Month: June 2019

Leading and Following

Denise Krebs4 Comments

This post is week 3 of 8 in the 8 Weeks of Summer Blog Challenge for educators.

How are you both a leader and a follower in your career?

Jesus said some important words about leadership and following. I will answer this question with his words first.

One time when the mother of two of his 12 disciples came to Jesus, along with said disciples. They asked if they could be his right- and left-hand men. Then this happened:

When the ten others heard about this, they lost their tempers, thoroughly disgusted with the two brothers. So Jesus got them together to settle things down. He said, “You’ve observed how godless rulers throw their weight around, how quickly a little power goes to their heads. It’s not going to be that way with you. Whoever wants to be great must become a servant. Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave. That is what the Son of Man has done: He came to serve, not be served—and then to give away his life in exchange for the many who are held hostage.” Matthew 20:25-28

Leaders should be servants. That means a lot of humility in dealing with people I’m leading. Though I am too proud, with the grace of God, I have become more and more a servant leader in my life, including my career life as an educator.

Another thing Jesus said is about following.

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it…” Mark 8:34-35

Following Jesus is another priority in my life. Thankfully he helps me because denying myself is not a natural inclination.

Leading like Jesus and following Jesus have made me a better leader and follower.

Inviting Innovation

Denise Krebs4 Comments

This post is week 2 of 8 in the 8 Weeks of Summer Blog Challenge for educators.

Who or what experiences have built you up into the educator you are today?

Joy Kirr’s post is the first I read during Week 2 of the challenge. Her story is familiar to me, as I’ve heard her tell it before. It also runs parallel to my own story, which began at about the same time.

I had been teaching since 1984–sometimes to a group of grade 2, grade 3, grade 7, grade 8, as a reading specialist with small groups of children, or for ten years as a stay-at-home mom with my two daughters. I loved all my students and schools. I always felt I was out-of-the-box and looking for how to be better.

However, in late 2010, something switched for me. Two colleagues came back from the Iowa Technology Education Conference and told me that teachers were using Twitter. OK, I thought. So what. They continued telling me about the connections they made, the Web 2.0 tools they discovered, the people that inspired them. They told me enough that I got interested and began exploring with them.

One of my first tweets happened while I sat at a Digital Literacy conference with Angela Maiers. I was at a table with Erin Olson,  Stacy Brown, Brenda Ortmann, and Eileen Kinney listening to Angela’s challenging message. As you can see that uphill was a steep learning curve for me in more ways than one. I had to figure out the difference between # and @ on Twitter.

Angela Maiers was inspiring and challenging. Here is the post referred to in the tweet below. The people I met on Twitter enabled me to learn much more than I was used to learning. I began to read more books, read and write more blog posts, and I learned in a new and exciting way how to own my own learning, how to take responsibility for making a new way.

When I was searching for my first tweets, I also ran across this one I wrote in 2011 to Jee Young Kim. At that time, I was helping someone find resources to teach overseas. I myself had never been out of North America, but here I was saying, “Maybe someday I’ll be able to teach overseas!” What? I was sure I was making that up to be polite or make conversation. I had never had that thought before. But three years later I was doing just that!

I have now been teaching in Bahrain for six years. Thankfully, the things I learned from others and my commitment to innovation and improvement have not stopped.

I’m still connected with educators all over the world through Twitter.  Even though education is much more traditional here, we are still growing professionally at each turn. Soon we will have the third annual EdCampBahrain. We have quarterly TeachMeets and hashtags to share our learning in the Middle East (#bahrainedu, #edchatMENA)

Then today I humbly received one of my Principal’s Innovation Awards at our school for engaging my students with things like blogging, Pearls of Wisdom, and Genius Hour.

Life is sweet, and there is such joy in this journey. I am very thankful for those who taught me what I know and for those who continually teach and challenge me.

 

#8WeeksofSummer and I’ve Got a Lot to Accomplish

Denise Krebs5 Comments

This post is week 1 of 8 in the 8 Weeks of Summer Blog Challenge for educators.

I have too much planned for this summer so I didn’t think I also had time to join Penny’s #8WeeksofSummer blogging challenge. However, I am going to give it a try.

My plans for this summer:

  1. I will finish my TESOL Advanced Certificate Program.
  2. I will do some work on my year plan and related resources for my grade 5 English learner class.
  3. I will read 8 children and young adult books, which is nourishment for my soul as a reading teacher.
  4. I will blog about my learning (and whatever else is in store for the #8WeeksofSummer challenge) at least 8 times.

My professional learning will be happening in two countries and in 3 U.S. states. I have my laptop, my Kindle, and my phone ready for action.

I’m already a week late, so I’ll leave it at this.