via Jimmy Arca on GIPHY
However, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I taught for 10 years, and I love the variety that a coaching gig brings. I've really enjoyed getting to help be part of the leadership team developing the bigger picture of making our school move from good to great.
Another hat that I wear is a tech coach. We don’t have official tech coaches in our district, so we (the coaches) do our best to support teachers with instructional technology as well. Luckily, I'm generally a tech enthusiast. I would say that I’ve always considered myself an relative early adopter, and I’m willing to try most new and shiny things in order to learn more efficient ways to do something. For example, last year, I put together a learning cycle to help our staff acclimate to AI with a bit of “tool”ing around, and each week, I drop a weekly tech tip goes into our school newsletter. Tech Tips are one of more well-received features and got strong feedback about what teachers liked to read.
Personally and professionally, I try to use tech in all aspects of my life, and I would say that it has specifically transformed my organizational prowess. To be honest, before Google Drive, Bookmarks, DropBox, etc came around, I was a bit of a disaster organizationally in the classroom. I loathe binders, and I'd imagine they feel the same about me. Some would call me a hoarder *he writes as he stares at a cardboard box in his office of social studies folders he used as a teacher over 10 years ago*, but since tech came around, nobody can see the piles of resources I have taking up space in my office because they all live in Google Drive now. Luckily, I spent 4 years as an office manager before beginning teaching and was forced to learn digital organization. I am not-so-secretly excited about this being my chance to actually get a Wakelet account going. I've read it about before, mainly on Ditch That Textbook by Matt Miller, but since I already had a system going using Chrome bookmarks to save a lot of my files, I never dove in.
Unfortunately (and maybe fortunately?) I gave up on social media once I had young kids. Long press on the home screen and *poof* gone and never looked back. I know there can be some great benefits, but for me those spaces were mainly a lurking timesuck, and they took my attention off of my kiddos at home. Not to mention, I commented on one news story exactly one time in my life and at the first sign of online pushback arose to my comment, I felt anxious and uncomfortable. I don’t love the keyboard courage and online vitriol that social media often brings with it, and it was just easier at that time in my life to close up shop. Plus, I was not a huge fan of the example it set for my little ones. I know I can prepare them well, but I’m still nervous for the day they want to open their account. Professionally, I did use X and Insta for teaching and learning ideas as well, but once COVID hit, education social media became a bit of a hellscape, at least the corner that I had curated, and I ended up exiting that conversation as well.
I do, however, love a good blog and/or newsletter when it comes to coaching and education, so I appreciate those folks who push out their thinking in those venues as well, rather than just on the main social media platforms. After learning a bit about what this course is all about, I am hoping to use it as an opportunity to reshape my online attitude and let it be something that inspires me again. I just may need to start with a new account from the ground up on a platform or two and only follow those who bring joy… and do my best to repay the favor. So, I guess you could say I'm feeling
