Getting with the program

It was inevitable that I needed to get with the program and force myself to learn what I could about teaching and learning online. I consider myself to be an "Early Majority", one who takes some time to adopt an innovation. It's not that I was skeptical, it's more that I needed to do my own research into how I was going to implement an online learning program that was going to be engaging for my learners. Still, I'm not sure if what I produced ended up being engaging 😅

As a new leader, I reflected on how I was going to support my team- two of whom are beginning teachers, to deliver an online learning program (their very first, my very second 😳). We decided that we were going to Meet with our own class in the morning, then each of our team members will host one afternoon session. The idea was that this will ease the load and pressure off our staff members, as well as give everyone an opportunity to learn and build off each others digital ideas.

I thought our sessions went well! Our beginning teachers are more digitially fluent than I am (something I may not have known if we hadn't shared the load), and they brought some new and refreshing activities that everyone including the teachers enjoyed participating in.

Our school whakatauki for this year is Tūngia te ururoa kia tupu whakaritorito te tutu o te harekeke, which translates to Set the overgrown bush alight, and the new flax shoots will spring up. This means that in order to change, we need to leave some ways behind in order to do things differently or in simpler terms (for me), get with the program and get on with it.

Which would you be?