Thinking Time

I have noticed something about myself and the way I solve problems. Not always but, I tend to need a lot of time to think and play with ideas in order to arrive at a solution.

I played around with different ideas before arriving at the final idea, as well as the code, for the initial extensions I made. 

version 1.0

Today I finally made a Google Sheet that would reveal a part of the picture when you get the right answer. I have been playing around with that one for a week or so, and it just clicked today based on some Googling and some connections to prior knowledge. 

It didn't work initially because I had the code wrong. 

Then it didn't work because the image URLs didn't work.

After a few hours today, I got it to work and have a final product. 

version 2.0

I guess what I need to remember is that sometimes it is good to put projects on the back burner and return to them at a later time.

Here is the post on how I made the Google Sheet and a link to make a copy.

First Year Reflections

This post has been waiting to be written for a few weeks.

I call it my "first year" despite being in my fourth year at my current school for a few reasons. The first reason being each year has felt like a new year, but more relevantly because this was my first year as PYP Learning Support and Technology Coach.

Photo by Edi Libedinsky on Unsplash

This was a new position for both me and the school. I had been a technology coach before, but it was at a different school [KAS]-- and a completely different situation [K-12 vs K-6].

What worked for me at KAS was:

• An open schedule (Well, only 10 hours of teaching a week)
• Support - the person who hired me had a vision for what he wanted the coaching program to look like
• Weekly meetings with my boss - the Tech Director
• A group of teachers who would support teachers and meet once a month to talk about tech issues and ideas in the school

This year started:

• Weekly meetings with PYPC
• Weekly meetings with Tech Director
• The role
• Started Tech Tuesdays

Not everything worked -- the Tech Tuesdays will be rolled into the weekly faculty meetings and I will try meeting with teachers during that time when we have time to meet with specialist teachers.

Help People See What They Don't See

Today on my walk I listened to a few podcasts. The last two I listened to were connected to each other and to coaching. 

The first podcast I listened to was Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud: Personalized Professional Learning: Teacher Voice and Choice in Coaching.

In this episode, he showed an example coaching where he asked the following questions:

• Can you describe the teaching situation?
• How much will you need to modify to do what you want to do?
• What is the specific activity you will do?
• What is the most important thing the kids will do?
• What is the most important outcome of the lesson? What is the most important thing you will need the kids to do?
• What will the kids do in the lesson that will help them reach the outcome?
• What are the most important things for you as the teacher to do to help them reach the outcome?
• What would you like me to give you feedback on?

The second one was The Psychology Podcast with Scott Barry Kaufman: Lori Gottlieb and Guy Winch || Dear Therapists.

In this podcast, Lori Kaufman talked about how she is not teaching the people she works with because they know more than her. What she says she does is help people see what they don't see. 

Photo by Marten Newhall on Unsplash

help people see what they don't see

So often I feel intimidated when working with other teachers because I do not know their content. But that is not as important as helping them pinpoint areas they want to work on.