Tag Archives: PLN

December 5, 2015 · 12:55 am

Final Vision Project & Reflection

Yes I Did It

Photo courtesy of http://quotepix.com/1622/order/top/tag/Motivational

Finally, it is done! Not only the final vision project is done, but also the course. I have reached to the top of the stairs!  My learning through the course had been a roller coaster ride experience. There were times that I was excited about my new discoveries and learnings, however, there were also times that I was overwhelmed and felt incapable of facing the new challenges ahead of me.

As a final reflection of my learning, I read through all the blog posts that I have done for this course. I could see my vision growing from teaching multiliteracies in the classroom, to fostering school-wide reading passion, and moreover, to advocating collaborative inquiry as a tool for professional development. For a passive observant like me, the growth of vision made me feel like a butterfly breaking out of its chrysalis, spreading its wings and ready to fly. I do not think I could fly yet, but my learning in building my personal learning network (PLN), my practice on writing blog posts, and the use of Digg Reader to organize the blogs that I follow equipped myself to become an educational leader in the school community.

At the beginning of this course, I had struggled creating my blog and the postings. I think I spent more time on learning how to create the blog and how to embed links an video than writing the first post. But now, I am glad that I did it. I found that blog posts is an effective tool in sharing ideas and gathering feedbacks. If possible, I would like to use blog as a tool to encourage ideas sharing among staffs at school. Would blog be the best tool? I am not sure, but I would survey my colleagues, or maybe do a collaborative inquiry session on this matter?

My Final Vision Project

During the process of creating the video, I had the general public, including elementary aged students, in mind as my audiences. Therefore, I made my points as simple as it could be. Powtoon is very user-friendly, and the “how-to” videos on the website tutorial page are very helpful. I do not encounter any technical challenge during the process of creating the video.

At last, here is my final vision project.

Link: https://www.powtoon.com/online-presentation/bkc0Mo1nnBc/collaborative-inquiry/

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November 23, 2015 · 7:43 am

Vision Rationale: Shaping or Re-shaping

Collaborative Professional Inquiry

Photo in courtesy of https://www.flickr.com/photos/7815007@N07/13983341233/in/photostream/

Professional development (Pro-D) is a “must do” for educators. It is important that we, educators, keep ourselves inline with the changing world, the changing curriculum, the changing pedagogy and any current educational issues. There are approximately six Pro-D days scheduled in the school year, to provide learning opportunities to educators. Teachers might attend a workshop, or do a self-directed Pro-D activity such as working on an action research, or reading academic articles, etc. Pro-D became a passive experience, and the effectiveness is questionable. Please do not get me wrong, I am not saying that attending a workshop or doing self-directed Pro-D activity individually are not effective. If the topic and issue addressed in workshop or self-directed Pro-D fits your need or the challenges that you are facing, it is worthwhile. However, I do not believe that “one size fits all” when it comes to Pro-D. Students’ learning is our ultimate goal, and I think it should be the drive of educators’ Pro-D so that our Pro-D is more practical and worthwhile. I hope to find a Pro-D format that is customized to the needs of any particular educator, or school community. When I came across “collaborative teachers inquiry,” it seems to be able to do the trick.

I like the answer of one of the interviewed teachers in the video: Why not? Why not give this new Pro-D format a try? As we encourage our students to learn collaboratively through inquiry, why not we do it ourselves? With a first-handed experience of collaborative inquiry, teachers will be able to understand and facilitate collaborative inquiry among his/her students.

My final project is to create a video to “promote” collaborative inquiry as an in-school Pro-D format. Up to date, I have decided the following contents of the video:

  1. Why should we do collaborative inquiry? (This would be my rationale as above)
  2. Using Edcamp as a reference, explain what the schedule of a collaborative inquiry Pro-D day would looks like.
  3. Suggest follow-up event(s) after the Pro-D day, for example, after school gatherings for updates.

My original plan is to advocate collaborative inquiry to colleagues. However, during my planning process, I thought the video could be designed for a broader range of audiences. As we always encourage students to learn and inquiry collaboratively, if I change content #1 from explaining my rationale to explaining collaborative inquiry and its benefits in general, the video could be used for students, or even parents advisory committee (PAC) to address concerns in school community. But if I do so, my project’s goal will become advocating collaborative inquiry in general, rather than aiming to make a change in our Pro-D practice. What should I do? Should I, or should I not make such a change in content? Please help, my PLN’s colleagues!

References:

Marcinek, Andrew. “Edcamps: Remixing Professional Development.” Eutopia. 19 Mar. 2014. Web. 20 Nov. 2015. <http://www.edutopia.org/blog/edcamps-remixing-profesional-development-andrew-marcinek>.

“System Leaders and Collaborative Inquiry.” Capacity Building K-12 (2015). Queen’s Printer for Ontario. Web. 20 Nov. 2015.
Link: http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/inspire/research/CBS_SystemLeaders.pdf

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November 13, 2015 · 5:56 pm

Vision scope: From learning independently to learning together

At the beginning of this week, I started to think about my “vision of the future.” I re-read my blog postings of the reading reviews, and I leaned towards setting my vision on fostering reading at school by providing tools and platforms to students to share about their reading using information communication technology. However, my observation at my school yesterday, Nov. 12th, 2015, changed my whole plan.

Yesterday was the Surrey School District (SD36) Curriculum Implementation Day. It was a non-instructional day and the Surrey Teachers’ Association (STA) has provided us with the agenda for the day as well as supportive resources that we could study. My school is a small school, and yesterday, there were only 11 teaching staffs at the school: 9 classroom teachers, one learner support team (LST) teacher who is also our professional development committee (Pro-D) chair, and myself. We all gathered in the library at the beginning of the day, and briefly went through the supportive resources that we had received via email from the STA. Our Pro-D chair suggested we study the articles and resources being sent out by the STA, and also, explore the B.C. new curriculum on its website. One of the staff asked if we need to gather in grade groups and work collaboratively as suggested in the agenda, however, all staffs agreed that we will work on our own pace and it is individual’s choice to work collaboratively with others. Hence, there was no afternoon session set for collaborative work. I had observed that there was two or three colleagues work collaboratively for a short period of time in the morning, but for the rest of the day, colleagues (including myself) worked independently in their own classroom, exploring the new curriculum on their own and at their own pace.

As I explored one of the documents titled “Curriculum Framework,” a session in there caught my attention: “How? Structures to support investing curriculum.” Moreover, in that session, there are two terms that spark my interest: Edcamp, and collaborative inquiry. This is the first time I heard about “Edcamp,” I was curiously to know what it is, therefore, I spent some time investigating it. The following video that I found provided me with a clear picture of what Edcamp is.

Video courtesy of http://www.edutopia.org/edcamp-organizer-resources

That is what I would like to see happening at my school, my “vision of the future”: colleagues work collaboratively together, to reflect our teaching practice, inquire new pedagogy or methods, share our ideas and support each other.

“It is ironic that, with all we know about
the benefits of collaborative, inquiry-
based learning for students, we struggle to create the same rich learning opportunities for teachers.”  (Schnellert & Butler, 2014)

At this moment, the following are the goals I have in mind:

  • to encourage and support peers to build their personal learning network (PLN)
  • to advocate collaborative inquiry model as a professional development activity
  • to provide opportunities and forums, either meeting after school or using social media, for sharing idea

I plan to create a Powtoon video to advocate PLN as well as collaborative inquiry within our school community. However, I have never used Powtoon before, there is inquiry that I need to do on “how to use Powtoon” prior to creating the video for my final vision project. Plan might get changed as I go through the process, but at least this is where I am starting.

References:

Adams, P., and Townsend, D. (2014). From action research to collaborative inquiry: A framework for researchers and practitioners. Education Canada, 54(5), 12–15.  Link: http://www.cea-ace.ca/education-canada/article/action-research-collaborative-inquiry

Edcamp Foundation. http://www.edcamp.org

Powtoon: Brings Awesomeness to Your Presentations. http://www.powtoon.com

“Resources for Organizing an Edcamp.” Edutopia. 24 Mar. 2014. Web. 12 Nov. 2015. <http://www.edutopia.org/edcamp-organizer-resources>.

Schnellert, L., and Butler, D.L. (2014). Collaborative inquiry: Empowering teachers in their professional development. Education Canada, 54(3), 42–44. Link: http://www.cea-ace.ca/education-canada/article/collaborative-inquiry

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November 8, 2015 · 12:28 am

Inquiry #5 – Reflection of Inquiry Learning

The process of inquiry and the composing of blog posts have been a challenging, yet fruitful journey of learning for me. It is a challenging because I am currently not, and have never been a teacher-librarian. I have learned a great deal of new ideas through reading others’ blogs or scholar articles. However, they stay at the knowledge level as I could not put them into practice. There is always a teacher-librarian at my school who I only meet once at the beginning of the year. As we are both part-time at the school, our days of work do not coincide. I am eager to put my learning into practice, but I have to be caution that I do not “step on someone’s toes”.

On the other hand, as I had mentioned above, I learned a lot from others’ blog posts and from the readings during my inquiry process. It is time to reflect and summarize my learning for the past couple of weeks.

Fostering reading culture at school

kids-reading-in-library

Photo in courtesy of http://theharriedmom.com/tag/reading/page/2/

“Drop Everything and Read,” hidden prized in library books, rewards for reading program, creative catalog system and signage are all useful and practical ideas that I have learned to foster students’ reading at school. My takeaway from this inquiry is that the methods we use is not a matter to our students, it’s the interpersonal relationship that matters. It is important for students to feel that we are interested in what they are reading. Even a simple conversation on the content of their reading would spark their interests in reading more and share more with you.

social-sharing

Photo in courtesy of https://readingstrategiesthatwork.wikispaces.com/Putting+the+Pieces+Together

When I have my first assignment as a teacher-librarian, I would like to start up a reading club at lunch and school reading club blog using Blogspot or Edmodo. My goal is to provide a platform for students to share their reading, as well as a way for me to know what my students are reading.

Building personal learning network

Personal learning network (PLN) is a new vocabulary that I have learned in the inquiry process. My colleagues and I would share our ideas or teach collaboratively. I also connect with colleagues from my previous schools via social media such as Facebook and Twitter. I did not realize until recently that I have been building my PLN through socializing with colleagues after school as well as connecting with others using social media. During this phase of inquiry, I experienced ideas sharing through blog posts, and was introduced to Digg which I think is an awesome tool helping me in organizing the blogs that I am interested in and would like to be notified when there is a new post. As I reflected on my work during the last few weeks, I realized that I started this phase of learning with active participation in commenting others’ blog posts. Unfortunately, I was not consistent in my participation and soon was back to my “old self” – silently reading others’ blog posts without leaving a comment. I will continue to push myself out of my comfort zone of being an “observant,” and participate more actively in discussions on blogs or social media.

Being an educational leader

I am always anxious in being a leader, especially an educational leader. I always question myself and consider others’ ideas are better than mine. I am an novice in information communication technology (ICT) and mostly like is the one who need help from others instead of providing help to others. However, I learned from my own inquiry and others’ sharing in their blog posts, being a leader does not mean you have to be an expert on everything. A leader would have a good interpersonal relationship with other staffs at the school, an awareness of the needs of the others and would be able to provide recommendation of resources that would fulfil the needs of others. Moving forward, I would be more aware of colleagues’ work in their classes and provide suggestion of possible resources, such as iPad apps or printed resources, that would enhance learning. Moreover, I plan to join the professional development committee and help in planning school-wide professional development event. I would be more aware of professional development opportunities outside of school, such as local conferences or online resources, and make recommendations to other staffs at school. I would take small steps at a time and work towards being an educational leader.

Mobile devices use in developing literacies in developing nations

I was amazed in discovering how people in developing nations could learn literacy through the use of mobile devices. The mobile devices allow people to get access to English resources, but also resources in their mother language which are rare find in printed format. Through inquiry process, I could concluded that most organizations, whose goal is to develop libraries in developing nations, encourages the use of mobile devices. In the meanwhile, in our school communities, educators are concerning privacy issues with the use of mobile devices. Furthermore, educators might question or worry that technology might replace our practice of teaching, and eventually, students would learn independently with the use of mobile device rather than from a teacher. While I was composing this blog post, a colleague of mine shared a blog post titled “Will technology replace teachers?” on Facebook. The photo below basically provides the answer to the question.

technology-will-never-replace-teachers

Photo in courtesy of http://www.coolcatteacher.com/category/education/teaching/

This marks the end of the phase 2 of my inquiry learning. As we move into the next module in which we will be sharing our “Vision of the future” project, my goal is to be a more active participant in commenting on others’ blog posts, as well as responding to others’ comments on my own blog posts. I believe that I would learn more through discussions with my fellow classmates in my group.

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October 23, 2015 · 10:46 pm

Inquiry #3 – Being a “coach” rather than a “leader”

The world is changing, the technology is changing, the ways that students learn is changing, and so as the role of a teacher-librarian (TL). Almost all of the resources, i.e. books, articles, etc., that I have read stated that the teacher librarian is expected to take up the role of “curriculum leadership.” Scheirer (2000) had included a list of professional competencies for TL in her article, two of the competencies really stood out “BIG” to me:

  1. places a priority on staff relationships and leadership in the implementation of change
  2.  provides leadership.

DIY Professional Development_thumb[3]

Photo in courtesy of:  http://www.rakisradresources.com/2015/01/where-to-find-your-own-professional.html

At my last post, I shared that I was a beginner at building my personal learning network (PLN) using one or more tools mentioned in the above photo. I am still “lurking” on social media, while my colleagues are more knowledgable on tools mentioned than I am and are possibly sharing their experience in teaching actively via those tools. I would question myself: Who am I to provide “leadership”? I guess if I HAVE to be an educational leader, I COULD push myself forward and “force” myself into the doing. However, as being a person who does not like to be the center of attention, I would be pushing myself into doing something that I am uncomfortable with and I do not think the thrust would last for long. As I was researching for ideas on how could I fulfil the role within my capability, I came across the video below: 

The video suggests supporting teacher’s professional development by working alongside with the classroom teacher. This echoes with the quote that catches my attention in the article “Librarians as Leaders in Professional Learning Communities through Technology, Literacy, and Collaboration.”

“As a school librarian, the goal should be to look at what students are learning and what teachers are teaching in the classroom and see where your knowledge and skills can fit into that plan.” (Dees et al., p. 11)

From my research, I have learned that being a educational leader does not mean that I have to be “ahead” of everyone in current educational issues, to be an expert on technology, nor being a professional development workshop speaker. I could be a support staff working collaboratively with teachers, suggesting technological tools which are applicable to the teachers’ teaching and students’ learning. In another word, I could be an “educational coach.”

A few staffs at my school have decided to try the FreshGrade program as an alternative for parent-teacher communication tool. As I had attended a summer professional development workshop on the program, I approached those staffs who would like to try and offered help in troubleshooting if they have any questions. This is the first time I made myself “visible” in new technology, and I am glad that I was able to help a few colleagues and assist a colleague in presenting a workshop on FreshGrade. I do not consider myself as an “educational coach” yet, but I think I had made a big leap in the role.

What can I do differently, or new, this year that better support the staff at my school?

I am currently not a teacher-librarian at my school. Imagine that I am, I would set the following goals for this school:

  1. Be proactive in building a relationship with the individual staff at the school. Collaboration is built on a relationship with trust, and only through collaboration that I would be able to know “what students are learning and what teachers are teaching.” With that knowledge, I will then be able to suggest educational readings, professional development opportunities, or digital tools that would enhance the teachers’ teaching.
  2. “Crack out of my shell” – Instead of continuing to lurk on social media, I have to try sharing my own ideas. If I do not share or tweet, how could I encourage other staffs to do so? I have to extend my personal learning network, so that I could share my experience with others and encourage others to build their own PLN.

Two goals would be my limit for this year, as I had mentioned in my last post, I have to slow down and take small steps at a time. I think I could achieve these two goals even being a music teacher (not a TL) this year. Hence, this would be a good start.

References:

Dees, Dianne, Alisande Mayer, Heather Morin, and Elaine Willis. “Librarians as Leaders in Professional Learning Communities through Technology, Literacy, and Collaboration.” Library Media Connection 29.2 (2010): 10-13. Web. 22 Oct. 2015. Link: http://coekate.murraystate.edu/media/professors/files/koren/LibrariansLeadLearnCommunities.pdf

Raki, Heidi. Raki’s Rad Resources. Web. http://www.rakisradresources.com

Scheirer, Bev. “The Changing Role of the Teacher-Librarian in the Twenty-first Century.” (2000). University of Saskatchewan. Web. 22 Oct. 2015. Link: http://www.usask.ca/education/coursework/802papers/scheirer/scheirer.htm

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October 16, 2015 · 7:08 pm

Inquiry #2 – Need way(s) to organize overflowing new information

Every year, we are given days for professional developments. For the first few years of my teaching career, attending conferences, workshops, and sharing sessions are the major components of my professional development activities. Since about two years ago, I started my study of the teacher-librarianship diploma at UBC (University of British Columbia). Academic reading as well as composing assignments have been my self-directed professional development activities. I also connected with the TL that I worked with at school, and one of them suggested me to attend the BCTLA annual conference to extend my PLN.

I have heard a lot of the abbreviation “PLN” lately. I am not sure whether it stands for “Professional Learning Network” or “Personal Learning Network,” but I think either one is applicable. I have a brief idea that PLN is about using ICT (information and communication technology) to build a network for learning. In order to get a more concrete idea of what PLN is and how to build my own, I searched the term “educators PLN” in Google Scholar and found the website “The Educator’s PLN.” I explored the site and discovered the following video which provides me with a clear concept of what PLN is and how to start my own PLN.

After viewing this video, I realized that I have been building my own PLN without even knowing it. I used to visit colleagues after school to share ideas, email friends and colleagues with questions or seek advice. With the use of social media and “smart technologies,” I connect with colleagues through Facebook, in which a colleague of mine shared the video that I included in my last post.

Through a few UBC courses, I have learned a number of online tools to extend my PLN, such as: Twitter, Symbaloo, Digg Reader, and Google+. However, I have only learned the basics of each tool and have not been using those online tools extensively.

Twitter – I follow professionals and associations that I am interested in via my Twitter account. However, I do not check my Twitter on a regular basis. I think it is a great path for me to know the most updated issues, only if I make checking Twitter a regular habit.

Symbaloo – It is one of my UBC course’s assignment that I used Symbaloo to organize my online resources. I had put a few things in my grid, but seldom go back to it. It is a useful tool, but I found using the Safari’s bookmark is more convenient.

Jackie's Symbaloo 2015-10-16 at 6.42.39 PM

* Screen shot of Jackie’s Symbaloo

Digg Reader – I love this tool! I like how I got updated on new posts of the blogs that I am following. The layout is user friendly, and with one click of the post title, I will be directed to the original blog where I could leave comments. Now I am using Digg Reader not only for my course work, but also for my children’s class blogs.

Google+ – I joined Google+ only a few days ago, I have not have a chance to explore this tool. However, I realize that there are other online tools, such as Symbaloo & Blogger, offer sign in to Google+ account. I wonder if I sign into all of those tools with my Google+ account, will I be able to organize all the information from different tools at one place? I will explore on that in the near future.

There are so many tools that I could use, so many updates I was informed through those tools. There are lots of times that I feel overwhelmed with all these overflowing information. David Warlick has included a diagram “Many PLN Paths” in his article “Grow Your Personal Learning Network: New Technologies Can Keep You Connected and Help You Manage Information Overload.” which provides me with a clear overview of what PLN is.

Many PLN Paths

*Screen shot of the diagram in Warlick’s article.

I know I am at the “infant stage” in building my PLN using ICT. As people always say, “one step at a time.” I already feel overwhelmed with all these new digital tools that I have learned, hence, I am slowing down my pace and will take a small step at a time. I have confidence that one day, I will have built an organized personal learning network.

 

Reference:

Warlick, David. “Grow Your Personal Learning Network: New Technologies Can Keep You Connected and Help You Manage Information Overload.” Learning & Leading with Technology: 12-16. ERIC. Web. 16 Oct. 2015.
<http://eric.ed.gov/?q=David Warlick&id=EJ831435>.

What Is a PLN – Marc-André Lalande’s Take. Dir. Thomas Whilby. The Educator’s PLN. N.p., 4 June 2015. Web. 16 Oct. 2015.
<http://edupln.ning.com/video/what-is-a-pln-marc-andr-lalande-s-take>

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