Category: ETMOOC

How is Learning Like Lacrosse?

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

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

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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? Image

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

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Image 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

 

I Am Responsible … #ETMOOC

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I am responsible for what I learn in #Etmooc. A video post from Benjamin Wilkoff inspired this blog.

Yes, ETMOOC and the amount of information we are presented with is overwhelming, but I LOVE that:

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  • I have choice in setting my learning goals
  • I have learned how to curate the information I am interested in using tools like pinterest or rebelmouse or many others
  • I get to take the road I want to travel on in this journey
  • I get to share what I want, when I want
  • I am learning to focus and filter
  • I get to collaborate with those of my choosing
  • I am choosing to learn from so many people, but filter what it is that I learn

I am so grateful for ALL the wise people who contribute to #ETMOOC, so that I can choose what works best for me.

I think ETMOOC is like being at an amazing banquet with a glorious feast presented in front of me. I get to choose what in that feast will be healthy for me. Yes, it is difficult to choose and there will be frustration in the choosing, and I might even want to avoid some banquets, but in the end I ultimately choose what is best for me and me alone.

By choosing what will work best for me. I know that choice can and will affect other people. By taking care of what it is I need, I can affect others in a positive way.

Check out:

Thanks Ben for making me reflect in more ways than one.

Go to: http://www.haikudeck.com/p/9RSM928Doj/choice

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

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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 21st century. For more information go to ETMOOC

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

Both:

  1. are self- directed learners.
  2. set our own learning goals
  3. at first experience an increase of  anxiety in a new learning environment
  4. are following a personalized program
  5. are excited about learning in a place that honors the way we want to learn
  6. are encouraged to be autonomous and have opportunities to direct our own learning
  7. are taking risks (we ask students to do this every day)
  8. are critically examining what we do and why we do it
  9. look to teachers to guide them through the process
  10. are self- paced, involving continuous progress
  11. are student centered environments with a focus on active learning, reflection and collaboration
  12. 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
erin heather susan

http://www.sspellmancann.wordpress.com
http://www.erinluong.wordpress.com
http://www.heatherenzie.wordpress.com

Making the Connection … School Counselling ETMOOC

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Over the past few years I have dabbled with technology, but I would not say I had a passion for it. With the amount of hours I am spending on my laptop, IPAD and I Phone, paying attention to ETMOOC, I am definitely headed in that direction. It all started with Alec Couros getting me going on twitter.

However, my real passion is School Counselling. I absolutely love what I do and I now feel technology can assist school counsellors like nothing else has. I believe Dr. Erin Mason @ecmason is an inspiration when it comes to this area.

Her dedication to this area is one of the things that has led me to even be interested in something like #ETMOOC. The SCOPE Blog: is taking an in depth look at tech tools for the School Counseling profession and I believe after ETMOOC I can add a few more tools to that kit. SCOPE is School Counselor Online Professional Exchange for those of you in this field.

This process of connecting the two areas that I feel passionate about is where I believe I am headed. That will be my goal. This will be my focus. Melding these two things I am passionate about to make the difference in the lives of students.

I am in the infancy stages of really making this happen and I will be looking to others who are way more experienced than me to assist me on my journey.

I get easily frustrated when technology seems complex. I have many lessons to learn and #ETMOOC is pushing me to reach further. Exciting, yet scary all at the same time.

Reflecting on this experience, I am hopeful I will move me forward in a new direction. Exactly what that new direction will be I am not sure. That’s the scary and exciting part that can bring about some anxiety. Something I am sure students in our self- directed school community experience, but is relatively new to me.

Making my learning more visible, makes me reflect and see more clearly which is virtually impossible seeing as I have kerataconus. However, seeing more clearly happens in the mind and how joyous is that.

I do look forward to new discoveries and connections. What will I learn next? It’s all up to me. That is what ETMOOC is all about.

“We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us” Joseph Campbell

I will wait patiently to see what is in store for me.

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Role Reversal Part of the #ETMOOC Experience

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Tonight as I sat down to enter my #ETMOOC chat, my daughter was making a great supper. As I began to open up my laptop, get my cell phone ready so that I could  to begin to find the hashtag to enter a twitterchat for #etmchat , here’s what my daughter said. “Mom put that away we are eating supper!”

I said, ” I can’t because I am in a class and this is part of what I have to do”. She told me a few more times  to put down the technology and I continued on to keep up with the chat. I repeated what I needed to do and finally she accepted it. How many times in the past had I told her to put away her phone etc? It almost made me laugh as I realize now how when my kids are engaged in something they feel is important to them, they don’t want to stop.

On the other side of that, we have been very fortunate as a family to have many dinners together where we are all fully engaged in conversation and not distracted by technology.

So many life lessons to learn as I journey on with my #ETMOOC experience. As my professor used to tell me all the time when I did my Master’s in Counselling,”trust the process”. So I will!

So many things to learn. Isn’t life about learning lessons, no matter how old we are?

So happy to be a part of the inaugural chat. Thanks to my new online colleagues at #ETMOOC.

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Educate From The Heart To The Heart

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I hope all school counsellors and teachers do this. As school counsellors we deal with such emotional issues and if we cannnot connect to the heart of a student we will never be able to help them . I know what I do impacts those around me and everyday I attempt to do the best I can by reaching out with heartfelt compassion to those around me. I do not believe I am always successful, but I know it is my goal everyday to do so.

In my attempt to assist students along their journey in life, I reach out attempting to make a difference. This jumping out of my box into the ED tech world is my way of touching the hearts of many students so that they can get the supports they need. Counselling is more than assisting a student in my office. It is reaching out to students on a more global scale. It is being able to use technology to reach and teach them.  I will promise to use this process to educate from the heart using technology and all the tools ETMOOC gives me.

This week my daughter found this heart tomatoe in our fridge. I guess it was meant for this blog. So this post is from my heart to yours.

ImageSchool Counselling With Technology From the Heart.

Connecting with like minded people…My ETMOOC Introduction

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Hoping you enjoy my Introduction. I am learning … so playing with all the options to see how this works. This video shows how to embed a smilebox slideshow into your wordpress blog.

Still figuring things out!
If I deleted any comments sorry . You will have to repost.

My life in 2012

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My life in 2012

This is my first try at Animoto!!! Fast, easy, fun! Oh I am moving outside my box and trying new things! Thanks #edmooc. Tonight I used google plus to find edmoto …to create a new video!