The first day at Apple Learning Academy was a robust opportunity for critical thinking and conversations around creativity, building culture and enhancing personalized learning. We developed a working definition of culture in regards to the 5 cornerstones; collaboration, respect, relationship, trust, and growth mindset. This year working to support teachers at the online schools has been difficult in all five areas. What can I do, as a coach, to build a intentional culture at our online school? How do I help teachers get started in coaching cycles that encourage a collaboration in such an isolating circumstance?
So excited for you and your Apple Teacher journey. Teaching in an online school offers a whole new set of challenges I am sure! Although I am not in an online school, I was brainstorming a few ideas. I may tackle each of those cornerstones a little at a time. For example:
Do teachers have an online space to share ideas, ask questions, or post successes? I think a Freeform board would be great for this. Sometimes just a collaborative brainstorming session can help get the ball rolling for many. One way to encourage participating may be to present it in the form of a challenge. Start out just for fun. The #fallinlovewihtcreativty and #12daysofcreativity challenges were huge in our district and really got teachers thinking about ways they could incorporate iPad in creative ways. We shared the challenges daily and had a collaborative space (at the time we used Padlet because Freeform didn't yet exist) teachers could post their creations in. We then randomly chose winners from the participants and shared that out too. These fun creations led to classroom integration and opportunities for our Instructional Technology facilitators to begin coaching. Many teachers even got their students involved in the creative challenges as well. We would reach out to those that participated and then start a conversation about how those creative tools may be used in their classrooms.
February 13, 2023
That sounds really awesome day with lots of helpful information to aid in coaching
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