Moving On

The time has come to move on from CDS. It has been an enjoyable experience working at Cheongna Dalton School for six years, but all good things must come to an end. I wish CDS all the luck in the future as I begin the job hunt. I'm looking forward to my next adventure. In my time here I was able to put some good runs on the board and I'm happy with the accomplishments. Time now for new challenges.

October and Covid Fatigue

October has felt very long to me this year and Covid fatigue is very real. Although Koreans are pushing on with their fight against Covid, I think the enthusiasm for fighting it is gone. This is now like a 12 round championship boxing match where both pugilists have spent all of their reserves of physical energy and the only thing keeping them going is heart alone. I've been engaging in professional growth through reading some academic books, but not posting about it and that is because I'm a little tired right now. I've made the decision to be kind to myself and let myself not blog about everything for a little while, but I truly do want to get back into it. I have also been going back to the gym, but not as often as I wish I was, but again I'm being kind to myself and allowing myself time to rest. Covid fatigue is real, be kind to yourself. If you are waiting for someone to give you permission, I give you permission.

Google Sites — Custom Themes

 

Watering the Seed: Professional Growth Goals & Professional Learning Communities

Starting last year, with the creation of my new position as Director of Professional Development, our Professional Growth Goals (PGGs) were moved away from the division directors and placed under the authority of me. The first step in my mind was to establish a robust, yet flexible approach to meaningful PD through the PGGs. Because the approach was new, teachers were a little indifferent to the change at first. They diligently wrote their goals and then I began meeting with each of them for a short discussion understanding and clarify their goals. The meetings went really well and were very positive. I received a few comments from some teachers like, "This is great! I've never had a meeting about my PGG before." In the mid-year meetings, the new enthusiasm continued even in the face of Covid. And in the final meetings of the year, teachers shared what they had learned and how they planned to change their practice in the 2021-22 school year.

Along the way, I had been planting seeds. I had mentioned the idea of teachers teaming up to do PGGs together as well as entire departments collaborating in PGGs. So in my first meetings this year, I was ecstatic to see those seeds growing. Two of the music teachers wanted to support each other with improving their guitar skills because so many of our students play guitar. The entire Social Studies department wants to do a book study over Hattie's Visible Learning. Each teacher from the department will take the lead on one of the chapters. I was so excited to see a Professional Learning Community born completely naturally at our school without cajoling. I still have 40 more meetings to go, so I know there will be more amazing PGGs in the coming days.

Sometimes the best thing to do is to simply plant seeds, put a little water on them, and then sit back and watch them grow.

Professional Growth Goals & Book Creator

 

I started off the school year with getting my Book Creator Certified Author Level 1 badge today. The videos took me about an hour to watch and I got a 20/20 on the quiz. I'm adding this to my status as a Book Creator Ambassador. Book Creator added 230 improvements to the platform and many of those were new accessibility tools. It now has language support for 120 languages as well, so the platform continues to get better and better as a teaching and learning tool. As a practical tool to use at Cheongna Dalton School, I created a support document for our Professional Growth Goals for our faculty with Book Creator.

GEG Seoul Event -- Level 1 Exam Jump Start

 

Making Facebook More Enjoyable in the Short Term

We all have that friend and/or family member who is posting too many memes from other sources that you are tired of seeing or simply find disgusting. How to solve the problem? I'm going to show you a trick that has been around a long time, but that most people still seem oblivious to — snoozing or hiding a non-friend. By snoozing or hiding a non-friend, you get to continue your relationship, but silence the disgusting content that you are sick of seeing on your feed. When your friend/family member re-posts that ugly meme or article, go to the three dots on the upper right-side of the post. A drop-down menu will appear with choices of how to deal with the trash. I am a huge fan of the snooze option. Once you choose it, now — no matter how many times in the next 30 days your friend or family member re-posts or shares "Nathan's" content — it will not appear in your feed. If you are really sick of seeing things from "Nathan", you can hide all and never see Nathan's garbage again, but still have the posts from your friend or family member. I have been using this trick for a long time and it has made my Facebook experience acceptable. Ideally, I would delete my Facebook account, but too many friends and family stay in touch with me through it, and I just can't see my mom learning how to use Twitter or Instagram at this point. Facebook has become a necessary evil for at least a little while.

Custom Avatar & Wallpaper on Chromebooks

 

If you work with students who use school Chromebooks, you will find that some of them go crazy changing their avatar and wallpaper. Sometimes they choose very inappropriate things. I'm not a huge fan of banning something, but sometimes it is a decision from leadership or the school board. Our elementary school director asked me to set the avatar to our school logo and the wallpaper to the school logo as well. Several of the teachers were tired of seeing crazy avatars and wallpaper, so this is how you can make a universal avatar or wallpaper for your Chromebooks. Sign in to your admin console. Go to Devices-->Chrome-->Settings-->User & Browser Settings. On the General tab, you will find the place to upload the image you want for avatar or wallpaper. These are user settings, so students will need to log out and log in to have the settings take hold.

Cool Features in the Chrome Omnibox

So the Chrome Omnibox has been pretty cool since the beginning, but every once in a while, I notice something that makes the thing even more amazing. Today, for the first time, I discovered the features that allow you to send a website to a device and to create a QR code for the website. No need for an extra program to create QR codes anymore. Just make one from the Omnibox and screenshot it or download it. So easy! To find the features, put your cursor inside the Omnibox and they will appear on the right-side of the box. Enjoy!

#21CLHK Presentation -- Google Educator Exam Level 1 Bootcamp