Growing together

 Some rights reserved by madame_urushiol

I love my job, seriously, it's up there with top jobs in the world, at least in my opinion.  But, like everyone at times I get frustrated with my colleagues. 

Lately it has been revolving around this idea of growing together. A lot of the people I work with are amazing, literally.  Their passion and desire to grow and become amazing educators is overwhelming at times.  There are a few people I am always a little frustrated with, and I think that's my growth area for the next couple of weeks.  The people I work with, I do think they want to get better, but they have a lot to focus on and at times, I feel that my focus isn't their focus, this new revelation is that's okay.  

I need to recommit to the idea that I'm helping them achieve my goals, not my reaching my goals. I need to help them become better and actually grow together.

Personalized Learning

 Some rights reserved by Schockwellenreiter

Back to school! 

I've been thinking over the break about the whole idea of personalised learning, and who should be "in charge" of the experience. 

I think as a teacher it can be overwhelming at times to think about all the organising we have to do for a personalised learning experience.  Often we try to guide and direct and shape the future, even with personalised learning we aren't fully wondering about what the students want. I've been working a lot with maker spaces this year, and iTime inquiry and I think that letting students have some control of the learning while still being able to hit most of the outcomes necessary.

I think working towards personalised learning is crucial, but I've been wondering more about how to make it also communal. 

I want to start bringing experts in from near our school. I want to start building a community, but I also want students to start working together (maybe even being assessed together). 

I don't know, it's the beginning of the year.  I love personalised learning, but I don't just want to focus on the individual.