Self-Assessment and Leadership
This section begins by introducing the ISTE Educator Standards as a way to help you begin identifying roles which integrate innovative instruction with digital learning. You will then complete a self-reflection focused on professional collaboration and partnership skills. As the last section of this module, you will also review both your work and that of your learning partner to ensure you've completed all the activities and can move on to the next module.
Digital Learning Leadership
For decades, ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) has published standards and guidelines for educational technology use by students and educators. These have evolved over the years as technology has changed and its application in schools has grown. The ISTE Standards for Students will be examined in Module 4.
Like the student standards, the ISTE Standards for Educators defines seven key areas that define exemplary educator practice integrating digital tools and services with instruction. These standards will help frame your thinking about your role as an instructional partner and help you define some targets for your own learning.
The ISTE Educator Standards identify seven standards which can be seen as professional 'identities' for educators working with students in the classroom, library, or other instructional settings.
Activity Directions
Learning outcomes
Explore educator standards and roles which support digital learning
Identify areas for professional inquiry and growth
Activities
Review the ISTE Educator Standards.
Discuss the following questions with your learning partner.
What connections do you see with other topics you've examined so far in this module?
Which of these standards do you see in your practice?
Which standards represent potential areas for growth or further examination?
Respond to the following prompts in your LIFT Portfolio.
Which standard(s) best align with your skills and interests as an educator right now? Why?
Is there a standard which you'd like to grow or strengthen as you complete this learning path? If so, what is it?
Self Assessment Part One - Adult Learners, Communication, and Collaboration
Recognizing that teacher leadership includes skills and dispositions beyond those used for student instruction, the Center for Strengthening the Teaching Profession (CSTP) has developed the Teacher Leadership Skills Framework. As part of the LIFT Framework, you will be using this tool to examine professional leadership and partnership. The CSTP framework includes six domains of leadership skills and dispositions. In the next module, you will explore the first three with your learning partner.
LIFT Self-Assessment Part One
This self-assessment is derived from the CSTP Teacher Leader Self-Assessment. You will complete different portions of their survey throughout the LIFT Framework. This first survey will examine three areas:
Working With Adult Learners
Communication
Collaboration
Activity Directions
Learning outcomes
Self-assess professional skills in working with adult learners, communication, and collaboration
Complete the LIFT Self-Assessment Part One on your own. In order to use the editable form, you may need to open using a pdf viewer or editor other than your browser.
Save the results as your initial benchmark data in your LIFT Folder. You will be referring to these results in the next module.
Review the questions below on your own or with your learning partner.
Where are your strengths and weaknesses in the following domains
Working With Adult Learners
Communication
Collaboration
In what ways is working with adults different from working with children?
Reflect | Review | Revise | Recognize
With professional learning, the challenge is always putting the pieces together, not only making sense of new material and ideas, but connecting them to existing experiences and personal context. In the same way that educators often don't take the time for professional reflection, they similarly neglect to sufficiently process new learning.
Once a typical PD class is over, educators go back to their lessons, assignments, and work. But brain research tells us that when we don't connect new learning to our existing schema and mental models, new ideas and knowledge fail to translate into new behavior.
For this reason, at the end of each module, you will go through an iterative checklist to lock in your new learning, review and add new ideas, and with your learning partner, document completion of the module.
Activity Directions
Learning outcomes
Reflect and review learning to identify new questions, ideas, and goals
Reflect
Discuss the following questions with your learning partner and
Respond to the following in your LIFT Portfolio.
What was the one idea from this module that resonated most with you as an educator?
How do you feel about your professional learning network and/or communities of practice?
What stood out from the LIFT Self-Assessment Part One as a priority for your own professional growth?
Review / Revise
Identify any new or lingering questions as you finish this module and write them in your LIFT Portfolio.
Review the following areas of your LIFT Portfolio
Golden Circle
and these documents as necessary:
LIFT Ideas and Questions
What new questions, ideas, inputs or insights have I added?
LIFT Bookmarks (or your own bookmarks document)
What new resources have I found?
LIFT Folder
Are all the necessary documents in your LIFT Folder?
Record
Revisit your work in this module with your learning partner using the following checklist. Check each other's portfolio to ensure the following have been completed. Your learning partner is not expected to review for content, only that you've completed the tasks.
Do you have responses to all the questions in your LIFT Portfolio?
Have you completed all the activities?
Have you added any resources to your LIFT Bookmarks Form or curation tool?
Are necessary documents in your LIFT Folder?
Once all the work has been completed, you can
Recognize/Reward your learning partner and move on to the next module.