Mr Hammerlund

Photo by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash I have been thinking a lot about feedback this week.  I went in to see a teacher's lesson. She is a specialist teacher teaching some kids who were in my class last year. They are a challengin group of kids and I just wanted to see how they were with her. When I went in, I helped kids I could help and took mental note of what was happening around the room. Afterwards, she approached me about what I saw and what I thought could be different, so I told her rather directly, while being polite, what I thought.  I thought a lot about this interaction, wondering if I was too direct since I don't really know this teacher too well yet. But then again, she asked for feedback and has a desire to improve on her practice. A while back I was in a an accredidation preperation session where we were asked to make something for the visit. Everyone got to work on what they were making. Another teacher came up to me and asked what I was doing. Her line of que...

View this post on Instagram Students exploring worms in gardening club A post shared by Thomas Hammerlund (@thomashammerlund) on Sep 14, 2020 at 1:53am PDT   I started a new after school gardening club today, with two other teachers, that will focus on the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The whole idea for the club was to integrate gardening with the idea of sustainability, so Sustainable Development Goals are a natural way for us to organize the club and it's activities. By Unknown author - Traced from File:Sustainable Development Goals.png, originally at un.org , Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=81280117 In the first meeting, we initially got together, introduced the club, and tried to "tune in" to what their [students] prior knowledge was. Some great vocabulary came out of the first ten minutes Eco-Friendly Reduce Reuse Recycle Soil Nutrients So, they know something. One really awesome scene was when a co...

This is a cheat sheet for Google Hangouts Meet I made while virtual learning. Go ahead and use this with attribution. And if you do use it, and especially if you change it, please share it freely. https://bit.ly/35vSlTE This post is also posted on my tech tips blog .

One thing that worked well at KAS was a culture of workshops and peer coaching. Maybe it was because the school had 10x the teachers this one has, but every time I would post a workshop someone would be there. Photo by Bruno van der Kraan on Unsplash Yesterday I had my first workshop of the year. The topic seemed on point as I had heard many teachers asking how to do it. I set a time of 30 minutes in the working hours, but after school, so people would be free. I sent out reminders - even on that day - and still I was alone. A suggestion was made to have time with me scheduled for teachers. I don't know how I feel about that since people would be forced into it. I will give it this month and reevaluate.     

Last year when we were taught/shown how to use an app, the IT Director would come around and show each teacher individually. I now understand why the IT Director was going around last year to each teacher as he wanted to respect the teachers' time. Now that I am the Tech[nology] Coach here I see that this is taking a lot of time.  I keep thinking about that quote: "If it can be said in an email, make it an email." I heard this again mentioned on the Check It Out podcast. One of the hosts said that instead of sending videos, he just shares the document or presentation by email.  This could be the way to go. It kind of relates to a weekly "Tech Email". At KAS, the IT Director sent out a weekly email (gathered from blog posts ) that had three parts -  Tip of the Week: A larger article about a bigger education topic. Tip of the Web: A shorter article highlighting a tool that teachers could use. Tip of the Hat: A short article highlighting a teacher. I should do ...

Photo by  Matt Seymour  on  Unsplash We have just started Week 3 of the 2020-2021 School Year.  What a year! Not only has the school just opened a new campus about 15 minutes away for the MYP/DP students, but those students have to move between the campuses each day - along with some teachers. Add COVID-19, and it has made everything just that much more challenging. On the PYP side, I feel like a 49er, sifting the gold from the sand, trying to sort this role out. So far I have worked mostly on the tech side, and there is a lot here to do. But gradually I can see a light at the end of the tunnel and the solution has been to communicate with people more.