Sunday, October 23, 2011

My Sentence

I've met Daniel Pink, been to one of his workshops and read his books.  Today I decided to try to answer the question he asks in the following video:  What's your sentence?



I started off with a lot of words which I arranged into 4 sentences.  This seemed like the wrong approach as the sentence was turning into a paragraph.  Then I pulled out the really important words:  students, learning, teachers, transformation, support, model, mentor, coach.  There were some things I decided to leave out that I'd originally put in (co-planning, co-teaching, co-assessing) as they just seemed too cumbersome to include.  I also started with the 6 strands of ICT in the PYP (investigating, creating, communicating, collaborating, organizing and becoming responsible digital citizens) which I then combined together into 21st century skills.
She supports, models, mentors and coaches teachers, giving them the confidence to use digital technologies to transform learning as they prepare their students for the 21st century.

I'm not really sure about the final sentence - I'd love some feedback.  Is there too much emphasis on teachers and not enough on students?  At the moment I do spend a lot more time with students than I do with teachers, though I know the balance is wrong as I believe teachers need to be empowered to use technology themselves with their students and to rely less on me leading the lessons.  We do co-plan everything, but most of the time and for most of the teachers it's me modelling how to use the tools.  Should there be more emphasis on learning (maybe for both students and teachers)?  I'm also not sure about the word model or where it is in the sentence - how can I rework it?

Another thing I'm thinking about is whether or not this sentence is unique enough.  Aren't there lots of educators out there with sentences like this?  Is that a problem?

Thanks in advance to my PLN - you are awesome!

    6 comments:

    1. Nice idea Maggie - like a personal, professional mission statement

      "She is a model, mentor and coach for teachers; growing their confidence and competence in using digital technologies to transform learning for 21st century students."

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    2. Thanks Jay. I owe so much of what I am doing today to the great opportunities I was given for using technology at ISA.

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    3. I think it reads well as it is; clear, not too much, and every word counts. the emphasis on teachers reflects your philosophy. its hard to make a unique sentence without taking a risk and saying something a bit wild! I think its good!

      By the way, are gillians maggie? (ive just made a connection but maybe a wrong one!) :)

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    4. Thanks Tasha - yes I know Gillian as I used to work with her at NIST.

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    5. I like this, Maggie, it reads nicely. Ultimately the sentence will reflect you as a teacher so the question you have to ask is 'how do I want to be represented as a teacher?'

      If I picture a 'teacher' in my head then I automatically imagine some sort of classroom scene with students. This is certainly common at our school with you taking the lead role in most, if not all of the lessons. I think that probably comes down to confidence and experience, but also to attitude in some cases. It's a two-way street and for those teachers that have shown the desire to become empowered through technology you have been available and enthusiastic to help.

      In that sense I think you should keep the focus on teachers instead of students. Given the opportunity, you're not an IT teacher who will speparate the lessons from what is happening in the classroom. I agree that it is important to educate teachers as well as students and this is something I've really valued from working with you. In that sense your sentence is quite unique as I've worked with many teachers who have the opposite view.

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    6. Thanks for your comments Dave. The thing I'm most proud of in my 2 years at the school is how much some teachers have moved forward with using technology to transform student learning.

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