When I look at making my learning directed toward a different target audience than my students, it scares me a little because adults are judgmental and not as easily impressed. They think they have been around the block (at many school sites and have adopted many curriculums) and many times think they know everything. It is intimidating to say the least when you look out into a see of seasoned teachers that have taught all day and the last thing they want to do is learn something new that doesn't interest them.
I have tried playing music as teachers walk into the meeting, playing team building and digital games and the same blank, annoyed faces are staring back at me as the one when we are learning how to score assessments or collaborate to assess data. Should I be taking this personally? Am I not as interesting as I think? Or, is it that unless the learner wants to learn, you can't make them? I have experienced the latter. If the interest and choice of learning is not there with adults then there mood and energy drain the room like a clogged toilet (insert appropriate image here). According to Baggio in "The Visual Connection", "context is key" and don't distract from the message with visuals that don't apply or use extra wording. I agree that our staff meetings could use some "levity, brevity and repetition"(p80), but when it comes to "new, creative and different,"(p74) we are not there...yet! As far as the objectives and context the meetings are on point, but how does the one in front of the room hook the audience and get adults to want to learn something that will make their job easier? With my group it seems like the emotional ploy is the one that pulls at their heart strings and works the most frequently. I think that this could be where I could influence them to change their practice; with the emotional message using visual strategies. There is so much great information out there to learn and we have a teacher on our campus that is a genius when it comes to trying new things and using technology and innovation in her classroom. For the past few years I have always wondered why she isn't sharing her knowledge and skills with the rest of the site? And now I know. I tried to do a CIP time with technology for our site and whenever we have these optional times to learn something new from peers the same 3-4 teachers show up every time. It could be about the library resources, technology or really anything else and teachers won't come if it's optional? Even when there is choice in learning something new, these teachers opt out. When they don't want to learn or change or expand there is very little to work with. I am trying to find a place where I go to a training that interests me and other like-minded people join. It creates a more positive environment, like Cohort 16. All people who want to sharpen their skills and expand their knowledge and passions, thrive and grow from each other. Baggio has some great ideas on how to make the presentation portion more interesting and I am going to make sure that those strategies are used to help smooth the way to a more positive learning culture in my time left at the school site this year. I mean, what do I have to loose? I am going to give it all I've got and see where it takes me. Wish me luck!
4 Comments
Julie Lovie
3/17/2019 03:16:25 pm
Monica I also wonder why as teachers we don't share more. We ask our students to collaborate but we are very good at it as professionals. I can't tell you how good it feels to be working with such a great group of excited teacher who are eager to learn and share. I have often felt isolated like I was on and island getting old. Now I feel full of energy and excited about teaching .
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Jennifer Perkins
3/17/2019 06:27:57 pm
Hi Monica, I like your strategy of using emotional messages and visual strategies that support your content when you present your learning objectives. I agree that this kind of content will grab the attention of the learner. Baggio had some great ideas with the use of visuals in our reading this week. Even simple switches like mirroring images during a presentation, or using images with actual people in them, will help keep the focus of our learner when presenting information. Great job!
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Tess Giner
3/17/2019 07:21:27 pm
I also feel isolated from the rest of the staff at my school. People seem to dislike sharing, even in the so-called PLC meetings. I guess that's why I appreciate this cohort so much. Despite the fact that we are at different sites, we help each other out, even if it is through an email. Hang in there. You are on such an incredible road to bigger and brighter things.
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jp
3/19/2019 09:24:41 pm
I can totally identify with how you feel about teaching to folks other than our students. After teaching at the college level, I kinda never want to go back to that. It is totally true that adults can be super judgmental, or often not wanting to try new things. Some of the information that we are learning from baggio I sometimes take for granted, but it is interesting to be able to break things down a little more. Having visuals for the sake of visuals is never good - we need to be able to connect the visuals with the content, never wasting any of the space we have.
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