{"id":1795,"date":"2015-04-12T19:01:53","date_gmt":"2015-04-13T02:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/?p=1795"},"modified":"2015-04-12T19:01:53","modified_gmt":"2015-04-13T02:01:53","slug":"guess-what-thats-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/?p=1795","title":{"rendered":"Guess what? That’s us!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nPrologue<\/em>: The post below is reprinted with permission from George Couros and Jeff Unruh, a grade 7 teacher at Pacific Heights Elementary School. Jeff is the teacher that we are visiting and I am the colleague identified in the post. I had invited George to come to our district to do an environmental scan of our journey into innovation. I was interested in having “outsider eyes” and a “critical friend” provide me with feedback on our on-going work to improve student learning. This is what George wrote:<\/h5>\n

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A Higher Chance of Becoming Great? The \u201cTwitter\u201d Factor<\/span><\/h4>\n<\/header>\n
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\"IMG_5158\"<\/a>I walked into the room and I could tell right away.<\/p>\n

This was a teacher I had never met and knew very little about, but the atmosphere in his classroom was great. \u00a0As I walked with my colleague, I asked her the question, \u201cDo you think he is on Twitter?\u201d \u00a0I wanted her to make an educated guess, and her thoughts were the same as mine; definitely.<\/p>\n

How did we know this?<\/p>\n

\"IMG_5148\"<\/a>As I walked in, I saw unique seating spaces, posters all over the wall that focused on \u201ctaking risks\u201d and encouraging students to think different. \u00a0The walls were also covered in information about \u201cGenius Hour\u201d and their recent \u201cMaker Faire\u201d. \u00a0At the time, the students were also learning how to play chess with a master player, who also happened to be a grandparent. Notice that there was no technology mentioned above, but just about a different learning environment. \u00a0There were multiple, amazing opportunities for learning in this classroom to reach students where they were at, and tap into their strengths and passions.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_5160\"<\/a>So when we asked the teacher if they were on Twitter, he mentioned that he was but he didn\u2019t necessarily share that much online. \u00a0But it was his access to information that made things look differently in his classroom. \u00a0When I asked if he had seen an impact in his classroom from the use of Twitter, he wasn\u2019t sure, but it was a type of \u201cboiling frog\u201d scenario. \u00a0The change could have happened so gradually that he did not notice the small steps that could have been made to where he was now. \u00a0Just being a \u201clurker\u201d in that space though, had made a difference.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_5140\"<\/a>Now I am not saying that if you are NOT on Twitter, you are ineffective. \u00a0There might be several classrooms that look like the one I have briefly described that were designed by a teacher who may not be on Twitter, that receive their information elsewhere. \u00a0What I do know is that looked NOTHING like my classroom when I first started teaching, because honestly, I did not have the access to the same information that teachers do now. \u00a0Our opportunities have changed and people have taken advantage to benefit themselves, and more importantly, their students.<\/p>\n

Isolation is now a choice educators make.\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0We have access to not only information, but each other. We need to tap into that.<\/p>\n

Being on Twitter d\"IMG_5162\"oesn\u2019t make you a great teacher any more than\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0being on Twitter makes you ineffective. \u00a0There are a lot of great teachers who do some pretty amazing things\u00a0that do not\u00a0connect<\/a>\u00a0online.<\/p>\n

However,\u00a0I do believe that having that access 24\/7 to great ideas through the medium and the connection to other teachers increases your chances on being great. \u00a0If you really think about it, \u00a0how could it not?<\/p>\n

Note<\/em>: Thanks to George Couros, Jeff Unruh and Principal Sundeep Chohan for expanding our thinking. You\u00a0will hear more from Jeff Unruh as our featured Ignite presenter at our next Learning by Design: Engaging the Digital Learner<\/em> session. George will also be keynoting with Superintendent Jordan Tinney at that time as they look back at learning, look at the present, and predict going forward. It promises to be provocative. We will be streaming it live for those that want to join us.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prologue: The post below is reprinted with permission from George Couros and Jeff Unruh, a grade 7 teacher at Pacific Heights Elementary School. Jeff is the teacher that we are visiting and I am the colleague identified in the post. I had invited George to come to our district to do an environmental scan of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[226,3,4,23,220,7,230,1],"tags":[194,287,263,39,48],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1795"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1795"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1814,"href":"https:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1795\/revisions\/1814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}