to learn. I  had my reliable paper copies of my resume, professional statement and accompanying documents to fall back on. I am now, however, looking forward to working on that skill and pulling that goal out from the bottom of the pile.

The suggestions and comments made by George and the participants of Leadership 2.0 have helped focus my thinking and have triggered the planning stage. A blog portfolio can be seen as the blue print for a new design – a starting point, or a carefully developed replica of what you are working to complete. In my case, it has ended up being a replica I will work hard to create! 

First, it was important for me to become comfortable in this new medium of social media, interacting, engaging and sharing with others across the nation and globe. Second, I learned that finding my voice through blogging and tweeting took practice and time. It is a unique type of writing; it honors individuality, but can lead to collaboration when interests among your PLN begin to interact.

Blogging, for me is a focused reflection. It is not simply putting thoughts on paper, but centering those thoughts around a specific experience, belief, idea, value, goal, project…… using those thoughts as a self-brainstorming session in order to improve my own craft, and hopefully improve my contributions to the field of education, within my immediate community or beyond. Equally important, twitter provides a forum for engaged conversation – dialog as opposed to a personal narrative blog. Twitter provides the opportunity to question, support, clarify, explore and have fun! Of course, I am still a novice. I know there are limitless forms of expression out there, using info graphics,  Pinterest, and tumblr. for example. The pile is large, and I won’t get through it! However, as I explore I will find the applications and means of expression that best fit my own needs and learning style while simultaneously meeting and exploring with other educators. I look forward to integrating my blog posts, twitter reflections and any up and coming skills into a conceptualized blog portfolio. 

Why blog? A personal reflection

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My blogging journey began about a year ago. I made a long list of web 2.0 skills that I thought would be necessary in order for me to progress as an educational leader. With the help of a mentor I began to prioritize that list. It ended up that for an entire year I only managed to set up my Google reader and Flipboard account and kept up with lots of interesting blogs. (OK, I did manage to complete and defend my dissertation; so there was a little progress professionally). What led me to begin blogging, one year later, was an intense sense of curiosity, as well as isolation. From my blog reading it became clear that there was so much more out there, and so much to take advantage of, so I began to dabble in twitter as well as to think about and plan for a blog.  I have been in the same position at my school for over a decade. I love my job and love my community, but having been in the same environment for such a long time, made me feel a bit isolated. Interacting with, learning from and sharing with the whole world has certainly been a way to escape that sense of isolation. More importantly, it has triggered a vast amount of ideas and reflections that motivate me to do a better job each day.  I now feel I have more to contribute. I encounter more opportunities to collaborate with colleagues and to engage with students. I am also able to extend that spark of creativity that ignites within me after a day, weekend, or moment immersed in the blogosphere.

It is also a learning journey. I am a life long learner, thirsty for continuous learning. I did not initially enroll in a doctoral program in order to become a scholar, but to quench my thirst for knowledge. I am so grateful that over the years the Internet has advanced in a way that has enabled me to continue this ongoing learning journey in such a collaborative and global manner. Moreover, reading and writing blogs meets my personal learning style. I am reflective, pensive, and prefer writing my thoughts to verbalizing them. What a great match for me! By sharing my learning journey, I hope that I am modeling for my colleagues and community, and ultimately encouraging them to jump on board!