Wednesday 21 January 2015

Powerful Ideas - Powerful Visuals

There are times on Twitter where I have come across a really great idea and I get motivated to take that idea and pair it with a great visual to share with others.  I thought I would use this post to share the collection of my favourites.  Besides being on Twitter, I have these on my wall in my office, the LFD tvs at the school and up on old school bulletin boards.

I made these images with @canva.  A great tech tool canva.com.

You can find these images on twitter, @vptechnodork.  Share away.

Be Great because...You are Great.  My great tweep @gregbagby as this as part of his Twitter profile.


My kids inspired this, when things weren't going so well for me one day they said this line.  


Yeah we all get the Sunday night nerves.  Admitting it is half the battle.  Are students get these nerves as well.  Just a reminder that the WE can handle it. Bring the AWESOME!


We are developing staff and student understanding of Growth Mindset.  I read an article about Canada's World Junior loss last year and the goalie had this great line about dealing with failure.  Even funnier, my son's own hockey team is not doing so hot this year.  My son read this and said, "wow dad, my team has learned a lot this year!"


This was simply my one word for this year.  Resilience. Our students and staff need more of this.  


When are students want to pack it in when the learning pushes them past their comfort zone. 


Just developing our understanding for the benefits of failure. 


#edtech is not the solution to improving education.  Yeah I said it. 


The benefits of Twitter.  U can also check out the evolution of this image from a storify I put together.  Value of Twitter on Storify


My message on creation vs content. 


From @rmbyrne keynote at #BIT2014


My perspective on having students look up content. 


My view on social media. 


How I work, how I lead.  

Technology is only powerful if we use it with a purpose. 


Reliability of information.  Expression found on a t-shirt. 


We need to change teaching. 



That's it, that's all for now.  Find me @vptechnodork and full sized images are there.  Share away.

Tuesday 20 January 2015

Connected Culture, Collaborative Culture: Comes From the Top!

Today I read an old post from Edutopia, on creating a Twitter driven school culture.  Great piece on getting your staff going on Twitter.  It can be found at: Link to article.

It offers some great ideas for leaders to engage their community, but not just on Twitter, really their suggestions work on creating a positive culture that will be able to accomplish anything.

http://41.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6lv6gWSct1qz8089o1_1280.png

Edutopia is absolutely correct in leading off with modelling.  We as leaders must take those first critical steps in everything we do, from instruction to behaviour to tech use we have to show and set our expectations through modelling.

Next, they suggest displaying your Twitter handle.  This is great for Twittet but don't forget to show how else you connect and to also display how you want others to teach and learn.

The third example of real time encouragement is crucial, again crucial not just on Twitter.  It's easy to retweet and favourite, but it takes a real effort and go the extra mile and talk face-to-face with others and let them know how much you appreciate what they do.  I need to work on the face2face component as well.

Their fourth point really comes down to voice.  Let people know that their voice is heard.  This goes for staff and students.  The twitterfall in the staff room is a great plan.  I will use our hallway LFD TV for this.

We need to trust our staff that their backchannel Chet's on Twitter and at the water-cooler will be purposeful and have meaning. The more open we are the more conversation and the greater the ideas will become.

The Final point on creating a team will naturally occur if we pay attention to all of their other points.  If we create a safe, collaborative environment where we learn together great things will happen.  And as Drucker says, "culture will eat strategy for breakfast."