Years ago at a staff meeting, the presenter distributed an article with an image of a group of teachers running in a pack ahead of a schoolhouse. My coworker doodled a stick figure on it, labeled it “Natalie,” and said, “Natalie, wait up! Slow down!” I chucked, but in the years since, I have been supporting and working with my colleagues instead of running ahead of them.
When I was asked to complete a 20time project as part of SDSU EDL 680 Seminar in Personalized Learning taught by Jeff Heil, I selected a project that would benefit all of the invested adults of my school. I eagerly followed the suggestion of Kevin Brookhouser, author of The 20Time Project: How educators can launch Google 's formula for future-ready innovation and focused …show more content…
I learned that taking ownership of something does not always yield results. From the very beginning of this project it was my project. My 20time project. My Google+ community. I set myself up as the only moderator. I completed all of the brainstorming and planning on my own. After reading A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change by Douglas Thomas and John Seeley Brown, I began to rethink the purpose of my community. Initially, I was focused on creating a community--get it? But, I what I was really trying to establish was a collective. In a collective, all of the adults will learn and work together to support the one hundred youth in our care. Taking ownership was not my only mistake. I was also not modeling the working and learning environment I am hoping to foster in my own classroom. And, relying on my own knowledge was not enough--at least I began to recognize this during the last week when I finally asked a colleague for help. So, in order for the community to serve its real purpose, I need to first form a small collective Google+ rollout team. I learned that sharing an idea and responsibility among a collective will lead to greater accomplishment than single
When I was asked to complete a 20time project as part of SDSU EDL 680 Seminar in Personalized Learning taught by Jeff Heil, I selected a project that would benefit all of the invested adults of my school. I eagerly followed the suggestion of Kevin Brookhouser, author of The 20Time Project: How educators can launch Google 's formula for future-ready innovation and focused …show more content…
I learned that taking ownership of something does not always yield results. From the very beginning of this project it was my project. My 20time project. My Google+ community. I set myself up as the only moderator. I completed all of the brainstorming and planning on my own. After reading A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change by Douglas Thomas and John Seeley Brown, I began to rethink the purpose of my community. Initially, I was focused on creating a community--get it? But, I what I was really trying to establish was a collective. In a collective, all of the adults will learn and work together to support the one hundred youth in our care. Taking ownership was not my only mistake. I was also not modeling the working and learning environment I am hoping to foster in my own classroom. And, relying on my own knowledge was not enough--at least I began to recognize this during the last week when I finally asked a colleague for help. So, in order for the community to serve its real purpose, I need to first form a small collective Google+ rollout team. I learned that sharing an idea and responsibility among a collective will lead to greater accomplishment than single