Principals – Page 7 – Counsellor Talk : Connecting with those who want to make a difference.

Mindfulness Matters Especially in a MOOC

Published on February 22, 2013February 22, 2013 by Counsellor Talk2 Comments

photo by johnwilliamsphd cc

Listening to Howard Rheingold on Blackboard Collaborate in ETMOOC last night shifted my attention to mindfulness. Mindfulness is a tool we can all use in this busy, often stressful world of ours. It is certainly a tool that as a school counsellor that I can teach students to use. Especially those students who are plugged in to all kinds of devices .It is a skill I need to remind myself to use while taking this ETMOOC course. Sometimes I have my laptop, my phone, my iPad all going at the same time, especially if I want to keep up in a chat.

It is a misnomer that mindfulness is about focusing. It isn’t. Jon Kabat Zinn describes mindfulness as “the awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and non judgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment to moment.”

In order to be mindful we need to carefully listen to ourselves. We need to shift our attention, not pay attention to where we want or need to be.

For educators here are some great resources to understand mindfulness better:

Open my livebinder: Click on this link:

http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=686211

Dr. Allan Donsky MD from the Department of Psychiatry of Calgary ,is a skilled practitioner in this area. He believes one of the doorways to being fully human is: “AWARENESS >>>> CHOICE >>> ATTENTION >>> ACTION”

I liken this to what I am doing in ETMOOC

I am AWARE that I am attempting to follow many things. I can go off in many directions easily if I allow myself to do that
I make a CHOICE to focus on anything that is related to school counselling
I bring my ATTENTION to those skills, ideas, tweets, chats…
The ACTION part is that by staying in the moment I can get what I need from the experience that will be helpful for me in what I do

To be honest this is a very different learning experience for me and being mindful while having so much data and options laid out in front of me is not easy. I need to practice mindfulness in order for my students to understand it and to be able to use it myself. I need to be mindful of who is in my Personal Learning Network. I also need to model being able to shift my attention to my family, so that my children will be able to do the exact same thing. It is certainly a challenge to be able to put this into practice when I am so engaged in my ETMOOC.

Got to go … shifting my attention

Digital Storytelling At Its Finest

Published on February 21, 2013February 22, 2013 by Counsellor Talk2 Comments

What an amazing story for school counsellors to utilize as a discussion starting point with students. This is a don’t miss story that can lead to dialogue that could impact students greatly.

Digital Literacies … My Passion Motivates Me

Published on February 18, 2013February 19, 2013 by Counsellor Talk2 Comments

Being in ETMOOC is like being at a fabulous movie at home snuggled in my basement watching a movie of my choice on the big screen. Those of you in ETMOOC will understand what I am saying.

I can learn in a comfortable place
I can choose what and how I want to learn
There are so many things I can choose from
I can even get up move around, put things on pause and come back to enjoy what I am doing
I decide if what I am doing is useful to me. I get to take what I like and leave the rest
I am constantly learning even if I am not fully aware of the learning at the time
I can sit back , relax , and absolutely enjoy the anticipation and the experience
It is so enjoyable I do not look forward to it ending

The reason I am even getting better at technology is that I wanted to learn how technology could help me with my Comprehensive School Counselling Program.

I love what I do and technology is able to move me to what Doug Belshaw calls moving from digital elegance to remix.

T3S1: Digital Literacies with Dr. Doug Belshaw (#etmooc)

Certainly a few years ago I would not have believed that possible. I dabbled with technology the same way a small child would and because the tools are easier and easier I grew with the changes.

As Doug Belshaw says, “I think Mozilla understands that digital literacy is a condition, but not a threshold. It affects your identity because every time you are given a new tool, it gives you a different way of impacting upon the world.” I have found this to be more accurate as I move through this ETMOOC and try more and more ways of communicating. Being able to utilize a variety of tools has allowed me to assist students and school counsellors in a way I did not realize was possible.

I look forward in the next few weeks to be able to understand the essential elements of digital literacies in an even deeper way. Thanks to the School Counselling and ETMOOC communities, I will develop literacies and grow and change as a school counsellor which can only affect the students I serve in a positive way.

I look forward to learning more about digital literacies in blackboard collaborate tonight with Doug. Check out his TED video:

Using Voicethread. A Digital Storytelling Tool.

Published on February 11, 2013February 11, 2013 by Counsellor TalkLeave a comment

As part of etmooc we are encouraged to use a variety of Storytelling tools. I had known about voicethread http://voicethread.com/ for awhile now, but this is the first time I actually used it to tell a story. I believe it will be a fantastic way to share what I want to in school counselling. It wil be a great tool to embed in our learning guides in a self- directed high school.

I bought SNOWBALL (the white mic in the picture) which is a great tool if you are doing any voice productions. I like how clear my voice turned out.

A work in progress . My voicethread …

Go to : Never Give Up to see my voicethread. I am working on making it better . I definitely need to work on the timing of my voice.

I love how you can add links to the thread , so I added one of my livebinders on depression in the first thread. I can also see how I could add this link to one of our learning guides so that students could have access to the information. Beacause you can integrate with (D2L) Desire to Learn, this will make it easy for us to use in our school.

School Counsellors in the US have been using this resource and I can see why. See the SCOPE article http://sconlineprofessionalexchange.blogspot.ca/2012/06/using-voicethread.html It will definately work as a psychoeducational tool that we can use in Student Services for various topics that relate to school counselling. I look forward to utilizing this tool more often.

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