Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Finding the balance - is now a good time to get out of the way?


I spend many of my days helping teachers. Most of the time we are focused on educational technology. Today we took a risk and tried an experiment.

This was session seven of seven, we will not meet again until next year. I'm pretty confident that the group does not need any new ideas, they have been idead to death. we give them ideas, the buildings and teams give them ideas, they read about ideas online. Idea overload.

We built a session that mirrored the 20% time/genius hour idea. They had time to figure out what to work on, shared that idea verbally and then they got to work.

Sometimes I struggle with figuring out when to help and when to let the struggle happen. 

The picture above is a great example of learning to back off and let ideas flow. One teacher is helping the other with creating a pretty great project using Google Sites. While I could jump in I think I would kill the conversation and flow of ideas. 

I know I struggled with this in the classroom. I heard someone say that the kids should do most of the talking, they are the ones who should go home exhausted. That is sometimes hard to do because if I am not talking am I doing my job?

The secondary pain is time. While many PD opportunities just load content and ideas they don't leave time to think and create. Finding that balance, thinking/creation time, is very difficult. When is it too much or not enough?

5 comments:

  1. I love this! Agree about time balance--it's hard to do all of the "things" we have to do in the amount of time we have in a day! These teachers were lucky to get some choice time today--hope I have plenty of PD opportunities like this next year!

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  2. First of all, I have to say I like the work space available for your teachers. When I first looked at the picture, and before reading, I thought this might be your home! I love attending PD when there is more of choice for teachers. It is hard to sit and be talked to. Taking it all in can be hard. Choice is always a good choice!

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  3. You got it exactly right -- most PD opportunities do no leave time for teachers to digest and practice what they've learned. I think that's why we forget so much of what was taught to us so quickly. It is hard to sit back and allow all of that to happen, whether our students are kids or adults. It's something I'm working on too! Welcome to the #SOL17! Glad you are here!!

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  4. PD debrief in the car ride on the way home is usually how much we get isn't it. We go home inspired and then ......school life resumes the next day with no time to sit with colleagues to plan and keep the momentum of the excitement. I have an inkling I do the same thing to my kids at school sometimes. Thanks for the reminder to slow down. Welcome to SOL.

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  5. That's awesome! I always tell my students I wish I had Genius Hour time for all the things I want to try. I know I love choice in PD and love collaborating as well!

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