I am NOT good at asking for help — which means I flounder a great deal as I try to figure things out on my own. And because I teach myself — I tend to learn things both the hard way — and the wrong way. Smiles, I can ski — but my technique is sad.
I am unsure if you are the same as I am — in asking for help. But I bet you are the same as I am in providing help. We enjoy sharing our ideas, making life more productive for our colleagues, and sometimes even hearing the “wow, thanks.”
And I know that there has to be people on your campus who fit into the #1 scenario more — they know they need help, but might be too proud to ask, or just not brave enough to ask.
So I am offering you a challenge this next year — and I too am taking the challenge.
It is time to Buddy Up!!
Pick someone on your campus — (even if you are Tech Help — just choose one) — who is going to be your special buddy this year. (and they don’t need to even know that they are your special project)
He/She is the one you are going to make a special effort to stay in touch with, to chat with, to share ideas with — and to listen to.
He/She is going to be the one that you bring with you to EduCon or CUE or ICE or NECC/ISTE……..or or or
He/She is going to be the one that you share about progress on your blog, who you introduce to your twitter network, who you encourage to collaborate a project with.
He/She is going to be your focus and your benchmark and your finish line and your “job well done” at the end of the 2009/2010 school year.
Last year, I took that challenge with our elementary computer teacher — Cherie. And though I taught her a great deal, I learned more from her. She took kidspiration to an educational level I had never even thought of. She used Pixie 2 for poetry and she went to EdubloggerCon and CUE. We are submitting a team idea to CUE for this year as well.
This year, Beth Still is taking up that challenge with Jason this year: http://bethstill.edublogs.org/2009/07/11/how-to-support-the-iste10-newbie/
Who will you be able to share about being a buddy with when this next school year is done??
Jen
ps: if you wish to take up this challenge, please leave a comment here. We won’t make a wiki or a ning or anything like that….but I would love to know.
Love this idea, Jen. Now to decide who to bring along on this journey….
My buddy thing is really 3 way. At our school we have one “technology teacher” and she’s really only supposed to be part time. (She also works with 4th grade on LA) Anyhow, I go with my class to technology classes every week instead of taking a break; I help her with the class, learning in the process and because I’m in the room our collaboration is natural. We talk about what she’d like to do/ I talk about what I’d like to do; usually Julie is the one with the superior knowledge but because I’m interested we end up trying new things. I’m her sounding board for the technology she’s doing with other grade levels. My other “buddy” is the first grade teacher who would prefer to do absolutely everything with a pencil and paper. I’m her tech advisor because (as she tells me) I’m much more patient than anyone else she knows and I’ll tell her exactly what she HAS to do without confusing her. Two years ago we moved to an Online Gradebook that parents have access to so that’s been our biggest tech challenge for faculty. What’s good about this relationship is that it forces me to truly understand how to do things because I have to break them down for her. She’s great at looking at projects I’ve started online and giving me opinions about their appearance.
I would love to here from Cherie to see what she does with Kidspiration.