Reflection on the flight home…

Two days of MAGIC…

How do I begin to reflect on the last two days?

Days filled with:

·         Face to face meeting with people I have ‘worshipped’ from afar,
·         Reconnecting with friends
·         Meeting new educators for the very first time…
·         Time to look at my new role, my potential, understanding my place…
·         Viewing Bel within the greater Te Toi Tupu elpld…
·         Fun, laughter, learning, caring, sharing, inspiration and more…

I will share some of the ‘standouts’ for me at this time…

Time to reflect on the WHY?  Looking at and really delving into the WHY of our role… and where it sits within the how and the what….  Time to see the what as the rational, the how as the feelings and the WHY as the behaviour and the decision making; the WHY as the core of our reason for being. 

The chance to network in a room full of gurus.  I set myself a goal of connecting with everyone in the room.  I did not achieve this goal but met so many amazing people…. I reflected again on the upward spiral of connecting online, then face to face, online…. And so on…..  Each time you meet face to face it makes the online connection easier, then the next face to face is at another level....

The power of storytelling again comes to the fore… Helen’s family story impacted on my greatly as I understand the role of Bel is moving from birth, through infancy into childhood.  I am so excited to be part of an initiative that is in its infancy and I welcome the challenge of the journey…  I also really enjoyed listening to and reflecting on similarities and differences between us all, just as their are similarities and differences in every family.

I am so excited to create a VENN diagram of my journey…. I want to reflect on the start of the year for me as a Bel facilitator and look at how it compares with beginning a teaching year…

Teaching Year	Same	Bel Facilitator
Setting up class Planning Collaborating with management and staff Meeting students and families Reaching students Developing routines Setting up guidelines of ‘respect and protect’ Setting up online environments Preparing for routine of year	Flexible learning space Collaborating New connections Routines	Setting up Mosgiel office Collaborating with South team and National team Meeting South and National team Developing self-managing routines for blended learning work Finding way around online environments…

Barbs, Allanah and I got to hang out and chat and have fun and it is called ‘work’… Bel birds are chirping…

I got an amazing overview of the Bel Role…. I have a far greater understanding of the WHY of my role…

I have a real understanding of Bel birds and the way that will symbolise our journey this year and beyond…

I have a burning desire to be BRAVE, BOLD and INDEPENDENT and to work to facilitate this in others….

I have so many new approaches…

I am in a room full of people who passionately believe in the transformative nature of e-learning to remove barriers and raise student achievement… The power of thinking and innovating in this room is on a whole new level for me…

Closing with 3 key ideas, 2 strategies and 1 action…

Bel facilitating is a way to put an e-learning lens on the key competencies…

My PLN is growing exponentially….

The feeling after two days is overwhelmingly one of being adopted into a family…

We sound beautiful when we sing waiata 

As I reflect on the journey of these two days…

I am going to STOP:

·         Worrying about my role

·         Needing to see the big picture all the time, instead I am going to go with the flow and welcome the challenge and the unexpected…

·         And I am going to work on my work/life balance with a whole lot of focus on family and ME time

I am going to START

·         Believing more in myself and my place in the Bel Team

·         Read and engage more online

·         Be more flexible, with my time, my role, my journey

I am going to CONTINUE

·         Finding the MAGIC

·         Connecting face to face and online whenever and wherever possible

·         Living the dream…

It is hard to explain my current feeling.  At the weekend I met a student I taught five years ago.  He was so interested in my new role and asked me if it was like the year of my “Twitter Tour”.  There are a large number of parallels between my journey in 2011 and my new venture… I am networking, collaborating and innovating with amazing educators all around New Zealand; I am travelling; I am about to experience a diverse range of school and classroom journeys and I have a chance to facilitate.  I have a much clearer idea of the role of facilitating and I love this definition from the NEXUS article…

Facilitator - Someone skilled in group dynamics and learning processes and with access to key sources of expertise and knowledge.  He or she encourages people to participate in network activity and makes it easier for groups of people to work and learn together and for the learning to be shared. 

What do I bring to the role… I bring an enthusiasm;  a passion; a willingness to learn, connect, collaborate, network, share and grow; an insatiable thirst for blended learning opportunities; a burning desire to work with schools to improve outcomes for all, with a particular focus on priority learners.  I also bring a desire to keep my feet firmly placed on the ground, to support others wherever possible and to ask for an accept help and support as I journey along…

So – here I am up in the clouds again, both literally, metaphorically and poetically…

What a journey, what an opportunity, what a privilege, what a challenge….