1. As you explore the resources, reflect on the role
teacher leaders can play in the strategies of engaging school community
resources.
Teacher leaders are able to connect with the students and
the community that the school is based from. By keeping the community involved
will benefit not only the students but the school as well. At the beginning of
the school year our school has a back to school bash where parents are invited
to come to the school and meet all of their teachers that their children are
going to have. Our school also has board meetings here so that parents and
community members are able to attend and be a part of. Like I said in my last module post, my school
is involved in a lot of outside projects in the community. My school is always
being used for different events in our community and supports families that are
in need as well.
2. Digital
Leadership: Changing Paradigms for Changing Times (Chapters 11-12)
Chapter 11
Discovering Opportunity
Chapter 11 talks about digital leadership and school
creating different partnerships to help students become successful. Strategic
Partnerships, University Partnerships, Experiential Learning Partnerships,
Intraschool Partnerships, Corporate/Community Partnerships, Mental Health
Partnerships, and Leveraging Social Media.
University Partnerships are helpful to students that are
going to attend college and want to take courses from that college while still
in high school.
Experiential Learning Partnership is when you are allowing
your students to allow work in the classroom a percentage of the time. For
students to really understand something and learn new things they must experience
it first hand. They are able to go to other places and learn what they do.
Instraschool Partnership would be a neat thing to do.
Teachers are working with other teachers around the world or just in a
different school down the road. When teachers are collaborating with other
teachers they are able to discuss different strategies and their classes can
always work together to help each other. Corporate/Community Partnership is
something that schools should do. Schools need to have a relationship with
businesses that are in the community and the community itself. Everyone should
be involved when it comes to helping our students.
The Mental Health Partnership is something that I think is
wonderful. Students need to be able to have somewhere to go when they are having
a hard time with drug abuse or mental health. In this chapter it talks about a
business that works with students ages 19 and under that are dealing with those
things.
Leveraging Social Media is something that everyone in the
school can do. With web 2.0 tools anything is possible as long as teachers are
taking the correct steps for safe learning or use of social media.
Chapter 12 A Call to
Action
Chapter 12 talks about using the pillars of digital
leadership as well and that educator need to follow their leader and know when
to use technology. Students need to have a real world connection to content
that is being taught in the classroom. Teachers need to know when it is a good
time to use technology and when it is better to have face-to-face conversations.
People want to use their phones constantly today instead of having an actual
conversation with someone. Technology has evolved so much compared to when the
home phone was created. People are sending emails and text messages instead of
calling someone or have a conversation with someone face-to-face.
I like how involved your school seems to already be in the community. I feel that you guys are way ahead of South in that regard, but we are growing and learning and changing for the better in that direction. We have a "back to school bash"as well, which is always a great turnout and opportunity for networking of community members, parents and teachers. I hope in years to come South is a hub of community involvement. Someone mentioned bringing in community members to talk and share experiences with the kids about real life jobs and I think that is an exceptional idea and one South needs more of. Our kids have an unrealistic idea of the future, and they need to be educated of how people live and grow outside school.
ReplyDeleteWe are hoping to accomplish this with STEM night this week- community members sharing science, technology, engineering and math. Showing our students the real-world opportunities!
DeleteBrianna,
ReplyDeleteGood post as usual... RCB does have a good connection to the communities and that is a direct reflection of the teacher leaders in that school. Technology has come along and is ever changing the way we send and receive communications, which has both pros and cons. You know me... I'm a talker... and I really like personal face to face interactions, but I also like the ability to have the same conversation with multiple people at the same time in multiple places. I like the ability to edit a group project paper with all the group members using different color font... while having a chat box open... to build a product that incorporates everyone's best ideas or thoughts...technology provides this opportunity.
Your points about partnerships and ideas about student mental health is something many students need access to on a sometimes daily basis. School counselors have become more like class schedulers / fixers than counselors that could be creating life / coping skills groups or 1-on-1 counseling and if they are not able to provide these types of needed services then partnering with outside agencies is vital... good point. Again good post... thanks for sharing this semester... have a great holiday break!
I think that it is good that your school is involved in your community in many ways. I agree with many of the things you said about chapter 11 especially the intraschool partnerships. I think working with educators is a great way to promote learning and growing as a teacher. And it is very important to keep the balance between tech use in the classroom, and the more hands on learning that needs done as well.
ReplyDeleteFantastic job, summarizing chapters 11 and 12. It is really nice to read about a school that has great community events and partnerships. For some of us, we are trying everything we can think of to get our parents and community to collaborate and come together for student success. I learned something new this year, some parents have had so many negative experiences in school (personally as a past student), they view school as an enemy and not worth the trouble, and some are just intimidated:( As leaders, we must learn to reach out consistently and fairly to our parents and community partners.
ReplyDelete