Relationships in all dimensions.

Dancing Guy and Relationships

The first follower is the most important one! I so loved this video and shared it with my team at work. Sometimes I feel like the shirtless guy who is the lone nut, but most days I see myself as the first follower. I go around and find those with new ideas who are looking for others to test them, or have at least posted their ideas online. I am looking for anything which will help my students and make my life as an educator easier. Before I go into building relationships at work I want to point out that in the field of education we push for strong work relationships a lot. Many people spend so much time building strong relationships with co-workers and students they sacrifice their own families relationships in the process. The teaching field has one of the highest level of infidelities out of most professional jobs. If we as educators are to model how to be in the community, we must remember to take care of our families first, others we model to others that cheating on ones spouse and ignoring your own children are normal.

How are you building relationships with individuals in your practicum school, district, and classroom? 

Currently at work I am getting to know my new team and staff. I have become known as the tech guru on my floor and I get a constant stream of teachers asking to get stuff fixed up in their classrooms. I have already started using the technology I can in my classroom and checking out tech whenever I can. I have started building a good rapport with the librarian who is into tech app himself, and I am constantly bouncing ideas off of him. I been having conversations with my mentor constantly figuring out ways to integrate technology into different lessons.

How are you developing your identity as a technology leader/facilitator? 

This has been super difficult. There is so little time to do anything. Almost my entire team is new to the school, so there was no planning done over the summer. This means not a single assessment is planned for the school year, there is no calendar in place. Everything is being done during school hours. Luckily I have a lot of resources I have used in the past at my disposal to fall back on, but no time to tweak them. Almost all changes to lessons come from anything I read or study in my graduate classes. This goes back to my opening statement. When the kids leave, I leave and spend time with my family. I hope to get some time to start pushing my technology facilitator, but first I gotta make sure my students and my family's needs are meet.

Give an example of how you have started to empower others to be risk-takers? 

My observation teacher is a good example of empowering others to take risk. She is open to technology but needs somewhere to step first. I have found people are willing to take that first step if you show them how to make it. Give them a lesson, a planned out one, using technology. This will allow them to see how it work and the results of it. This will lead to them wanting to try more technology and be more of a risk taker. One of the members of my team is new to teaching 8th grade social studies. I share him all of my lessons, and he keeps asking for more and more. Some are technology lessons and others are just student centered. He as already approached me about some ideas using some apps I used for a different lesson in the future.

Risk taking is risky, as the name implies. Another reason many teachers avoid the risk is because of the pay check. In the state of Texas, schools can decide not to rehire you for almost any reason. Texas is not a state which protects teacher jobs. At the end of the day if a teacher decides not to take a risk because of the fear of losing a contract next year, I will not fault them for that. Taking care of your family is the number one priority.