I've been participating in (yet another) project since the fall of this school year, called Project Culture Shift, through the Google Certified Innovator program. In this program, we were tasked to work with a group of teachers in our school district or building to create an initiative/project that would help shift the professional culture in your school/district.
I worked with a small group of teachers from our school leadership team to create an initiative that motivated teachers to start observing in each other's classroom (in a non-evaluative manner), to gather new ideas and spark conversations about professional practices as part of our regular habits.
You may have heard similar initiatives with names like Pineapple Charts or something similar, but we wanted to really personalize our project to our school culture - so we chose a popcorn/movie theme we dubbed "Pop-Ins." Our school colors are red and white, which lent itself perfectly to a traditional striped popcorn bucket theme... as well as tons of popcorn puns. Of course. :)
Just last week, our final showcase was live-streamed through Google channels. It was recorded, and you can go back and view it here:
Set your 📅 to join #GoogleEdu Certified Innovators around the 🌍 for a livestream on 1/22. Find out how they've been leading Project Culture Shift in their schools. Livestream avail during 2 times. Join at 12PM PST: https://t.co/e59lbki1Bo or 4PM PST: https://t.co/f4O0dYgHem pic.twitter.com/ya2MPYpywr— Google For Education (@GoogleForEdu) January 16, 2019
I was super nervous to present and talk about our initiative (You know how you're always comparing yourself to others and you never quite feel like you're good enough? Uh yeah, that's me. Pretty much always.), but it went pretty smoothly, and I felt like I had enough content to discuss my project, so that was good.
I'm really proud that I pushed myself to do another thing outside of my comfort zone, and I know that the more I continue to present and talk in front of others, the less anxious I'll be. So bring it on!
How do you deal with situations when you're feeling nervous/anxious?
- Mrs L.