Thursday, March 6, 2014

Mystery Skype: A Reflection

Mystery Skype is something that I've been hearing about for quite some time... and just like my previous post, it has been another thing that I've been a little hesitant to dip my toes into... 
am I starting to see a trend here?!

Anyway... I was hesitant for a few reasons.  First of all, Skype is daunting to me.  I think it might be that terribly nerve-wrecking ring when someone is trying to connect with you.  Seriously, it makes my pulse sky rocket!   I also didn't want the whole thing to flop.  Being connected with another class, I didn't want to let down any other learners, or be responsible for taking too much of their time.  But, as with my other post, I decided to rip off the band-aid... (and, I had the help of some wonderful tech experts through the district who would help me troubleshoot, if needed.)

So what did I learn from the whole experience?  I learned that sometimes it's okay to go outside of your comfort zone as an educator.  After all, we ask this of our students daily. We require them to make sense of the unknown, to problem solve and to work together.  What an awesome reminder of how uncomfortable this can be.  I also learned, that sometimes I need to sit back and watch my students.  They absolutely floored me with the amount of team work and collaboration I saw today.  It was such a needed reminder on how sometimes, we need to lean on each other and offer assistance...  We are unable to do everything on our own. 


So needless to say, my heart is full this evening.  I'm thankful for such an awesome job that continually pushes me a bit out of my comfort zone.  A job where I am lucky enough to learn from the young minds around me each and every day.