It is a time of great uncertainty for me personally. I was laid off and am waiting with baited breath for an email from the District Principal of Human Resources to send me an email with my teaching assignment for 2013-2014. I am now, in a way, feeling unconnected. Some of my connections to colleagues have been severed but perhaps by investigating my own online presence and trying to unlearn and learn new ways of thinking and learning with ITC I can create other connections that can help support me in this time.
Joining what I call ‘Team Layoff’ means many things to me:
1. I have to leave the school I have been at for the last 6 years (I have been laid off before and have been reassigned to the same school, where there have always been a position available for me. I am afraid that there are no positions at the school this year however.) As someone who does not handle new situations or people that well, this is taking me hugely out of my comfort zone. I have made many connections which may be severed as a result (the professional ones at any rate).
2. Any curricular projects and collaborations that I am involved in are now on hold or abandoned as I do not know to what level or subject area I will be assigned.
3. The planning for next year part of my brain is spinning its wheels. I am using Evernote to keep track of ideas for my classroom but they cover all grade 6-8 subjects and are not focused or terribly coherent. Thankfully this course can occupy some of my thoughts, and the ‘when I a library of my own’ thoughts can be given free rein.
4.The school is losing 9 teachers to layoffs. This has made planning for the coming school year difficult. Even planning first week ‘back to school’ activities suffered as ‘Team Layoff’ could not speak for the new staff members who would be occupying their positions in September.
In light of these circumstances I have decided to examine some strategies for teachers to manage when connections are cut. I am looking into ‘teacher resilience’ and how creating a PLN can help teachers with the current environment of change and uncertainty in which we find ourselves.
So far using the search term ‘teacher resilience’ I have found a number of articles linking resilience to teacher retention here is a taste of what I have found so far:
“Teachers resilience: A necessary condition for effectiveness”
“Building Teacher Resilience”
“How Teachers can build Emotional Resilience”
Many of the articles and sites come from Australia where they seem to have a high number of new teachers leaving the profession. I am still trying to find out if there is any network of laid off teachers in BC or my Disrict to provide support. there are mentoring opportunities for new teachers, but this will be great for me AFTER I have a new teaching assignment, not much good to me at the moment.
I’m also looking into Twitter. So far I have created #LIBE477. and looked at #edchat and #cdnedchat.
You are facing a very challenging time! I agree, developing and improving your online social presence can be a productive, creative outlet for the uncertainty you are facing. In addition, it can connect you to other educators who are facing difficulties – either those who have been left behind and are shouldering increased responsibilities, or those who are in your situation: waiting for a call. This could be a good time to focus on improving your technological skills, knowledge and expertise, so that when you do get a position, you will be better prepared to bring leadership to the ICT development in your school community. Now is a perfect time to invest in your connected self, and make that connected self as knowledgeable as possible, for the future benefit of your colleagues and schools.
I have enjoyed having the push to explore these things through this course. Thank You.
I have also found some interesting things about my district colleagues that I didn’t know through using twitter. For example I found this blog post from 2007 written by someone who went on to become computers teacher and then a District Technoloogy coordinator (though he just got made priority one and has taken a grade 6/7 classroom position). I think he does a good job of articulating what the goals of a tech Ed class should be:
“My Opening Words to a Class of Middle School Computer Students
If I were to teach a class of middle school students what I thought was important for them to know before they left my class, my learning intentions message would begin something like this:
Greeting: Good morning / afternoon everyone: (I expect to be greeted in return).
You are not here to learn how to type. You are not here to learn basic file management, and you are not here to produce documents and perform calculations in a spreadsheet. These are just tools in a toolbox. It is however the biggest toolbox in the world, and the most powerful.
No, you are here for other purposes. You are here to discuss what is ethical, and what is not. To argue the black and white of right and wrong, and to fearlessly debate the grey area in between. You are here to express yourself honestly as a human being, and to find your real potential. You are here to create, and to share your creations with a bigger audience. You are here to learn how to protect yourself, and keep yourself safe when on the Internet. You are here to think critically. You are here to learn how to take criticism properly, and not let it make you jaded and bitter. You are here to learn how to use the tools that you will need to become a lifelong learner, and those tools are not the ones in the computer in front of you. They are the ones in your head. Let’s begin.”
Posted by James Gill
James Gill’s blog here: http://gone-digital-native.blogspot.ca/
Thanks for your post Merrin. It hit home for me as I have also been laid-off this year and have no idea where I will be teaching (or what I will be teaching) next year. I saddens me to hear that you have been teaching for 6 years and are still being laid-off! I agree with what you said in terms of technology and teaching, when teachers are forced to change schools each year, it makes long term planning, collaboration and building on student learning from the previous year very difficult. It is also so hard to plan for the year ahead and prepare things like websites, social media sites and other online learning opportunities as you do not know what kind of technology may be available at the new school. Thanks for posting the articles. They are interesting reads! Good luck with your situation. I hope you hear soon where you will be next year.