Lost in the Code
Teachers
lead busy lives. Between planning engaging lessons, coordinating extra
curricular events, differentiating instruction, providing meaningful assessment
for learning, teachers do not have time to sit through pages and pages of
resources and ideas. Good pedagogy is founded in student centred learning. The
same applies when teachers are the learners. As a teacher librarian I should be
able to provide meaningful, relevant, and current resources, that support what
the teacher is already doing with their classes.
 |
| Giphy |
Since
nobody wants to be the teacher prolonging the meeting at the end of the day, my
practice of sharing resources needs to go beyond the quick staff meeting blurb
about what’s new in the library. I have come across a few tools that provide a
framework for teachers to use in any subject area. These tools allow for the
collection of resources and collaboration between collogues that does not
require a significant time investment outside of already packed schedules.
 |
| Giphy |
I
recently had the opportunity to attend a Follett Destiny training day. Here I
had a chance to really explore the potential of the new Destiny Discover
platform available to districts who use Follett as a library cataloguing
system. This new platform allows teachers to create “collections” of resources
and share them at a school, district, or public level. In a collection you can
specify what grades are relevant, what subjects, and can be further
personalized to best fit the intended group. Here books, ebooks,
and websites can be added. All can be permalinked and/ or QR coded for easier access. It is
like a professional, educational dedicated 'pinterest'. Unfortunately, this resource is dependent
on the purchase of the Follett Destiny system as you need to log in to an account
to edit the collections. However, if you have the system already it is an
excellent way to use this expensive program to its full advantage while
promoting professional development. And like 'pinterest' it can be used whenever
and wherever, including at home while binging the latest Netflix release. Just
to clarify - I am not being paid to endorse this, I just found it to be an
exciting new thing to play around with in my school.
https://www.follettlearning.com/technology/products/library-management-system/collections-by-destiny
Another way I can promote ICT
development in my school is through supporting education surrounding the new
world of “coding’. For instance, finding like minded teachers who wish to learn
more about coding willing to participate in the Hour of Code. This is not a new and exciting program, it has
been around for several years now. However, it is still a great intro to the
teachers who are intimidated by introducing coding into their curriculum. Like the collections on Destiny this can
be done on your own time, at your own pace.
Because many educators at my school are intimidated by coding, due to a lack of training, I thought it would be a great professional development opportunity to offer a coding workshop after school. Working with our district purchased "Dot and Dash" robots. Teachers could familiarize themselves with the resource and collaboratively develop lessons that would reinforce the core competencies that they are already developing in their classrooms.
Coding is the language of the future. Educators need to start to develop a little more fluency so that we can begin to engage with tomorrows learner in a way that will be relevant for years to come. Hopefully, these resources can provide a good entry point into the exciting world of coding.
Resources
Kahn Academy - Computer Programming
Dot and Dash Coding
Hour of Code
Well done post! A good collection of really practical advice, tools, and suggested resources to support your staff in a engaging format. I love the ways you used gifs to complement your points as graphical examples of fun ways you are supporting others ProD. A bunch of good ideas, links, references and labels to make a great post.
ReplyDeleteI recently had training on Destiny and we explored the Discover section as well. What a great resource, eh? I haven't had a chance to share with my staff yet but they're going to be even more surprised than I was at all they can do within Destiny. I'm hoping to show them next week at our staff meeting. :)
ReplyDelete