{"id":569,"date":"2012-06-05T10:06:10","date_gmt":"2012-06-05T17:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/?p=569"},"modified":"2012-06-05T10:06:10","modified_gmt":"2012-06-05T17:06:10","slug":"the-year-of-wonder-riding-the-wave-of-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/?p=569","title":{"rendered":"The Year of Wonder: Riding the Wave of Learning"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My staff describe it as a \u201cyear of wonder.\u201d Sometimes we call it a tsunami and just want to ride the wave without crashing. Other times we refer to it as a fire beginning to flame across the district. We consider it as seeding pockets of innovation we want to take root and spread organically as connected and rooted networks. We liken it to Leadbeater\u2019s \u201cradical social movement.<\/a>\u201d The Global Educational Leaders program<\/a>,\u00a0refers to this as a strategy of diffusion. These are all metaphors to help us understand our work. Supporting teachers in their own learning is central for me. When teachers are passionately engaged in their learning (and when I am passionately engaged in my learning), it spills over to the students. It transforms us all. So just what were the pieces in this \u201cyear of wonder?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0Innovative Learning Designs (Phase 1)<\/span>
\n<\/span>A year ago we announced the 18 schools that were awarded grants as part of the Innovative Learning Designs schools (ILD), Phase 1. I started my blog for this purpose.\u00a0These grants provided a set of iPads (this was our first push to go mobile and begin to encourage BYOD) along with open wireless (this was start of getting our Board to fund Open Wireless across the district) for each school. The grant, however, was focused on learning<\/em> and not hardware or wireless. I write about it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Engaging the Digital Learner Series<\/span>
\n<\/span>We realized that as educators we needed to find a way to engage our learners. We designed a series open to both Administrators and Teachers entitled Engaging the Digital Learner<\/em>. We managed to have four evening sessions in the midst of job action that were truly amazing. We had Chris Kennedy, David Warlick, David Vandergugten and Joe Morelock keynote this series. You can read about it here<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0Again, the series exceeded our expectations and we had fabulous feedback. Teachers were hungry for this kind of inspiration and information. We kept the groups at the same tables throughout the series in the hopes that some key contacts would be made and that it might spawn other organic connections across the district. And, it did.<\/p>\n

The Digital Discovery Series\"\"<\/a><\/span>
\n<\/span>This series ran parallel to the one above. We provided iPads to all administrators. The Superintendent and Deputy were key in making that happen. Part of the decision to do this was because some administrators were not interested in or providing much leadership in the area of digital integration in the schools. We needed to find a way to capture their interest and educate them to become technology leaders. We also wanted them to use it to encourage their own professional learning It led to the launch of our three-part dinner Digital Discovery Series<\/em> (George Couros spoke at one, Alec Couros spoke at the other and Bryan Hughes did the first one as a bootcamp). Details are here<\/a>.\u00a0Our district hadn’t done anything like this in a long time and the administrators were very appreciative. We had tons of excellent feedback on this initiative.<\/p>\n

Cadres of Digital Champions<\/span>
\n<\/span>We created Cadres of Digital Champions (a team of three educators at every school). We provided iPads to every Teacher-Librarian and Technology Contact at every school so they could join forces with Administrators in providing some interest in digital literacy.\u00a0 We were, however, limited by job action in how this manifested itself. We also left it up to the schools and these teams to determine how, and if, they chose to work together. It was about creating the opportunity should others choose to step into it. Find out about it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Core Digital Coaches<\/span>
\n<\/span>\"\"<\/a>From the above group, we asked for volunteers that wanted to become a core team of Digital Coaches to provide support to their larger group. Remember, we are a very large school district. There are 124 schools in our district so that meant we had 124 Technology Contacts, close to 100 potential Teacher Librarians and over 225 Administrators. \u00a0When we requested volunteers we were overwhelmed with interest. We picked sixty people (20 admin, 20 T-Ls, 20 Tech Contacts, 20 Administrators) to be our core team of Digital Coaches. They are supposed to support and help mentor the others. In return, we provided them with advance training and opportunities to be involved in other initiatives. We also see them as our way of keeping our ears open to the needs of the field, consulting them for key advice along the way.<\/p>\n

“Movers & Shakers”\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span>We are starting a “movers & shakers” group. We planned this last spring but couldn\u2019t activate it during job action. These are the teachers providing leadership in the area of technology across our district that are not necessarily involved in any projects. Digital Coaches and Cadre members are intentionally excluded from this group. We looked for teachers that were providing school and\/or district leadership in the area of digital integration. We wanted teachers that were making active use of social media to spread ideas about best practice. Our purpose is to recognize, acknowledge and provide them support. We also want them, in return, to continue to provide leadership and mentor others. This is a mixed group of forty teachers. Our first initiative is to bring them together for a session with George Couros.<\/p>\n

Teacher Librarians Navigating the Digital Space:<\/span>
\n<\/span>We are encouraging our T-Ls to become Digital Impressarios<\/a>.\u00a0We are also now receiving applications from at least 12 librarians who want to move further along the spectrum into becoming a Learning Commons. \u00a0Many of them are already doing this. We are just finding a way to provide them with additional support. The interested T-L\u2019s have submitted applications and will be announced mid-June. Next year they will meet together and explore what it means to be a learning commons in our<\/em> context. They will define this work together. Lisa Domeier (@librarymall) and Sarah Guilmant-Smith, have been the key Teacher-Librarian Helping Teachers behind this work.<\/p>\n

Out of Their Heads:<\/span>
\n<\/span>We have two Fine Arts schools in our district that our now jointly collaborating on a project. You can read more about the project and its anchoring philosophies at their website<\/a>. Amy Newman (@amnewish), District Helping Teacher, was instrumental in its development.<\/p>\n

Making Thinking Visible:<\/span>
\n<\/span>We have 9 teachers (across schools) that are part of an innovative, one-to-one project called Making Thinking Visible<\/em>. This is a different project in that the teachers were hand-picked for being excellent teachers but most of them were not necessarily engaged in the digital space (except for one of them\u2014Karen Lirenman). We want to see what happens when outstanding teachers begin to add technology to their practice\u2026.There is no website for that project. It is still in its infancy. \u00a0We refer to it as a “field study.” Christy Northway, District Principal (Literacy and Early Learning) is working with these teams.<\/p>\n

Innovative Learning Designs (Phase 2):<\/span>
\n<\/span>We just announced another 40 elementary schools as part of ILD, Phase 2. We are scaling up our very first initiative. We refined our application process to make sure we were more explicit about our district\u2019s guiding framework (collaborative inquiry, assessment, differentiated instruction). We also anchored it in twenty-first century literacy and kept it school\u2013based and teacher driven. The applications submitted were amazing. You can read about it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

E-text Project:<\/span>
\n<\/span>We also wanted to dip our toe into the digital realm and make some shifts from print to digital resources. While we are not necessarily fans of e-texts (they are still in their infancy), we felt we might leverage this to shift practice. JB Mahli (@JB_mahli), Social Studies Helping Teacher, initiated this project. We have a video about it embedded in the blog post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>We have also promoted the use of twitter as a way of furthering conversations about best practice. This is the purpose of the #sd36learn hashtag.\u00a0You can read about my own personal journey with twitter here<\/a>.\u00a0The post was just published in the BCPVPA provincial journal that goes out to all BC administrators in our province.<\/p>\n

There are many, many other creative projects that come out of the Education Services department that are also innovative: The Numeracy Project, the Early<\/span> Numeracy Project, the Secondary Focus project, etc. For this post, I have just described the key ones that have a digital component.<\/p>\n

How have others viewed these initiatives? Kevin Amboe (@amboe_k), IML Helping Teacher, described this past year this way, \u201cWhile an incredible challenge with being a bargaining year and essentially work to rule most of the year, we also moved this district further forward in inquiry, innovation and collaboration than I have seen in the past 8 years doing this position.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amy Newman, Research & Asssessment Helping Teacher, describes her own journey, \u201con a personal note, involvement in some of the technology innovations has moved me from an interested bystander to an active engaged and eager participant- hooked on twitter, excited to be blogging and working with teachers on these blogs, as well as sharing all kinds of learning with teachers at all levels. I actively seek out and curate new ideas apps and strategies related to learning through technology and it has transformed my thinking, my learning and shifted my mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n

And as Kevin reflects, \u201cthe pace of inquiry, innovation, and collaboration was like a river rushing through a canyon. I am hoping that we can either find a back eddy to rest or that we reach the delta. This has been an energizing year, but I don’t think the pace is sustainable.\u201d We are seeking ways as District staff to support this work in a way that continues to build capacity at the school level. If we have met our diffusion strategy successfully, we will soon be able to step back and let the work that launched itself go viral of its own accord.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Thank you to George Couros (@gcouros) for prompting this post. He requested a summary of what we were doing in our district. After he read it, he asked that it be made public for others to access.<\/em><\/p>\n

Thanks to the whole<\/span> team of amazing Helping Teachers who have created and supported this new work.<\/em><\/p>\n

Thanks to the IMS Department (and @dj_turner) for allowing us to ride this tsunami.<\/em><\/p>\n

And some stats compliments of their department: <\/em>Surrey School District has 124 schools, 4,000+ teachers, 70,000 students, 8,000 laptops(mac\/pc), 11,000 desktops(mac\/pc), almost 4,500 iPads, 60 IT professionals, 25+ Helping Teachers, \u00a0and daily priceless moments\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My staff describe it as a \u201cyear of wonder.\u201d Sometimes we call it a tsunami and just want to ride the wave without crashing. Other times we refer to it as a fire beginning to flame across the district. We consider it as seeding pockets of innovation we want to take root and spread organically…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,5,6,7,8],"tags":[9,14,113,18,50,52,287,284,114,28,30,34,37,39,44,46],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569"}],"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=569"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":583,"href":"https:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569\/revisions\/583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}