Accepting feedback can be awkward at times for a variety of reasons. Maybe you don’t want to accept the truth or maybe you don’t agree with the feedback. I don’t know why or what the deal was but I felt very comfortable in accepting feedback in our breakout room on Tuesday night.
I was lucky enough on Tuesday night to be surrounded by a group of educators (thank you to Tessa, Kelly, and Curtis!) that were very passionate about their courses, very creative in their thinking and very constructive in their feedback. I left that class on Tuesday night with this feeling like I just left a TED Talk or something.
I ran upstairs to my wife and interrupted her Netflix series just as she laid down to relax after getting the kids to bed and told her you got to hear about these courses these people are doing. I thought my course was good but there is a grade 1/2 course about math and she did this “I do, you do, we do” and had it organized so nicely on google classes and it was just great and then there was this other one about digital citizenship and I’ve never taught that before in my classes and the way she broke down the lessons and obviously her font choice was top shelf and then there was this one on Minecraft and treaty education. I chose to stay an extra 45 minutes after class just to listen to Curtis and Raquel talk about their course because we ran out of time in our breakout room talking about each others courses so much and asking questions. I wanted to stay because I know someday I want to teach this Minecraft course with my students.
It was an excellent class and made me realize I’m doing the right thing by pursuing this master’s degree if I get to surround myself with people like this, it’s just really exciting!
The other thing I took away from Tuesday night was I felt safe in my group asking questions. I was confident that I was on the right track with an idea for my course but I knew I was kind of missing some parts. I told the members in our breakout room about my idea for the second module where I was going to interview Derek Meyers and I went in with this idea but it wasn’t sitting with me right I wasn’t sure of the right approach for this module. I just asked them, “what do you think you guys would do?” and they were just like students, students, students, which makes sense because they’re good educators and getting students involved as much as you can is always the best approach. I originally was just going to do this interview solo but they led me down this track to believe I should have the kids do the interviewing. Besides the kids already came up with the questions in the group forum of my LMS so I might as well have them ask him the questions. Letting the kids take ownership in it was way better because the kids were engaged, they took something away from it and it was personal. I don’t think I would have done that if it wasn’t for the people in my group breakout room giving me feedback!
Now as far as my course goes I really enjoyed the feedback I did receive. I liked the feedback I received over adding the parents section which I borrowed from this LMS that I was asked to give feedback on by Dan McGuire.
I like the fact that I feel like I added value to other people’s courses just by asking questions. I was also able to look at it through multiple lenses such as a parent, middle years teacher, and administrator.
I loved this class! It was great and very rewarding.
What's NEWS with Norman! 
First off your title is fantastic! But I love how open you were to receiving feedback even though you admitted to not really wanting it before hand. I also agree that by asking questions you were helping your fellow classmates improve their project. I am glad to see that you learned from discussing with peers and that you were able to be comfortable and use their suggestions moving forward.
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Wow, after reading your blog I can see how motivated you are after listening to Tessa, Kelly and Curtis.
Also, I love your idea to interview Derek Meyers.. even better is having the students ask the questions!!
This will make learning more authentic and engaging and I am sure it will be an effective experience for all of the students, Derek and yourself. I am looking forward to hearing on the outcome of this learning!
Great work!!
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Curtis, great reflection here! I think all of us were a little nervous to share our courses and what we were doing. It can be very uncomfortable getting feedback, especially if it is around something that you felt you did particularly well at. I wish our group could have chatted for longer as it was so helpful and interesting to hear what other people were doing.
How did the interview go? Where do you see yourself taking it from here?
Can’t wait to see what else you come up with!
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Curtis, I enjoyed your reflection! After reading your other members’ posts, watching what others are doing, and following along on Twitter I am continually impressed by how willing everyone is to share their ideas and resources.
It appears that you are using Google as your LMS and I noticed the Guardian Section. In your division, do parents have access to the LMS or do they sign in with their kids’ credentials?
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Hi Gerod,
Thanks for the comments. As for Google Classes their is a component that you can invite guardians but it basically gives them a weekly report about what the students received for marks or what is outstanding. I am hoping for my guardian section will be more thorough and helpful.
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