Being a part of the Prairie View family has me in different roles. One I am a parent to my two beautiful children and on the PTA to help the school create a unique experience for them. The other role is substitute teacher. I am certified teacher in both early childhood and elementary. I am currently enrolled to obtain my Masters in Educational Technology. I substitute a few different elementary schools within WSD.
I am currently reading a book titled, What Connected Educators Do Differently, by Todd Whitaker, Jimmy Casas and Jeffrey Zoul. This book alone has opened my eyes to a world of support and learning for me as a teacher. It has taught me what it means to be a connected teacher, how to go about becoming one and how to maintain the professional relationships I form. At the start, I was skeptical. How could having a Twitter account be useful. I saw it as another distraction I was asked to keep up with. Then I entered the world of Twitter, WOW! Seeing the amount of information being handed to me and support given to others is truly amazing. So I began forming my own PLN. (Professional Learning Network). I read tweets and follow chats now to help me grow as not just an educator but as a person. I still struggle with how could what I say matter to anyone else. It's a risk to take, to put myself out there to my peers. But I realize no judgement is being placed, but support and ideas are given. Building my PLN and learning to not only trust others but myself, that I have ideas to share and what I say has value. There is so much support in the educational community because we are all here for one thing, the good of the student. " ..the ultimate goal being a collaborative culture in which we learn from each other, we teach each other, and we lead each other.." (Whitaker, Casas, Zoul, 2015) I see this within the school and it crosses over to the PTA as well. As a co-chair of a major event/fundraiser in the school, our Hawk Walk-a-Thon. We strive to create a better experience each year and find ways to raise more money. We don't just look within the building and our own PTA from help, we look outside. We network and use social media sites for PTA members to ask questions. We look for advice on what has worked for others in the past. This year we spoke to many other PTA members from schools within our district, some in neighboring districts and even some throughout the U.S. This has created our own PLN for our PTA. A neighboring school shared their ideas and successes with us and then invited us to come to their "walk-a-thon" to witness it for ourselves. We got to talk face to face instead of emails and texts. It was a great feeling coming together in person. I think it made the connection stronger between the two schools to share what works and what doesn't, and it has gone beyond just this event. That PTA has reached out and asked about other events we have and what we have found successful. I can't help but connect these two roles I have at the school. One as a member of the PTA, collaborating with other PTAs to create more successful events and as an educator, being in the classroom and connecting with others to find better ways to teach, to help the students succeed. We are in this together. Whether it be in the classroom or in the PTA. It is ALL for the good of the students.
0 Comments
|
AuthorColleen Grams, parent and educator. Joined PTA two years ago, currently a substitute teacher and co-chair of Hawk Walk-a-thon. Archives
Categories |