The teachable moment. Any moment that teaches an unexpected, but relevant, lesson. Sometimes the moments teach you after the lesson has been taught. Like last Friday. I facilitated a small professional development that afternoon to talk about our district's digital badge program. Working with the principal, we identified a couple of the badges to highlight: one tool that the staff was all familiar with and utilizing at various levels and the other that the principal wanted them to use more fully. That last tool: Twitter. Before we switched gears to talk about Twitter, I asked them to identify their experience with Twitter using Pear Deck - they all ratted out the school's Tweeting Machine in our midst that afternoon - their Program Coordinator. So many great conversations! We had conversations about being aware on social media and how to report or block people to keep our accounts safe. We talked about being safe with our student's information. We talked about how to model and encourage good digital citizenship behaviors with students. I got back to the office to see this tweet which warmed my heart...and made me reflect. These teachers were in a required PD on a beautiful Friday afternoon....and they gave a new tool a try. Lots of laughs and learning! Their Program Coordinator captured a few candids as we were beginning. Then I saw it - the Worst. Picture. Ever. We didn't talk about posting unflattering images of others LOL. I'm really ok with this pic (and my Friday afternoon hair) - it captured a very real and very informal moment of professional sharing. The Program Coordinator wasn't being mean when he posted it. The tweet was to share their professional learning with those that follow their school. To show that they, the teachers, are students, too! That was what matters most to me.
But this DID remind me to add some reminders about posting images to my digital citizenship notes for the updates to the program we will work on over the summer. This program is set to expand to high schools soon as the first cohort of our course will be eighth graders next year. As I drove home after seeing that tweet, I reflected on that post. My reaction would have been TOTALLY different had the intent of the poster and the text accompanying it been malicious in nature. I think that some people, not just teens, don't think about how what they post impacts others. Empathy is an important life skill. There are lessons to be found when you reflect. We need to reflect more and learn from those teachable moments.
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AuthorJeannie Timken Archives
March 2023
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