Finding the Bright Spots

"To find bright spots, we need to ask ourselves: "What's working, and how can we do more of it?"" (p. 45)

Chapter 2 of the book "Switch" has me thinking about how my team can do more to seek out bright spots and use those to spark change throughout the district.

Here are some ideas for next school year:

Celebrate examples of teachers using technology in impactful ways

When we ask our teachers to try something new and innovative in their classrooms, that can make many of them feel vulnerable. We need to make sure we encourage our teachers to take those risks and try new things by celebrating their successes as much as possible. I have tried to do that by sharing their stories on social media platforms, such as Twitter and Instagram. However, I could definitely do a better job of sharing these stories on more in-district communication platforms, such as our district websites or school newsletters.

Bring in other teachers to observe impactful technology use

Informal observations can be a really meaningful way for educators to grow in their own practice. Sometimes we just need to see something in action in real time to get the confidence and inspiration we need to try something new ourselves. Teachers can also take notes and reflect later on strategies used during the lesson that they can take and modify for their own classrooms. I have never asked a teacher if I can bring someone to observe, but it is certainly something I hope to do next school year.

Encourage teachers to share lessons or live recordings

While real time observations are valuable, that's not always realistic when looking at teacher schedules or substitute teacher funding. Another option would be to have teachers share lesson plans or recordings and to organize those plans and resources somewhere accessible to other teachers. In my district, we are planning to create a database of "bright spots" lessons and resources using Google Data Studio. Data studio reports allow teachers to search and filter easily. This will help teachers find examples of lessons created by their colleagues that they can modify and use in their own classrooms.

As far as live recordings, I came across an interesting article today titled, "Opening the Door to Professional Learning." The author, Adrian Cargal, describes how districts can create digital pinapple charts in order to "build a positive, collaborative culture within schools." This is another great way to share great teaching practices when schedules don't allow for real-time classroom observations.

How do you find and share the bright spots in your schools and districts?

Comments

Create an Instagram Story!

One day on Twitter, I came across a tweet from Ryan O'Donnell ( @creativeedtech ) in which he shared a Facebook template that could be used for students to demonstrate their learning. I clicked on the link to his website , and I was AMAZED at all the cool templates he had created for teachers to use for free! I decided to try using an Instagram template during a unit on the planets in our solar system. I wanted students to demonstrate what they learned about the different planets, but I wanted them to do it in a creative way. Here are the directions I gave to my students: Here are some student examples: Student Example #1 Student Example #2 Student Example #3 Student Example #4 I really enjoyed this activity, and I love how students familiar with hashtags were able to create and use them in clever ways! If I was to go back and do this again, I would spend some time working with students less familiar with social media and hashtags and give them some...

First Week of School

We just wrapped up our first week of school! I really enjoyed meeting and getting to know our new 5th grade students! Here are some of the activities we did to start building our classroom culture and learn more about each other: "All About Me" Google Drawing Students learned how to use some of the basic features of Google Drawings by creating a Drawing about themselves. The basic requirements were that they include their name, a picture of themselves, and text/images that describe their personalities or interests. I created an example to give them an idea of what it could look like. I used this activity last year, and I really enjoyed what my students created. However, I decided this year to give them more time to just play with and explore the tools in Google Drawing. I feel like this really paid off because students were able to discover how to use some of the tools and share with each other instead of just relying on me to show them how to use it. ...

Don't Use Coaches as "Fixers"

"It is tempting to ask coaches to work only with teachers who seem to be having difficulties with instruction or classroom management. We discourage this "fixer" approach to coaching for several reasons. First, if coaches are perceived as working only with those who struggle, other teachers may not reach out to coaches for support. Second, the coaching relationship becomes less about providing support for all teachers and more about remediation, in which only "struggling" teachers are assigned to the coach." - Jacy Ippolito and Rita M. Bean Based on the conversations I've had with coaches, this seems to be a common challenge. Coaches often struggle to get teachers to volunteer for coaching cycles because teachers don't want to be viewed as someone who needs coaching - like it's a negative thing. However, the truth is that ALL educators can benefit from good coaching. I think this is why it is important to try to c reate a diverse coaching ros...

Roxi Thompson

Search This Blog