PD with COVA

Just this week I had the honor of running 2 PD sessions for our new HS teachers on Technology. The first session was only allotted 40 minutes to sprint through all the different  tech systems the district uses and why. But the second day I had double that time to focus on our new learning management system, Canvas. I care very deeply how these PD sessions run, because I have sat in too many sessions myself where I felt unfulfilled by the end. I wanted to be effective, inspirational and fulfilling. So how would I use my time! Well I first did some small projects for my own classes to get myself back into the rhythm. How could I possibly be on my game if I hadn't taken a few swings in the cage so to speak. I worked on a project I had started at a conference back in July, but didn't have enough time to tinker and see through at the time. 

Then I decided to organize my presentation. I wanted to do what was successful in my roll out last year with our whole faculty, so I decided to spend the first 10 minutes in TED talk fashion focusing on the Whys of using Canvas and Chromebooks in the classroom. Then the How and the What of it all. (Sinek, 2016). After helping them better understand our districts mission and the system's capabilities it was time to show them how. I began by touring a couple Canvas courses that I developed and how I had revitalized the syllabus and made it into a media mixed module that culminated with a quiz on all the important info they should have gleaned. I showed how I would conduct my classes online and in person. Now it was time to give them space to choose their own path, show ownership, have a voice...the only thing left was for me to sit back and enjoy the significant and authentic learning experience I had created. The last 30 minutes was their time to choose. They could take a self paced course I made for them to experience all the submission styles with creative assignments that would show them just how the system would occur for their students and hopefully inspire them along the way. They could search the guides for tutorial videos or the Canvas Commons, they could start to make a landing page or begin to put together a bio for their syllabus page. They sky was the limit. This way my colleague and I were free to be facilitators in their learning journey. We got such rave reviews with the only criticism that they wanted more time than we were allotted and someone requested snacks! 

My point being that the COVA model of education works. It allowed me to envision what my classroom will look like this year. And although I am doing a complete overhaul of my classroom philosophies to embody COVA, I am not nervous. Previously as a younger teacher I think I was so worried about being a fraud or that they were expecting the Wizard of Oz and I didn't want them to know there was just a man behind the curtain and as a result I feared trying new things. I am so grateful that I now see the bigger picture. Although I am seemingly giving up control of the classroom in the moment by not lecturing, I still need to be ready and flexible for all the possible teachable moments that lie ahead and because I know this method will not only lead to achievement, but will ultimately lead to engagement and fulfillment for all my students, I can walk in proudly day 1. Make no mistake, I will stumble and some lessons will fail, but deep down I have a serene feeling because I know this is the path of education in today's world and it is what the students deserve. I am excited to finally be ready to embark on my version of that path, because just like language...we may say we all speak the same language, but really we all develop our own version of it with our choices and style. And because of that I have no anxiety that I need to live up to some unattainable goal. I just need to be myself and provide a significant learning environment...aside from that I just need to learn when to get the heck out of their way; there is no better time than now to be a learner!

I hope you all have a great start to the year! 

Learn more about COVA here!