Comment on a Session

I wish that I had taken the time to look at this requirement more carefully!  I would have taken more pictures and done more screen shots so that I would have had the evidence prepared!  

That's totally on me.

As to Cathy Beachboard's keynote in the live conference period, I have reflected on the idea of hope as the key factor in success, not just in school, but in life!  I wish I had considered this important aspect of teaching in a more focused way when I was still in the classroom, but now I will definitely consider it in all my interactions with people in formal and informal conditions.

Honestly, I have always considered perseverance as key, but how can you persevere if you have no hope?!

And how gracious of Cathy to give us the presentation!  I will be reviewing some of the links!

Thank you for that!

I thought the session presented by Cathleen Beachboard was inspiring and encouraging. I found the session helpful in framing how SIM CER can raise hope in the classroom.  It was refreshing to think about the cue-do-review sequence raising hope, in regards to setting goals for students and having them as active participants in the learning process.  This session sparked conversations among my colleagues on how we could get more buy in from teachers to use SIM CER with their students.  As a result of this learning session, we are also considering the use of a hope survey for students.  

I appreciated the perspectives and sharing that the presenter offered on education in Finland.  I especially liked the discussion on collaboration instead of competition.  We often loose site on the goal of improving outcomes for our students and instead get caught up in who can get credit for, publish first, or monetize on ideas.  The SIM network has always been a place of sharing ideas and lessons learned, and brainstorming together. Providing the space and opportunity to share what works is what allows all of us to succeed in increasing the success of our students.

I thought Amber and Megan did an excellent job laying out a plan for implementing literacy leadership in a school. Having representatives from all subjects/grade levels to be the decision makers and communicators allows for equity throughout the school. A group who can look at school data to find where gaps appear and then decide which strategies can be implement can help allow for consistency across the school and from year to year. Our school has a goal of literacy this year and I think this model would be beneficial to not only our staff but more importantly our students.

I really enjoyed the keynote speaker, Cathleen Beachword during the Live Zoom Webinar on 7/19/22.  Her message about hope opened my eyes.  I didn't realize that hope is embedded in learning strategies and content enhancement routines.

I enjoyed the session on Embedding SIM into Pre-service Courses.  I have been teaching SIM in my Pre-service courses for about 15 years but it has been individual CERs and LSs. After watching this video I am going to include a unit project for social studies/science based on the unit that was featured. It think it will really help to show the need for support in this subjects and how the teacher candidates can use the different CERs and LSs together to provide this blanket of support.  We have been using the Unit Organizer in our students culminating project which is designing a remedial unit of support for students in their student teaching placement. I believe that using this unit project in an earlier class it will assist our students in being more prepared to create that remedial unit for their culminating project.  

Really enjoyed the KeyNote Session and accompanying video on Singapore visiting Finland. They shared glaring inequities, yet extremely doable practices that EVERY COUNTRY can employ for more equitable and inclusive practices for ALL children to grow into an inclusive society.

I really enjoyed this presentation and the way it was organized by myths and facts. I also appreciate how generous Dr. Olli Pekka was with this time! Some facts I found fascinating:
1. There is lots of testing in the Finnish school system, but none of it is high stakes testing.
2. It's important that both teachers and students have a manageable work load. 
3. There's an overall climate of trust within the schools and communities that all stakeholders are doing their best. The schools are the center of the community, and teachers have high levels of respect and independence. 

All of these concepts must be taken into consideration if we want to be the change we need in our school systems. Context is of utmost importance in instructional planning and student outcomes. 

I really enjoyed listening to this keynote address about the Finnish education system and how it could impact the our current work as teachers. I found it particularly interesting to hear about some of the key differences, as well as some similarities between our education system and the one in Finland. One of the things that Dr.Olli-Pekka Malinen spoke about was the idea of focusing on collaboration instead of competition. It made me think about its implications to our work with assessment, co-teaching, etc.

This session was excellent. I loved learning about VECTOR and how to implement the steps to provide coaching. I also loved the examples they gave along the way they implemented coaching to fit the people. It was a great session; I left with many tools to implement virtual coaching right away!