Being in the first few years of my teaching career, I’ve found collaboration to be the most useful and easiest tool that I have under my belt as a teacher. Especially starting my career in the middle of a pandemic, I noticed that teachers are in it together. Now more than ever, working together to navigate the constantly changing world of education, teachers collaborate. In EDTC 300, we got a chance to practice this collaboration and communication with our peers through technology allowing us to all learn together. Whether it was collaborating on an idea, sharing resources, or posing questions to further another’s thinking, this allows us to continuously learn as a community. I believe this practice will allow the members of the course to seek out more collaboration opportunities in schools.
Commenting on other’s blogs
One way I contributed to the learnings of others in this course was commenting on my fellow classmates’ blog posts. I loved seeing and reading the different learning experiences my classmates were having throughout this course. From reading different blog posts, I found myself constantly making connections to the Genius Hour project I have been able to see in many different schools as a substitute teacher. Although expectations vary depending on the classroom teacher, Genius Hour is where students (usually middle years) choose an activity or event to learn about. They choose whatever interests them and pick a way to document their learning, and just learn about whatever they have chosen. It is incredible seeing what students choose and are capable of learning. I saw students learn origami, crocheting, making stop motion films, making candy, and so many other amazing things. Since this is pretty much what our task was in our #learningproject assignment, it was almost impossible to not make that connection.
When doing something out of your comfort zone, I find it is all about confidence. For me anyways, I need to feel confident in order to continue with these tasks and keep going. Most learning projects in this course, seemed to take place outside of people’s comfort zone. So I felt like confidence was key during these learnings. One thing I tried to do when commenting on my classmates’ blogs was to provide encouragement in order to help their confidence. Here are a few examples:
Another way I tried to enhance the learning of my classmates was to pose questions about their blogs and learning projects. I think it is important to always be critical of your work which goes with the responsibility of being a responsive teacher in the classroom. Never reflecting on lessons, activities, and instructional strategies might spark challenges in the classroom so I aimed to kick start this way of thinking to my fellow classmates.
Twitter was another way I contributed to the learning of others in this course. As I am not a Twitter gal (yet), I found that the #SaskEdChat allowed me to ask questions and start conversations comfortably on Twitter. I was able to not only chat with my classmates, but also other educators in Saskatchewan.
Twitter also allowed me to shared different resources and information with my classmates.
Lastly, Twitter made it easy to reach out to classmates through their posts and mine, and have conversations surrounding different topics.
All and all, there were a few ways I contributed to the learning of others throughout EDTC 300. Practicing this collaboration technique (through technology), has made me feel more confident to reach out to other educators through these platforms as a teacher. Theres so many resources out there in the world of technology, you just have to reach out to find them.