There is only one more week after this one in the semester. I have seen each of you grow as a literacy leader through your projects and blogs. I know I have grown in my understanding of what it means to rethink teaching and learning using new literacies as tools for thinking, collaborating, communicating. I've learned new things about myself as a teacher as well, and changes that have to come to my view of scaffolding, discussion, and time as well as what values I hold about teaching and learning that I don't want to change. I'd like you to think a bit about what you have learned, and about how this format has helped or how you may have had to change views of what it means to take a class when it doesn't meet face to face each week. So this week, while I'm in Africa, I'd like for each of you to respond to these questions:
1. What are the 3 most important ideas that you learned about literacy leadership and coaching this semester? Why are each of them important to you? How will they inform your practice as a literacy leader, either as an informal one or as a reading specialist/literacy coach/director?
2. Which new literacy practices were supportive to you of your learning? Which ones do you think I need to modify and how to better support your learning?
Respond to these by 11/23. I appreciate your input and feedback.
Have a great Thanksgiving. I am thankful for each of you and for the work you do to support the learning of the children that you teach.
1. What are the 3 most important ideas that you learned about literacy leadership and coaching this semester? Why are each of them important to you? How will they inform your practice as a literacy leader, either as an informal one or as a reading specialist/literacy coach/director?
ReplyDelete- I have learned that adult learning requires that I take a different stance as an educator than I am used to. I must value the fact that I can be, should be, and am a leader and a fairly knowledgeable person. I must use that as a resource and become a resource myself. I must learn what each adult brings to the table and act as a guide and a source of support for that person. This will be critical if I become a literacy coach, and it is important to me now as a teacher working with my colleagues.
- I have learned that there will be a lot of details that I might leave out or fail to notice at first. That is why practice and experience are so important, and I'm glad this class gave me the opportunity to gain that. That is also why it is important to work with others, rather than in isolation, so that you can have a feedback system and a safety net. That's relevant to all areas of education, but it is especially pertinent to me as a potential literacy coach, since I have found myself failing to think of important factors in the coaching and PD planning processes.
- I have learned that coaching, professional development, and program improvement must always be approached as a process. They are learning opportunities, not quick fixes. I have also learned, through our discussions and by comparing the texts with my own experiences, that a lot of people will want a quick fix and will be hesitant to invest in a valuable, continuous learning opportunity. I have learned that it will take a lot of professionalism and relationship building to build the foundation necessary to work with them as a literacy leader.
2. Which new literacy practices were supportive to you of your learning? Which ones do you think I need to modify and how to better support your learning?
- I absolutely loved the opportunities we got to work collaboratively through technology, such as through Google Docs and the Smart Boards. I also think that the classroom was very conducive to this effort. That helped my thinking in terms of synthesizing all of our different ideas about topics during class activities, and it also helped me efficiently give and receive feedback on assignments.
- I definitely think we need to modify the online discussion format. It was a little difficult for us all to coordinate multiple responses in the form of an authentic conversation, especially when we were having trouble getting notifications when people were responding. From a scheduling standpoint, I think I would personally benefit more from doing more Adobe Connects and having that function as a lot of our discussion instead of relying on the blogs.
Thanks Angela. I agree about the blogs, and even thinking about short and frequent chats, perhaps in groups based on needes.
Delete1. What are the 3 most important ideas that you learned about literacy leadership and coaching this semester? Why are each of them important to you? How will they inform your practice as a literacy leader, either as an informal one or as a reading specialist/literacy coach/director?
ReplyDelete- One of the most important idea or ideas I've learned is how many hats a literacy coach wears. It takes a lot of organization and commitment to be successful as a coach. Not only do you have to know a lot about literacy, you must be able to keep people happy and assist them. You must also be an advocate for many things pertaining to literacy. LCs must be able to work in groups, provide PD, and coach individuals. Organization is something an LC will need to be diligent about staying on top of.
- I also learned that the Common Core book will be my LC bible. I will definitely be using that a lot for a reference if i'm an LC one day. It had amazing material that really explained a lot about everything. It had amazing templates, that will definitely be duplicated in the future. I really liked how the book gave examples of how each area an LC manages is done.
-I've also learned so much about PD. I have such a better understanding of the work that goes in to it and the money. I feel pretty guilty in the past if I've every criticized PDs I've attended in the past. I now understand there are so many types of PD. Each serves it's particular purpose. I'm not saying all the PD I've attended was amazing, but now I understand they probably had a purpose and used a format for delivering they felt was appropriate. I also can see how budget would determine a lot of PD. I had now idea how expensive PD could be. Just by doing my PD project, I realized that something I thought was cheap ended up having a lot of parts I didn't realize cost anything. Therefore as an LC you must be an advocate to raise money to put on PDs. You must be professional to get others to join your cause and help fund projects!
2. Which new literacy practices were supportive to you of your learning? Which ones do you think I need to modify and how to better support your learning?
-I really like the projects. I think this class has been the most helpful out of all my classes. It seemed to be what I might actually encounter as a coach. I liked the hands on approaches. Going into a school and coaching a teacher. I also thought the PD was eye opening. I think this class was as real as you can get without actually being a coach.
- I think a lot of the class was done pretty well. The assignments met the criteria we were learning. The discussions online fostered a nice learning community. I liked having the smaller discussions online. I think keeping the groups small was helpful. I loved all my members of my group, but the smaller group was not as overwhelming and I felt I could spend more time on each. It made responding more of a conversation. I think the only thing I would change would be maybe setting up buddies at the beginning that you can email or chat with quickly if you had a questions. There were times I had questions about assignments that waiting for my peer group to meet would have been to long. I guess this is something I could have changed and made sure I had. But my small group was amazing at responding and helping me! Overall, it was done well and I learned so much! Since I'm taking 9 hours, meeting online weekly would have been hard to schedule, but I think meeting more would have been helpful.
Thanks Kaitlin. I agree about more frequent and short maybe meetings...I like your online buddy idea. I'll incorporate it net semester.
Delete1. What are the 3 most important ideas that you learned about literacy leadership and coaching this semester? Why are each of them important to you? How will they inform your practice as a literacy leader, either as an informal one or as a reading specialist/literacy coach/director?
ReplyDelete***One of the ideas I learned about literacy leadership and coaching is how important relationships are between leaders and teachers. Relationships must be based on trust, honesty, professionalism, and support. Before I can share the hard messages with teachers, they have to trust me and know that I'm just an invested as they are. I can take what I've learned and develop stronger relationships with the teachers at my school. Spending more time in classrooms, checking in throughout the day, and making myself available are important first steps.
***I also learned about the importance of collaboration. Leaders and teachers working side by side as partners. Each teacher brings their own wealth of experience and knowledge into any situation. I learned that coaching is truly successful when approached as teamwork. The LC is no more important than the classroom teacher. I know that with my teachers I must be willing to actively listen, be open to suggestions, and flexible. What I love is that the end goal of enhancing student learning is the focus, not on being "in charge". At school I need to provide opportunities for my staff to collaborate and work closely as well as identify times for me to work collaboratively with them, too.
***For me personally, the most important idea I'm taking from this semester is how critical it is to be a reflective practitioner. Completing a coaching cycle or providing resources isn't the end. We should be continually thinking about how we can improve our relationships and practice. In my school, I will need to reflect critically about my interactions with teachers through meetings, coaching cycles, and classroom modeling.
2. Which new literacy practices were supportive to you of your learning? Which ones do you think I need to modify and how to better support your learning?
***I really enjoyed learning to use technology tools in our class! Many of them I used for the first time ever. I had no idea that Google had so many tools available. Blogging, iPad, and Google Plus were very helpful for me. I was nervous about using Videonot.es and the Smart Board until I actually got my hands on them. Our classroom was fabulous! A great environment to introduce a rookie like me to amazing tools.
***I loved blogging with my group, and I think the size of our small group was great. I felt very comfortable asking Erin or Kaitlin for help. There were a few times that responding to their blogs as well as mine felt like carrying on three conversations at once which was a bit frustrating. I really like your idea of creating one blog per group and alternating blog leaders! I wasn't sure I would like the format at the beginning of the semester, but after spending almost 4 months with it I can say that I would love to take another course as a hybrid. It's great for my schedule when something crazy happens and I can't leave work on time. I did learn a lot about time management and staying on task by using this format. I would have liked one or two more whole group Adobe meetings, but overall I've really enoyed our class!
Thanks Julie. I think you are already a good leader so I'm glad that you learned more about working with your teachers. I agree about the Adobe connect and am thinking about more frequent small group meetings as well as the change in how I do the blogging.
Delete1. What are the 3 most important ideas that you learned about literacy leadership and coaching this semester? Why are each of them important to you? How will they inform your practice as a literacy leader, either as an informal one or as a reading specialist/literacy coach/director?
ReplyDelete---I think the first thing I find important in literacy leadership is the relationships you have to build with the staff. I have learned that in order to be effective as a LC, you must build positive relationships with the staff. The staff must be able to trust the LC. The LC must offer support and follow through with what she says she will do in order to build these trusting relationships.
---The second thing I found important to literacy leadership is be organized. I think a LC needs to be organized in order to meet the needs of the students and the staff. A LC needs to be able to set up meetings and coaching. LC need to know when and where they need to be at all times.
---I also found important is that LC must collaborate with teachers. It is important for them to work with teachers to find areas the teachers need help with. It is important that LC and teachers come up with the best practices for the students in order to meet their needs.
I think collaborating with teachers is something I am taking with me this semester. I normally just work in my classroom alone. I have learned that it is important to work with other teachers so that I can gain a different perspective and to build trusting relationships with other colleagues.
2. Which new literacy practices were supportive to you of your learning? Which ones do you think I need to modify and how to better support your learning?
--I really like learning the new technology and integrating it into our class. I enjoyed using the Adobe Connect again and really understanding how to use it.
--The hardest thing for me this semester was the blogging. I had a hard time keeping up with all the blogs and responding to them multiple times.
Thanks Erin. I hope that you get the opportunity to do more collaboration and even coach new teachers. I agree about the blogging and plan to change that.
Delete1. What are the 3 most important ideas that you learned about literacy leadership and coaching this semester? Why are each of them important to you? How will they inform your practice as a literacy leader, either as an informal one or as a reading specialist/literacy coach/director?
ReplyDeletea) One of the most important things I have learned this semester is the importance of communication. As a literacy coach, I will be working with various teachers from different grade levels. It is vital that I am able to communicate effectively with all teachers on the staff. When a literacy coach is able to communicate with others, it helps to build trust between the staff and the literacy coach. When communicating the literacy coach has to be able to separate the personal relationship between the professional one to provide the educator with constructive feedback. I believe communication is important because it helps all individuals feel respected and valued.
2. I have learned the many different roles the literacy coach plays in a school environment. Until I took this class, I never realized and understood the different roles that a literacy coach plays. The literacy coach has to work with a variety of different people, from the administrators, teachers, curriculum directors. With each person the literacy coach is playing a different role with a different set of responsibilities. Knowing and understanding this will help me with knowing the different hats that I will be wearing as a literacy coach.
3. The whole coaching process was very interesting and important for me to understand as well. Going through the whole process myself really helped me understand how it works, what the process is, what I should be looking for, and how to respond and provide constructive feedback. I also learned more about how as a literacy coach, I can involve myself in the classroom and working with classroom teachers. Learning about co teaching, observing, modeling, all the different aspects that I can do to help and facilitate learning with my peers is beneficial for myself as the literacy coach, and hopefully to those teachers involved.
2. Which new literacy practices were supportive to you of your learning? Which ones do you think I need to modify and how to better support your learning?
I liked using the the adobe connect, and learning more about google drive and google docs. All of these technologies were a great way of communicating and sharing ideas with one another.
I struggled with blogging. It wasn't the actually use of the technology but I guess the way it was organized in when and how to respond. Sometimes it was a little confusing of who I am responding too, what chapters I was reading. Things like that. I do really like using a blog as a communication tool though.
Thanks Jacqueline. I hope you will be able to use the skills. I do agree with the blogging and will be changing that.
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