This has been a busy week, as we had a full morning of planning the next few months and further ahead for where the team is going. Like so many other Educational Technology teams, its very much full of plans we’d have probably had anyway; just not all at the same time, nor with the same urgency. A particularly timely tweet from John Hendrix appeared just after – we’re all up that idea ladder, but fear the pit of despair – can we avoid it??
this has happened to me for *every* long project I’ve worked on. ✨🦋✨
I teach art students to normalize struggle! It is truly the only way good work is ever made. pic.twitter.com/XAxmGznvvf— John Hendrix (@hendrixart) February 9, 2021
During that meeting, and in so many discussions with others, issues of how people are feeling has come up. We used a Miro board, developed by Anya Dvor at the start of the day, to get a picture of where everyone was. I found it challenging though – mostly due to the fact the coloured dots were allocated 1 colour per person. Having objected at the time, looking back, while I’d normally prefer to do something like that anonymously, I think for the particular session we had, it was essential that it wasn’t.
That said, I think in many ways that board was more complex than we really needed – being a fan of Lego, I’d rather have used Heather Gibson’s Minifig images – or perhaps even a version of this Emotions chart originally designed for use with a child with autism, that I found while searching for Heather’s resources.
Today, I attended a workshop, run by Karran Bonner, based on the idea of the House of 4 Rooms. This arises from an Indian Proverb, described by Rumer Godden in her autobiography
That’s a book that will go on my wish list; Godden’s “The Diddakoi” already being a favourite childhood book and TV series. I’d signed up to the course, as the description of the workshop reminded me of an activity Paul Prinsloo had described in a webinar (Oct 14 2020’s session) – which looked at the work he has done getting people to understand their vulnerabilities , particularly in the context of learning and teaching. It’s something we have spoken about looking at, perhaps starting with a staff group, as I think in many ways, supporting students needs to start with supporting staff.
I’ve got a lot to think about in the next few weeks – they’re going to be busy!