Finding our WHY
Why
We believe that students need to feel empowered in their educational journey and prepare them for their future.
How
By having students create ePortfolios throughout their elementary careers and beyond that will share their unique learning journey through their academic achievements, goals, and creativity.
What
Creating a digital space for students to share and reflect on their work while fostering a sense of pride, ownership, and self-awareness.
Change is hard. In the education world, it happens often and teachers have learned to go with it. That does not mean it doesn't come without resistance. In the Heart of Change video, John Kotter states that getting people to change starts with their emotions. I do believe that teachers tend to be emotionally connected when it comes to their students. In order to encourage other teachers in our school to implement ePortfolios in their own classroom we will first create a sense of urgency. John Kotter states in his video, Establish a Sense of Urgency, that by creating a sense of urgency will result in a much more successful change. We will start by providing the teachers with their WHY. Establishing your purpose for what we are about to embark on gives teachers passion and direction as well as resilience when there are setbacks along the way. In a previous class we created a video that would share what we were doing and hopefully curate a sense of urgency among our viewers to make a change, in our case, implementing ePortfolios in their elementary classrooms. You can view it by clicking here. For many of the teachers that will be participating in this, they are not very tech savvy. In the last few years, they have had to learn so much to keep up with the current technology in our classroom and that is already difficult for them. By establishing a why, it will give their actions purpose and meaning, making the journey much more rewarding.
Resources
Kotter, J. (2013). Leading Change: Establish a Sense of Urgency [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Yfrj2Y9IlI
Dr. John Kotter. (2011). John Kotter - The Heart of Change. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NKti9MyAAw
