During the past few months, everything about our lives has been on hold due to coronavirus - unfortunate but necessary for public safety. I've been overwhelmed with a deep sense of cabin fever, as I'm sure many others have been as well. Unwilling to compromise the health of our vulnerable community members, so many events and rites of passage for our students have been cancelled. I really expected most of the professional development workshops that I had scheduled to facilitate would be postponed as well - and most were. However, learning that Desert Sands Unified wanted to go ahead with digital storytelling training they had planned was a welcome surprise! My sense of relief and happiness at realizing I would still get to help teachers build their storytelling skills was quickly followed by no small amount of panic concerning the change in venue for the training: Zoom. Digital Storytelling is a dynamic topic for professional development. The PD opportunities I have developed and extended through DIGICOM Learning are highly engaging, interactive, and collaborative. They depend heavily on participants being able to work in small groups, provide peer feedback, engage in community building, and film off-site at a variety of locations. In other words: Digital Storytelling PD is not meant to be conducted remotely! However, in a changing world with a "new normal," I knew that I wanted to take on the challenge of facilitating a weeklong workshop through video conferencing. I thrive on professional challenges, and this was an opportunity that could help me grow. Here are some of the lessons I learned this week:
Though I lost sleep Sunday night as I worried about how this workshop experience would play out for participating teachers, everything worked out in the end. The feedback I received from teachers was overwhelmingly positive and I appreciate their kind comments and particular attention to the planning that went into the week's blended format. In the end of course survey, most teachers indicated that the format worked well for them. Out of 21 participants, 19 of them rated the distance learning format highly. On this Likert scale, a rating of 5 represented "I loved it!" Best of all, the work teachers created this week was truly exceptional. I am so proud of their adaptability, energy, drive, and focus. Using WeVideo can be intimidating for adults, because we are often intimidated by technology in a way that our students are not. This group of teachers impressed me because they were fearless and creative! Here are a few of the culminating products that really stood out...
I feel so grateful to have been able to learn alongside the teachers who participated in the workshop this week. Their feedback about what worked and what didn't has made me a stronger educator and I know that I will change some aspects of my remote teaching when school resumes with distance learning in the fall. Thanks to everyone in DSUSD for their enthusiasm and dedication to digital storytelling!
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Author: Jessica PackCalifornia Teacher of the Year. CUE Outstanding Educator 2015. DIGICOM Learning Teacher Consultant. 6th Grade Teacher. Passionate about gamification, Minecraft, digital story-telling, and fostering student voices. Download:Archives
June 2020
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