Well as the old saying goes: there’s a first for everything.
This week, for me, it’s attending an OFSAA event as a coach.
As a teacher/eLC, I have been coaching the golf team for six years now. My friends and colleagues would all agree that I for one love the game of golf, and coaching this sport was a natural fit when the opportunity came up.
Attending the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Association event in any sport is an amazing feat to achieve. This week, 120 of the provinces best young golfers are together at the Stratford Golf & Country Club, competing for the championship with friends, family, coaches and colleagues supporting and watching on.
Last night at the players banquet, Brett Nymeyer was the guest speaker. An alumni of Stratford Northwestern, Brett is now PGA Tour Canada Player. He delivered a short but meaningful speech about his experiences going through high school playing many sports, and eventually taking golf seriously at the age of 20. The golf scholarship process can be daunting for many athletes as with any athletic or academic scholarship choosing decision, and Brett gave an excellent speech on making decisions based on a lot of information that many people don’t consider.
Brett focused his speech on doing research in order to see past the bright colours and what people may think as ‘the school’ to go to. He didn’t choose the right school for him at first – the school that was the best for him. He explained how most schools simply try to sell their programs, and how to make sure students did their homework, which was seeing and hearing the schools and programs first hand to really get a sense of what exactly they’d be committing to.
As I sat and listened, I related his words to the paths and decisions teachers need to be more conscious of while on their journeys of professional development.
When it comes to making a shift in teaching practice to incorporate technology into the classroom, there isn’t really a consistent schedule for when teachers should – or have to – make that leap of faith. Certain tools or philosophies aren’t for everyone, and that can be easily supported. There are, however, many more options and entry points to choose from these days, putting it both on the teachers to do their homework and to pick what’s right for them, and also (primarily) administration and technology coaches/consultants/leaders to help guide teachers in choosing what’s best suited for them.
I won’t be the first to admit that technology in education is not going away; in fact, quite the opposite. Teachers are asked on a regular basis to make decisions based on their professional judgment when it comes to their students. Adapting new and current teaching practices shouldn’t be any different.
Seeing as the future will no doubt include various forms of technology in either post-secondary studies and the workforce, let’s not leave assessment solely to student works, but applying it to ourselves more as it directly affects how we prepare our students for the future. We all need a path – it’s time to shift gears and move forward, not before we do our homework first.