Education – Page 16 – Counsellor Talk : Connecting with those who want to make a difference.

My Story of Art and Flow … Visible Learning , Digital Story Telling

Published on February 11, 2013February 11, 2013 by Counsellor Talk3 Comments

Why do I love painting., because I think I might make money at it someday? No absolutely NOT.

It is because it is the ONLY thing in my life that brings me such wonderful flow. True flow in the psychological sense as described by the positive psychologist Michaly Csikszentmihaly. http://psychology.about.com/od/PositivePsychology/a/flow.htm

It brings me to a place where I am living in the moment. It is a place for me where eight hours feels like five minutes. I have never experienced this feeling in anything I do. Lacrosse brings me to that place for a very short period of time, but nothing else I have done in life has been able to bring me to this mental state.

I can only draw stick men of sorts, so I never gave painting or any Art a real try until two years ago when my neighbour and friend Cristine invited me to her place for an Art lesson.

Since then I have been hooked, moving away from my fears of feeling I can’t … to I can. It is about the process for me, the freedom to just let go. I have taken four one day lessons with four different Artists (each having their own unique style) and that is what is so freeing.

There is no one right way to do Art. Painting is so liberating for me. I look forward to it as an escape, a relaxing activity that just brings me joy and most importantly flow.

We all need a little flow in our lives especially those of us who are in the helping professions. Flow brings us to the place where we can go to recharge.

I am not going to go to that place with my Art that can be the perfectionist in me. I am just going to let go and be me with the Art. I am doing this for me and if my kids happen to like a piece of art I do, I hope someday they will keep it with them as a memory of me. The fun, who cares piece of me that just allows it to be.

Maybe they will keep the piece that they had input into, the one where they inspired me to do something different than I originally planned. It is now the piece I call “ Celebrating Family”.

or maybe the piece I call Dancing in the Rain, which I loved to do as a child.

or maybe they won’t want any, but will have great memories of their mom having fun.

For me these Art days are about having fun, learning from others , celebrating and connecting. Not unlike ETMOOC.

For a little video of our last Art Day go to :

http://smilebox.com/playBlog/4d7a55304d5455774f44453d0d0a&blogview=true

Art has brought great joy to my life. It is a gift that I am very grateful for.

These digital stories allow me to create memories and that really is what it is all about for me. Thanks again ETMOOC.

Search Cube … Coolest Tool … Etmooc users will love

Published on February 9, 2013February 9, 2013 by Counsellor TalkLeave a comment

Go to : http://searchcu.be/#/c/5F301EE6

I love this tool. It will make my searches fun and easy. Students will love this too! So happy I discovered it on twitter.

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Go to: http://www.searchcube.com

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This tool is more fun on an Ipad! You can search and find websites and images easily. You can make your own cube with your favorites. Have fun!

INSPIRED

Published on February 9, 2013February 9, 2013 by Counsellor Talk2 Comments

INSPIRED

I so appreciate all the people in this ETMOOC. So many people’s blogs on ETMOOC inspire me to write and be creative. Amy’s blog did this today. http://amysmooc.wordpress.com/2013/02/08/winterwondergram-patterns-and-diversions

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I love reading Amy’s blog. She is very creative and the way she writes is fun and inspires me, so today I decided to model my post after her blog and add a bit of my own creative flair as you can see above. It is a tribute to my #ETMOOC network.

I decided to try her #hashtag idea and I went on Instagram and took my own pics on my IPAD. The pics for sure have a story and made me a bit homesick. I think you will see why. That is part of my story…

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Hope you enjoy! Home of my heart … family connections in Cape Breton … so many memories and stories …

Sometimes you need so few words #ETMOOC STORY

Published on February 7, 2013February 8, 2013 by Counsellor Talk1 Comment

Click here:

OUR ETMOOC STORY… sometimes you need so few words

Another #sixwordstory

How is Learning Like Lacrosse?

Published on February 3, 2013January 1, 2016 by Counsellor TalkLeave a comment

This process of learning has and always will be fun for me, but there is something different about this ETMOOC?

How is it like lacrosse for me?

I am passionate about both
At 54, I am still in the game
The game is not about winning for me
It’s about loving what I am doing
It is about making connections
It’s about learning from young people
It’s about feeling I have something to contribute
It’s about facing fears
It’s about feeling excited about what I am doing
It’s about questioning whether I really should be doing this
It’s about recognizing the value of continuing to do this
It’s about modeling for my own children to not quit and finding things in life that continue to bring me joy
It’s about making mistakes and learning to laugh at myself
It’s about trying new things

It’s about letting loose, like in a lip dub or trying an old move like I used to when I was a young lacrosse player and realizing that I can still do it!

Do the comments people make on a blog or in lacrosse really matter? Yes, and no. I have to admit I loved it when the past captain of the Calgary Roughnecks, Tracey Kelusky told me I had “golden hands”. I was thrilled. It was an ego boost, especially for someone my age. I can’t run for beans, but I have golden hands (that was few years ago he said that, but it still brings me some joy.) When Andrew McBride, the present captain would ask me to show the much younger ladies how to shoot or pass, yes inside, I beamed with pride.

Or when someone encourages me by commenting on my post, I also have to admit I like that. However, I also recognize that few people may even read or will comment on my posts or might even say non-encouraging comments at some point, but that does not discourage me. I am doing this for me, nobody else. It is about me being reflective, and what I can learn.

I continue to learn as an adult. A few years ago, I took guitar lessons and my teacher told me “I was his most dedicated student who learned so little.”

This is not something I would recommend any teacher say. Did it devastate me? NO, I can actually laugh at that comment as an adult . However, I still have not learned to play guitar. Will I? Yes. Will I do it in a visible way? NO, not like some of my colleagues in ETMOOC , but I will not give up. I will play guitar some day.

However, learning the guitar is not a passion for me like lacrosse or all of the things I am learning about in ETMOOC. I will learn a lot from many of the things and a little from some things. I can take what I like and leave the rest. It is up to me.

For now, the best thing so far about learning is making the connections to my own life as well as making connections in the virtual world that lead to connections in the real world.

I love learning and I love learning the ETMOOC way.Yes indeed, learning and lacrosse they do go together perfectly! I can’t wait for the next ETMOOC lesson and I can’t wait for lacrosse season to start.

Connecting and Sharing with School Counsellors the ETMOOC Way

Published on February 2, 2013February 2, 2013 by Counsellor Talk1 Comment

Connecting,the hallmark of a great counsellor. Having and developing a positive relationship and working alliance with students is so important. It is essential that school counsellors have many tools, but especially the ability to connect.

So today as we in-serviced school counsellors on utilizing technology tools to enhance their comprehensive school counselling plan, we connected on many levels.

Being involved in ETMOOC led us to plan differently for this in-service. Usually, when I have presented to school counsellors in the past, it has been a sharing session of tools that would help them.

However, this time was a bit different. We presented a toolbox full of tech tools and then we would help them to learn the one or ones that they chose and were really interested in.

We modeled our in-service after ETMOOC concepts from the various blackboard collaborate sessions as well as all the twitter discussions. In ETMOOC, there are so many tools and ideas, but we get to choose the ones that work for us. We wanted our school counsellors to have a similar experience.

I had in-serviced school counsellors like this in the past, but this time it was just a bit different. Erin @ehordyskiluong and I used and shared a lot of tools to assist our colleagues. We integrated concepts from ETMOOC and it was so much fun.

School Counsellors are getting on board and connecting in ways they had not thought of before. It makes me very happy that more school counsellors in Canada are beginning to develop their PLN. We will be connecting with counsellors from all over the world because of twitter and ETMOOC. Again a big thanks to Alec Couros and Dr. Erin Mason for their connections to assist us in making this happen.

Oh the web we are weaving. We are developing such a positive network and we still have so much more learning to do. I look forward to week three in ETMOOC.

Will I be able to keep up with all this connecting?

Thanks to the great school counsellors who connected with us and are willing to share.

Go to:

http://www.haikudeck.com/p/jzY0cDFbQQ/technology-tips-and-tricks-for-school-counsellors

Administrators and Counsellors Partnering in Educational Leadership … Idea Inspired by ETMOOC

Published on February 1, 2013February 1, 2013 by Counsellor Talk1 Comment

I never underestimate the importance of the administration in any school, but an administrator who is showing digital leadership today is so important. George Couros http://georgecouros.ca/blog/ models this extremely well.

In one of my first twitter chats the topic I chose to engage in was the Principal and School Counsellor Relationship. http://www.schcounselor.com/2012/11/scchat-transcript-principal-and-school.html

Administration seeing counsellors as part of the leadership team is so important to me and I have been very fortunate to have leaders who absolutely view their school counsellors this way. One of the main ideas I got from that chat was the possibility of the principal and counsellor presenting together, which I really liked. I have presented many times in many ways to both counsellors, teachers and administrators, but never in all my years have I presented with my administrator. We have worked together, collaborated together, thought of ideas together, but never presented together.

After listening to George’s presentation on Becoming a Networked Educational Leader and linking the #scchat and his presentation together another idea has come to me. What a great idea it would be for an administrator and counsellor to do a collaborative blog together. In fact that will be my goal this year before this course is over to do a collaborative blog with one of our administrative team members. I know how open and supportive they are so I look forward to writing a great blog with one of them. As a matter of fact this really inspires me in ways I had not thought of before.

So today I asked our VP if he would be interested in collaborating on a blog with me and he said YES. So stay tuned for our future blog… not sure what topic will be yet, but it doesn’t matter . This will be a first for both of us. To me this is educational leadership at its finest!

Go to:http://www.haikudeck.com/p/Eqgh61bZMC

Connection In a Self- Directed Learning Environment: Learning and Teaching in the Digital Age

Published on January 24, 2013December 1, 2013 by Counsellor Talk4 Comments

What’s going on inside the building of Bishop Carroll is not only exciting, but innovative, educational and engaging. Not only are the halls of Bishop Carroll High School buzzing, but inside the offices of several educators learning is taking place.

Bishop Carroll High School is a part of the Canadian Coalition of Self- Directed Learning

Bishop Carroll works together with other members of the coalition to improve the self-directed experience of all the learners. These schools meet together on an ongoing basis as well as convene at a yearly conference to look at ways of improving the model for students.

All of us at Bishop Carroll agree that we have never been in a school where so much focus and dialogue on instruction takes place on a regular basis. In fact, our staff has biweekly professional development meetings to ensure that we are able to collaborate on best practices and share new ideas. Teachers are continually focusing on how they can make things better for students in a self-directed learning environment.

Bishop Carroll has been around and functioning for over 40 years. Changing visions and learners have meant that staff has also adjusted to honor the shift. Within the last four years, the staff started making a technological commitment. Innovative practices, sharing, collaboration, encouraging our students to experiment with different formats and technological materials has produced growth for not only students, but also teachers. Students have many choices in how they choose to receive information ranging from personal exploration of a topic, pod casts, discussion forums, Google- docs, multimedia presentations, digital learning guides and a focus on digital citizenship.

Technology has not replaced teachers, but has enhanced the learning experience for both the teacher and the student. Technology can be seen as a launching pad for further and more in depth discussions.

Three of us at Bishop Carroll have signed up for an educational experience like none other. Seeing as we already focus on technology as part of our teacher professional growth plans, we felt that getting involved at an international level would be very beneficial. This is a first MOOC for all three of us. What is a MOOC? It is a Massive Open Online Course. We are taking #ETMOOC and are so happy we are involved in this process as it reminds us of what it is like to be a student in the 21^st century. For more information go to ETMOOC

How are #etmoocers like students in our self-directed school?

Both:

are self- directed learners.
set our own learning goals
at first experience an increase of anxiety in a new learning environment
are following a personalized program
are excited about learning in a place that honors the way we want to learn
are encouraged to be autonomous and have opportunities to direct our own learning
are taking risks (we ask students to do this every day)
are critically examining what we do and why we do it
look to teachers to guide them through the process
are self- paced, involving continuous progress
are student centered environments with a focus on active learning, reflection and collaboration
ask for HELP, and often it’s just a click away

Today we chose to collaborate to write this blog post as part of the sharing experience. As we progress through this open forum we hope to continue to share best practice in both the teaching realm as well as what we are doing in the role as school counsellors.
Happy blogging