Lessons Learned

Instructional Technology - International Education - Wellness

Category: Communication (page 1 of 9)

Collaboration, Creativity, and Refinement with the Kidspire Team

For the past several months, I have worked with a team of dedicated educators at the Kidspire non-profit in Vietnam to co-design wellness lessons. They provide educational services to children in orphanages. Their curriculum covers STEAM while growing their wellness and life skills offerings.

After meeting at their office last spring to learn about their wellness program goals, I began to work on the Wellness@Kidspire resource website. The plan was for me to design the first draft of Positive Psychology activities on the PERMAH pillars, digital wellness, and the character strengths of emotional intelligence, grit, growth mindset, proactivity, self-control (self-regulation), and social intelligence. The target audience would be high school students preparing to transition to an independent life outside the orphanages.

Ms. Ai Nguyen as the lead designer, would then draw from the resource site to develop a slide deck while getting input from the Kidspire team and the teachers in the orphanages. Ms. Ai has recently shared the slide deck with me, which is in Vietnamese, but you can get a feel for the lessons through the images. The teachers will now teach the lessons giving feedback to Ms. Ai, who will refine the lessons for the next time they are taught. She will also provide me with insights and to-do’s to take the first draft of the Wellness@Kidspire site to the next level.

My reason for sharing our efforts is to point out how an instructional coach for wellness works with teachers and administrators. The process of gathering information as to the audience and the goals starts the process. The design and draft creation come next on the part of the wellness coach. The lead designer and teachers then add their distributed expertise to craft the learning activities to best meet the needs of their students.

New iterations come about as the teachers and the design lead see what works and what doesn’t while adding their own ideas to improve the lessons. This information returns to the wellness coach to enhance the original resource materials.

One big gap in this process is that I am not in Vietnam co-teaching some of the lessons to work directly with the teachers and Ms. Ai. The reality is that I don’t speak Vietnamese, so this isn’t feasible, but it is what I would be doing as a wellness coach in an international school. I have written about the roles of the instructional technologist and wellness coach in which I attend the elementary school grade-level team curriculum meetings to co-design in person. The collaborative and creative sessions are followed up by my co-teaching to fine-tune lessons to then share with the other team members to teach independently. And note that many lessons are not standalone as they are activities integrated into the LA, social studies, math, etc. curricula and classroom practices using the PRIME integration strategies pulled from the Wellness@ES website.

I do want to highlight the role of what I call the wellness lead, which in this case is Ms. Ai. I have written a few times about the elementary teaching teams having a wellness lead who looks at the team’s actions through the lens of wellness to find ways to support its integration. As an instructional technologist, I had a tech lead on each team. Something tells me this is the norm, with team members being the literacy, math, etc., go-to person to lead out in their respective areas of expertise.

A Community Wellness Program – Now More Than Ever

Time for another Captain Obvious moment. Boy, howdy, do schools need school and community wellness programs more than ever! πŸ™‚ CASEL and other SEL organizations are filling my inbox with messages pointing to the need for SEL support in schools and how education and government leaders now understand just how vital student well-being is for personal development and academic success.

I have written much about the need for school wellness programs to include staff and the greater community (families). As my world is international schools, I am sure that schools worldwide are all in on student and staff wellness, but I wonder how many have outreach programs for family wellness support.

My going forward thought is that if schools do not have a community component to the wellness programs, they need to put a plan together to bring parents and interested staff members together to design one. Some of my previous posts have a few ideas and structures that could go into one’s community wellness program.

And from a practical and competitive viewpoint, I think prospective families looking at schools might just start expecting school websites and promotional materials to list ways that the schools support community wellness through a variety of ways (e.g., a parent portal filled with wellness resources, community wellness blog, family wellness plans, on-campus parent center, family needs assessment survey, weekend sports, and activities, etc.)

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Shifting from PD to Personalized Learning

This past week I listened to Dan Taylor and John Mikton’s Β The International Schools Podcast, in which John interviewed my old podcasting partner Jeff Utecht and his current podcasting partner Tricia Friedman. Listen to the episode as they cover various interesting issues, including professional development (PD). Jeff and Tricia are consultants and PD providers, so they shared many helpful insights on this topic.

What caught my attention was when Jeff noted that we need to move away from the term “professional” development and toward “personal learning.” His statement reminded me of our Ed Tech Co-Op podcast’s episode entitled “Personalizing PD” in 2015. Jeff and I discussed multiple pathways to support educators’ professional learning. Our big takeaway was, yes, build in a system for individualized and personalized learning not just around professional learning but also around personal non-job focused learning. It really was a good and helpful episode, if you ask me, so take a listen. What we said in 2015 is even more relevant today when the pandemic’s conventional practice of bringing in consultants for face-to-face learning is limited.

I wrote Jeff after listening to the podcast, saying that I have no idea where the field of professional development is today. Still, I had a couple brain-pops that might help educators think about their learning. First, we know the term “personalized learning” has been a buzzword for some years regarding student learning. I have covered this topic in my blog on a few occasions. I also developed a section on the Web Resources for Learning website dedicated to helping students design what I call their personal learning system. On that resource page, I mention that educators also develop their own personal learning systems. I think educators would see the connection when one says the term professional learning network or PLN.

Network means being connected to resources and others, while system means how to make the connections and on what topics. So as students might have subject area, information gathering, curation, etc., categories of their Personal Learning System, educators also do the same with their PLNs. An elementary teacher’s “system” might cover subject areas, instructional methods, assessment techniques, etc., along with the tools to reach out to resources and thought leaders while also sending the teacher’s ideas to others in the network. Many tools are social networking but can also include web resource sites, podcasts, blogs, and other information sources that can be curated.

Helping teachers see their learning as networked and part of a system might help them visualize whether they have a PLN or not; they might want to shift from thinking that their school is the leading provider of their professional learning. And as Jeff and I spoke about on the podcast, we need to move away from siloing our learning into professional versus personal. Many folks have their social networking and information resource providers mixing in professional and individual learning. I find that I get a lot of ideas around education by reading and listening to thought leaders who are not educators.

Another idea is to think about how you learn. We discuss how students learn, including which modalities might help support differentiation. We also talk a lot about student agency, including helping students better understand how they learn. So as is often the case, we can apply what we are doing with students to ourselves. πŸ™‚ Look to enhance your agency by thinking about the variety of ways you learn as you look to develop or recalibrate your PLN. I am reminded of a blog post I wrote entitled “How Do Adults Learn?“. It might provide some insights as it was based on current research.

So if you have a PLN, you might have reached out to your instructional coaches, librarian, and possibly some other teachers, significantly those fluent with social networking tools, to help you build your network. If you don’t have a PLN and want to further personalize your learning, you might want to reach out to these folks for content and connection tools to get you started.

Speaking of Jeff, Tricia, John, and Dan, you really should look to follow them on Twitter and/or other networking tools where they are present to add them to your PLN.

Photo by Clint Adair on Unsplash

 

Virtual School Pedagogy – Oldies but Goodies

Note: My international school is just starting virtual school for the current school year, so we are now just experiencing what many schools have been doing for most of the year. I posted the following to our Wellness blog.

I hung up my instructional technology hat a ways back, so I can’t offer the latest tools, tips, or techniques that many of our staff use in their virtual learning delivery. I can offer pedagogical strategies that have worked in the past and can definitely be supported through technology to enhance learning in virtual schools.

Concept/Mind Maps

Concept/Mind maps help students make their thinking visible, primarily when representing connections between ideas, events, topics, etc. Concept maps also can be used as collaboration tools.

An excellent way to use concept maps for virtual learning is to use an online provider like Mindmeister. Students can share their Mindmeister concept maps with you to access their thinking, especially for formative assessment of their understanding as the unit of study progresses. Virtual collaboration is supported if you partner with students or place them in groups to work together to use mind maps for multiple purposes. Here is a mind map template for essential questions one teacher provided his students. Look at a blog post describing how students used concept maps to answer the essential questions for their units of study at a couple schools.

Learning Activity Types via TPACK

Several American professors came together in 2010-11 to organize learning activity types (LAT) into nine subject areas supported by technology. They published articles about their efforts. Here is one. They provide research-supported pedagogies in their Learning Activity Types website hosted at the College of William & Mary School of Education. They apply the TPACK construct for planning purposes. Look to their website by going to the left side menu to select from the nine learning activity-type disciplines. The supporting technologies are from 2011, so adapt ones that still exist today and/or find the latest iteration or replacement tool that best supports each pedagogy. Image Source

Multimedia Essays (Media Mashups)

Writing essays is one of the most precious skills that we teach our students. But sometimes, our students can benefit from an alternative learning experience and assessment that engages the full range of their ICL skills. We can differentiate and add complexity to the standard writing process by having students create multimedia essays where they “mash up” various sources of media to communicate their thinking. At the time, a William and Mary doctoral student describes her work with multimedia essays in this podcast. Image Source

Personalized Learning System (PLS)

Students (and teachers) use technology to access information, to make meaning, to create and communicate their learning via a personalized set of resources for learning… a “go-to” 24/7 technology and information access toolkit – a Personal Learning System (PLS).

We guide our students to work as architects designing and maximizing their “learning flow” (think of the term workflow) while also engaging in time management techniques to increase efficiency and purposeful productivity. Self-directed and growth-minded students use devices, apps, Web tools, and information sources, putting themselves in charge of their learning. Here is a web resource describing what a Personal Learning System can look like and a planning document for students to work with.Β Image Source

Sketchnoting (Visual Note-Taking)

Our students live in a media-rich world. They think in images, video, and sound while constantly making neural connections. The creation apps on phones, tablets, and computers offer students pathways to draw, audio record, insert images/video, and embed hyperlinks to information sources, all personalized. This is where visual note-taking comes in. We can expand note-taking choices beyond text recording into multiple modalities by guiding students to use mind maps, colors, shapes, images, and digital grouping by dragging and dropping objects and connecting lines to record their thinking. Image Source

The Six Thinking Hats

Edward de Bono created this approach to decision-making and problem-solving that guides users to think in terms of types of thinking and perspective. We can apply them for individuals and groups of students to use as they process information. Here is a helpful overview and a teacher’s application in her classroom. Image Source

Thinking Routines

In the book Making Thinking Visible, Ron Ritchhart, Mark Church, and Karin Morisson help readers understand the power of thinking routines to help students process big ideas and make their thinking visible. Teachers routinely use the thinking routines in their regular face-to-face classes. One can also choose from a variety of technologies to also use in virtual school. Here is a dated web resource on the supportive tools one can use. However, the application of the routines is sound. If you are new to the routines, you can review an article by Ron Ritchhart and David Perkins entitled Making Thinking Visible. Also, look to go through the Harvard Project Zero Thinking Routine Toolbox. Image Source

WebQuests

WebQuests are a natural pedagogy for virtual schools because they’re already web-based. They connect inquiry and research skills to students working in teams using their communication skills to present their findings. WebQuests are online research expeditions built by teachers that put the students into roles to find information from selected sites and other resources as they attempt to solve a real problem and/or answer a question. The students in teams analyze, curate, and then use the information to create a learning product to demonstrate their understanding. WebQuests are NOT internet scavenger hunts with students just going through a list of links. True WebQuests have the students performing in the authentic roles of historians, economists, mathematicians, etc. The culminating project is usually a performance task in which the students present their findings while playing their roles or applying the learning to produce a product. Image Source

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A significant wellness connection for these pedagogies is that they engage students in PERMAH while exercising their Character Strengths. Collaboration amplifies Relationships with students using their strengths of kindness, leadership, and teamwork, to name just a few character strength applications. The process of creating definitely has students applying their strength of creativity within the pillars of Engagement and Accomplishment.

So how do we take these oldies but goody strategies and other current innovative and effective practices to spread them throughout our virtual school? One approach would be to form a virtual school design team in each division who become busy bees finding out what’s happening in virtual classrooms elaborating on ideas, and making connections to new approaches. They then cross-pollinate throughout the division and potentially between divisions. 😁

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Four Types of Thinking Embedded into the Curriculum

The leaders at my school do a great job of documenting information, especially around frameworks. Here are the four types of thinking that teachers and coaches work to integrate and teach within everyday and units of study curriculum.

Wellness Diffusion – School and Community – Go BIG!

This is another post that has been sitting in my draft folder for a long time. I originally planned it for my “what if we…” series. My title was “What If We…Really Built and Sustained a Community Wellness Program”. We have scientifically proven tools through Positive Psychology to help individuals, teaching teams, and the greater community improve their well-being. This is a big honker of a wish, but I think it is doable, especially in a world with many stressors, including the need for digital wellness and individuals struggling with physical and mental health.

My hat is off to the schools that go full-on to provide wellness educational opportunities along with natural mechanisms to help all community stakeholders live and embed wellness into their lives.

Here is what I finally came up with for this post, including a graphic I put together a couple of years ago for the wellness committee at my current school.

Community Wellness

Community Wellness

How and where can school leaders help toΒ diffuse the tenets of Positive Psychology (wellness) into the culture of the school and the greater community? I don’t have the background in administration or school communications to answer this question, but here are a few ideas. πŸ™‚ A few areas that come to mind for broad integration opportunities are hiring practices, policies, ongoing staff professional growth, curriculum integration including planning templates and rubrics, communication conduits (i.e., newsletters, email, social networking), a wellness information resource site, a parent learning portal, etc. As for the question of where to spread the seeds of wellness, the answer is, of course, EVERYWHERE!

I think a good place for school leaders to start their planning is to look at how they approach the diffusion of the school mission and core values into the school culture and the greater community.

Schools naturally offer orientation and some sort of onboarding process for students, parents, and new staff to learn about the mission and culture of the school. I can see schools going BIG when it comes to introducing the school wellness program to newcomers as a part of an ongoing orientation program.

Parents could be offered a series of workshops on the mission and wellness practices and a wide array of topics/needs gathered from previous new parents’ reports. Sticking with wellness, book clubs, parent meet-ups, and online resources via a parent portal could also be shared as part of the diffusion process.

The Strength Switch, based on Positive Psychology, is the book that we are using at my school for a parent book club. I could see going big by giving all the new parents a copy and the opportunity to join either workshops on strength-based parenting or book clubs while providing online guidance via the parent portal on applying the principles shared in the book.

A theme of my blog posts about supporting parents is that schools should offer pathways for face-to-face (F2F) and virtual learning in the languages of the parent community.

Potential wellness workshops and online resources could be offered F2F and online on the topics of:

Another area to embed wellness practices and language into school culture is co-curricular activities and weekend community events. There are many natural ways to bring PERMAH and character strengths into the learning process, from sports to afterschool classes to the arts. Here is a blog post where I wrote about after-school programming and wellness.

Don’t limit your thinking to only students participating in afterschool activities. Look for a parent center with staffing and resources to support learning on the topics listed above and the others your community needs assessment results give you to provide to your school leaders.

As for staff learning about wellness, think outside the box of the typical “sit and get” sessions of bringing outside providers. Go to tried and true professional learning methods like Teachers Teaching Teachers (TTT). Construct your menu of learning choices by leveraging the expertise of your staff! Team up your instructional coaches and wellness coaches to provide individualized and team services to help staff set up their Personal Learning Networks (PLN) to personalize their learning for personal and professional growth. Provide “afterschool activities” for staff, offering wellness activities such as yoga, Tai Chi, meditation, local cuisine cooking, art/music/drama, sporting activities, etc. (Thanks, Kattina, for the idea!) And look to provide a wellness podcast and a blog to provide ongoing and just-in-time learning opportunities. I guess you could also have a school wellness Twitter account that informs the community of blog and podcast releases.

The bottom line is to find ways through multiple pathways to support the wellness of your community members!

Photo by Chaozzy Lin on Unsplash

VS – Calling All Consultants!

Where there is a need, there is opportunity. I am Captain Obvious with the idea that educational consultants, whether as individuals or as companies, have a worldwide market of schools who need their services to dial up their virtual school game. I can see a consultancy company offering a full continuum of differentiated “how to do virtual school programs” based on recent experiences and needs of international schools. I am guessing the consultancy would be done virtually, with the potential of in-person follow-up at some point down the road. Even schools like mine that nailed virtual school could benefit from designers coming in to help us go to the next level in our virtual offerings.

Following Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs approach adapted to virtual school, a school like mine is not that far from actualization. In contrast, lower-level schools might need essential foundational work on setting up systems from HOS communication to parent relations to teaching/learning platforms. I can see a consultant offering a range of offerings bringing in the distributed expertise of his/her team’s counselors, instructional technologists, curriculum designers, communications team, etc. As I have written, I would really push the need for wellness and the human touch (i.e., community building) into the consultancy offerings.

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

Supporting Change, Loss and Transitions

I am working with one of our Grade 5 teachers to deliver lessons to assist his students in the processing of their feelings as they are experiencing virtual school. We introduced the stages of change and transition and then had the students spend time recording their thinking and connected feelings as they went through each stage. As we are in our third month of virtual school, the students report that they are now in the final acceptance stage of virtual school.

We know that virtual school really benefits some students who would not normally speak up in class. Having control over time and being able to carefully craft their thoughts to be shared through tools like Padlet can be beneficial for many. We finished our lesson today with a whole class anonymously share out of their thoughts and feelings experienced during VS. We completed the lesson with students using the chat feature in Google Meets to point out patterns in responses and other lessons learned.

Here is a partial screenshot of the Padlet board. I think it is pretty clear that the students put in some time to reflect and acknowledge their individual experiences going through virtual school.

Photo by Ross Findon on Unsplash

VS – Scaffolding Communication

SeeSaw is our main communication and learning platform. As we move into our third month of VS, our teachers continue to be diligent in supporting student completion of work. The following is a screenshot from SeeSaw that teachers are sending out to students to help them organize their assignments.

VS- Virtual PD

Our instructional coach for STEM along with our other coaches organized a round of Teachers Teaching Teachers (TTT) to be delivered via our videoconferencing platform. They are getting input on what folks want to learn about and what they feel comfortable teaching.

I want to share the email that went out to staff because it reinforces the importance of community while acknowledging, validating, and celebrating what our teachers are doing as designers and creators.

Hi all,

You all amaze me. You are reinventing school over and over again as we continue with social distancing and the change in our community structure.Β  I see you all changing your consciousness: Not just about how you go about teaching effectively in the virtual world, but also about what you value about community and your work. You are learning about your own flexibility and craftsmanship while developing different forms of interdependence with others.Β  And many of you are becoming experts at technology in ways you might never have predicted.

Lots of people ask me “what are other teams doing?” and “how can I get better/more efficient at ….” Many of you are further along in building your virtual school repertoire and have ideas to offer that people could really use right now. Some of you are only beginning and would love a little mentorship or a place to just to collect ideas.

In this TTT, you will have the chance to present for a few minutes, something that you are doing that is going well and that people could use a little help with. You may just want to listen and ask questions. We also welcome anyone who might want to moderate discussions.

Our TTT is scheduled for this Wednesday, to next Tuesday, April 14, from 2-3 pm.

Please sign up for up to 4 sessions you are most interested in by Thursday at 3 pm.

This will be moderated in part by the coaching team via Zoom. A link will be sent out next Tuesday.

I cannot say this enough. I am proud that I get to be a part of such an excellent faculty. Your dedication to our community, even at this taxing time, is really wonderful.

STEM Coach Name

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