COETAIL Year 2
A blog post I put out to this year’s COETAILers….cross posted here
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Ready or not a new school year is upon us and the CoETaIL Program continues to expand. This will be the second year of CoETaIL under this site and structure and the expansion of the program to international schools continues to grow. Here’s a list of schools and cohorts and where they are in the program.
Taipei American School Cohort: Beginning course 4: Technology: A Catalyst for Learning
BKK Cohort: Beginning Course 2: 21st Century Literacy Ideas, Questions, and Issues
EARCOS Cohort: Beginning Course 3:Visual Literacy: Effective Communicators and Creators
We’re also excited to see three new cohorts get started this Fall.
All together that’s about 150 active CoETaILers to start the school year with the potential for other cohorts to come online throughout the year.
Get Connected:
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Throughout the CoETaIL program we talk about being connected, creating your personal learning network and using the educators connected around the world to learn from. As CoETaILers you have a unique opportunity to connect with and learn from each other. There are many different ways to do this.
Twitter:
In your Google Docs you’ll find a Google Spreadsheet where you can add your Twitter URL. Once you do that you’ll be added to the CoETaIL twitter list where you can follow all the CoETaILers that are on Twitter. Here’s the link:
http://twitter.com/#!/jutecht/lists/coetail-asia
Simply click on the link and follow. You’ll then be able to follow all the CoETaILers, learn from them, bounce ideas off them, and have them be part of your learning network.
Groups and Forums on the Site:
On the CoETaIL site we’ve given you ways to communicate and connect with others as well. There are many different groups that you can join as well as forums that might have answers to some of your most pressing of questions about this site, the program, or ideas to use in your own classroom.
Get involved:
At the end of the day it’s about being engaged in the conversation and being involved in the community. What you get out of this course and how it changes your life, your teaching, your perspective is up to you. You’ll get out of this program what you put into it. Start creating new habits around how you learn, who you connect with, and how you engage in your personal learning network. Making a conscious effort to start the year off right will help and keep you motivated all year long.
Learn your way around the site:
The CoETaIL site is running the latest WordPress Multi-User installation with the Buddypress plugin which makes it a very robust social network. There are other great features of this social-network like the ability to friend someone, send private messages and even update your status much like Facebook. Take some time in these beginning weeks to click and find your way around the site. Some updates:
– New Themes have been added
– New Plugins have been added…including a Google+ plugin!
Take some time to set up your blog and get it looking great for the new year.
We’re here to help:
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Kim and I are excited to be adding Dana Watts as an administrator running the American Embassy School Cohort. Kim and I worked with Dana at ISB and she was a graduate of the first CoETaIL cohort two years ago. Since then she’s left ISB to join AES in the role of Middle School Technology Facilitator where she’s spearheading a lot of new initiatives at the school including running their CoETaIL program.
Know that we are here to help, yes the technology can be frustrating at times, and yes it doesn’t always work the way it should, but that’s what we’re here for. You can e-mail us, ask a question in the forum or catch us online and we’ll do the best we can to help you out. The CoETaIL community is very supportive so I highly recommend asking a question in the forums or to a group. An e-mail to use is just one set of eyes on the problem. By posting to the forum you’ll get many more people thinking and helping you out.
We’ll see you online!
I for one am looking forward to a great year of learning from all of you. What I love about teaching these courses is that I learn way more from all of you and the great stuff you’re doing in your classrooms then I could ever imagine. This is a great community to belong to and I’m looking forward to learning along with you.
Jeff, is there an on-line version of COETAIL? It would be great to be involved in this.