Week 9 – A Gentle Nudge #SAVMP

I hope everyone is having a great week and enjoying the students at your respective schools.  We are blessed to have jobs that make such an impact!

I just wanted to do a check in and see how people are doing?  If you have any feedback about how the #SAVMP project is going, I would love to hear it.  If you could email me directly with the good, bad, or ugly, I would love to hear your stories.
One of the things that was clearly stated when joining this program was that there was an expectation of using blogs and Twitter to connect. I know that everyone is busy, but reflection is vital to the success of an administrator, and open reflection creates a transparent environment.  I have been inspired by the many tweets and blogs that have been shared through the #savmp hashtag, and I am hoping that more will come from a wider range of people within the program.  This is a great chance for you to not only reflect, but also to learn from others.
Here is a post on taking time to reflect:
You Can Close the Door (Sometimes)
Also, when we openly share our learning, we create a much more positive footprint and for many of you looking to go into administration in the future, “googling” someone is becoming a normal practice in the hiring process.  If you googled yourself, what do you find?  Again, this is something that we want to model with students.
Take a look at some of the #savmp tweets.  They are inspiring and share some great stories of learning and leading.  I am inspired every time I see new content.  Thank you.
Here are some questions I am hoping others can answer in the comments below.  How has blogging, tweeting, or being connected in general made you a better leader?  I am hoping that others can jump in and share the transformation that this has done to their practice as a leader.

3 Comments on Week 9 – A Gentle Nudge #SAVMP

  1. mcguirp
    October 6, 2013 at 12:50 pm (10 years ago)

    How has blogging, tweeting, or being connected in general made you a better leader?

    The question I have been asked to write about this week has to do with the value of being connected. I know I push this a little hard with staff, but I only do this because I am so excited about the possibilities that can present themselves when you work as a connected learner.

    My horizons have expanded exponentially since I started making a concerted effort to stay involved in Twitter. I try to tweet several times a day, always using the hashtag #ocsb and more recently #ocsbcll. Both connect me to educators in our school board. Sometimes I get a retweet or someone favours my tweet. This shows that I am making a connection with another educator.

    I really believe that each time i go on Twitter I learn something new. Recently I saw a post by Doug Peterson on the upcoming Ontario ECOO conference (Educational Computing Organization of Ontario). The workshops are amazing! Even better, the web site is set up so that if someone I am following on Twitter is registered for a particular workshop, their picture shows up! How cool is that.

    For me, the real revolution in education is all about collaboration. I talked to some teachers earlier this week about what it was like 25 years ago. Once you closed your door you were insulated from the outside world. You could teach they way you wanted to.

    That is no longer good enough. We can really improve our practice by collaborating with each other. Fullan writes about this, Katz writes that no learning can take place unless there is a change in behaviour. When teachers collaborate in person or through Twitter, Edmodo, Google+ or some other manner they are really learning something. My learning changes every day as long as i connect to others. When I isolate myself I miss out on the learning.

    Has this made me a better leader? Yes, certainly. I can’t imagine now not being a connected educator. There is so much to learn every day, I really think it is one of my primary responsibilities as a leader. It is also one of the great joys of my work.

    Reply
  2. Andrew Sharos
    October 7, 2013 at 2:22 am (10 years ago)

    Hey all,
    I wanted to share a little story about how I got my blog out this week. I’ve taken a bit of a siesta from twitter and blogging in the past couple weeks or so. My coaching and teaching duties are overwhelming me right now, but that is no excuse. I reached out to my mentor today and asked him when he was going to blog next, given our topic this week posted by George. I was sort of hoping he would say, “I can’t this week.” That would get me off the hook.

    But knowing my mentor Tony, that was anything but the case.

    Ten minutes after we talked, we had our entire team of mentees and mentors entered into a competition with our blogs this week. The last one to post a blog this week had to buy lunch for the others and Skype into a meeting at the others’ school. Mind you, our schools are 1,000 miles apart and this would involve some time and money for the loser. Needless to say, I disappeared from twitter for an hour, and cranked out a blog.

    http://3thingssharos.blogspot.com/2013/10/buzzwords-modeling.html

    My fellow teammates are now on the clock, hoping NOT to be the last ones to blog this week.

    This is exactly what SAVMP was supposed to be like, and I didn’t even have the vision of what it was supposed to be. I do know, however, that I am a part of a great “virtual” team and I am more motivated to share ideas and think like a leader because of this program. Hope this motivates the rest of us to keep sharing!
    -Andrew
    @andrewsharosAPT

    Reply
  3. Tia
    October 7, 2013 at 4:15 am (10 years ago)

    Blogging, Tweeting, or being connected has made me a better educator and leader for many reasons.

    First of all, it has allowed me to connect with the minds of some amazing educators and leaders who continue to push my thinking regularly. Next, being connected has allowed me to create real relationships with real people around the world – it has also allowed me to connect with people in my own district in a deeper, more meaningful way.

    I am so glad I became a connected educator and leader. I know that being so will continue to help me grown and develop as an educator, a leader, and a person.

    Tia

    Reply

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