Once again, it is professional development day. This time, it was hosted by my local union: the Coquitlam Teachers Association. This particular day was of importance, not just because it was an opportunity to learn something new I might bring back to my practice, but also I was presenting again! The theme was “Empowered Educators”, so I carried with me the questions: “How will I empower others today?” and “what empowers me to get out of my comfort zone?”
Nicole Cruz and I presented once again on SeeSaw for the teachers who were unable to attend the last session we hosted. Prior to the workshop, Nicole and I met earlier that week to debrief how we thought the last session went and how we could improve the workshop. Our major changes included shortening the run time of a live demo of sample lesson from the SeeSaw library, and integrating the district STEAM initiatives on to SeeSaw, so teachers could use district resources within the SeeSaw platform and be linked to our district SharePoint to share their evidence of learning. This time around, our session run time was extended from 60 minutes to 90 minutes. There was also added pressure because we were at capacity when the session started. Nicole and I were worried that we would not have enough content to keep people engaged. Lucky for us, the clientele were a mix of teachers who have and have never used SeeSaw before, so we were hoping that the more experienced users could aid in supporting their peers. Regardless, the second time around, we were much more in sync when it came to presenting. There was a natural flow to the workshop where Nicole handled the technical side of SeeSaw, such as logging in, adding students, and accessing the resource library, while I offered insights into the possible applications for the platform outside of photo sharing. We found that the mix of teacher experience opened the doors for some great conversation. A new user would often ask a question, and someone would chime in with a solution they were using. It created this space of dialogue where it no longer felt like Nicole and I were talking at teachers, but it was a hangout session sharing what we knew and trying things together. We allocated 30 minutes of our time to exploration and everyone was engaged in trying out the platform, or exploring the STEAM challenges the district posted to SeeSaw. I hope that the freedom of choice and access to expert help on their terms empowered my audience to try something new and possibly want to use SeeSaw in the future.
It was an energizing way to start the professional development day. I can confidently say that I have overcome my hosting a professional development workshop nervousness, at least with Nicole at my side. I hope to work with her in the future to develop some more workshops, or test some district initiatives with her aide. Having the confidence and knowing what to expect when presenting to teachers has given me new insights into how I might go about delivering my 3D printing masters project workshop in the future. I would love to create a Q&A section where we answer each others’ wonderings, and ease the anxieties of teachers. I am also thinking that I would like to create some time and space for teachers to explore either the hardware or software for 3D printing, so they can learn more about a component that they are still wondering about with the assistance of a facilitator.
This session’s keynote was midday and was hosted by Lisa Baylis, who is the Education Director for the Center for Mindful Self-Compassion. The theme was “self-compassion.” How are we compassionate to ourselves? Do we show compassion to ourselves? What does that look like? If we are not compassionate to ourselves at the moment, why is that, and what do we need in order to remedy that?
I have heard of self-care, taking time for ourselves, and understanding that work will still be there even if we stop to take a break. It is a message I have heard over and over again, but it is messaging all of us teachers keep needing to hear. Lisa mentioned that because we are in a caring profession, we are used to putting the needs of others before our own. She wanted us to think about what we needed in that very moment. Addressing those needs are not selfish, a waste of time, nor are they meant for “later.” It is a part of regulating ourselves, and allowing us to properly unwind from the workplace after the school day is over.
Lisa asked us a pivotal question: “how do you respond to a friend who is going through a tough time?” “What do you do/say/suggest to them in their time of need?” “What if we took our own advice, pretended that we were our friend, and put our money where our mouths are?” For a lot of us, giving thoughtful and caring advice to someone we love was easy. It should be that easy to care for ourselves, the way we care for others. It made me think of the growth mindset perspective that we teach our students. We teach them to not be so hard on themselves and strive for better, but we often forget to teach them to be compassionate to themselves. It’s more that just advocating for a brain/sensory break, but advocating for the needs of the whole child. I’m hoping to bring back to my practice of listening to what I need in the moment and not pushing it away until I have a convenient moment. I’m currently looking for strategies to alleviate stress, and a lot of my personal stress stems from the feeling of needing things done now. It is ok to take a moment for yourself, do 1 task you can mentally handle then reassess, ask for help….the list goes on. If I can be more compassionate to myself, I wonder what the long-term effects on my well-being and practice will be. Overall, the keynote was the reassuring conversation I needed to have.
To break my EdTech pro-d streak, I was looking for something completely different, that maybe, just maybe, I could put in back pocket. I have never played Dungeons & Dragons before, but this workshop caught my eye and I was so curious as to how this would work. My only exposure to the D&D world is through the game Baldur’s Gate 3 where you are an adventurer of some sort, make friends, travel around, and experience the story of the land around you. How was I supposed to bring an open role playing game (RPG) experience to the classroom?
Andrew Campbell and Dawn English are both French Immersion teachers at Banting Middle School who love tabletop RPGs and were looking for a way to blend their interests with the curriculum. They play these games with their class weekly and for their session, they walked us through a campaign.
We played a pirate themed campaign where we joined the crew of Jacquotte Delahaye and experienced life at sea. We started with a little bit of story to set the tone, and then we were given each a 20 sided die. This die was used during character building moments, decision making times, and big moments in the story. First we would roll for our levels of physicality, intelligence, charisma, and agility. Everyone rolled their own dice and the score you got would determine what your skills were and what happened to you when our crew encountered combat.
After the first chapter of the campaign, we debriefed how the game worked internally. Andrew and Dawn wrote the stories themselves and they are always situated in history with real characters and real events. They would tie the campaigns to whatever their class was learning in social studies to set the scene. There was a lot of integer math was involved where you could lose -2 health points in a battle, but gain +5 points for getting a good night’s rest. All of the stats were constantly fluctuating. The teachers also did keep track of major events, like who ended the battle or what the crew voted on when decisions were made. These choices would come back in later chapters as either consequences, or fortuitous conditions. Although there was opportunity for students to veer off the beaten path and derail a campaign, the teachers would ingrain the illusion of choice where all of the decisions would ultimately lead to the same events, but the students could feel like they took ownership of what happened. Andrew and Dawn also mentioned that the game works on the honour system, so there was opportunities for students to possibly be dishonest about their dice rolls, but playing with friends keeps people pretty honest when their deskmates are curious about what a peer rolled in comparison to them.
Overall, it was a fun experience. I am not sure how I would bring it into my computer class at this moment, especially when I have only 40 minutes to explain, play, mitigate behaviors, and debrief. I am thinking about my once a week ELL group though, I see them for 30 minutes on Mondays, and I wonder if this would be a fun experience for them to practice their English skills. If I can sit down during spring break and write a mini campaign, I’d love to try it with a small group.
It was a very interesting pro-d session with new and innovative workshops I’ve never seen before. I was amazed at the creativity that the presenters all had, even the ones I didn’t attend. I am hoping that these new ideas usher in a new wave of teachers who want to present on something they love to do in and out of their classroom.
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