Leading From The Heart

by Tracy Rosen, teaching & consulting since 1996, blogging about it here since 2007. All views are my own and you should take them with a grain of salt, I do.

Category: RÉCIT

  • French Help…Whenever!

    Learning a second language requires as much practice time with the language as possible. For second language learners, it can be truly overwhelming to try to squeeze all of your language learning into the few hours allotted for it during class-time. Now you (or your students :) can expand your learning to whenever it is convenient to you by subscribing to the YouTube Channel, French Help…Whenever!

    For the better part of a year I have been involved with a project spearheaded by Marc-Andre Lalande, Pedagogical Consultant with the RECIT Provincial Service for FGA (Huh? Basically he is the consultant for technology and pedagogical renewal in the adult education sector of Quebec’s English public education system). I am incredibly fortunate to be able to collaborate with awesome educators from around Quebec as we create learning capsules for French second language students in adult education (or anyone else who wants to use them).

    One of the best things about the project is that, as we are working on video capsules to help our adult learners, we are learning so much ourselves! We are stretching our knowledge about second language learning and in so doing we will be better equipped to help our students succeed.

    Our first video capsule – Frenchlation by Karine Bellefeuille-Ward and Véronique Bernard – is now live and new videos will be available on a regular basis, so stay tuned!

    I am very happy to see this project come to life!

  • How can the way I help other educators affect their practice?

    I recently completed a 4-month contract as a technology consultant at two adult education centres. I loved it. Throughout the whole experience I felt this is what I am meant to be doing. The focus on tech reached out to my inner geek and the focus on relationship reached in towards my personal ethics of care.

    The other day I was doing some thinking about the past 4 months and decided to put it on paper (so to speak) and to frame it within a guiding question. The question I came up with was:

    How can the way I help other educators affect their practice?

    I used Dabbleboard to help draw it out and came up with this (click to enlarge)

    Thoughts about Consulting by Tracy

  • First day as RÉCIT consultant for general adult education

    Yesterday was (unofficially) my first day as a local RÉCIT consultant for general adult education.

    What does this mean? RÉCIT is a French acronym, standing for “réseau de personnes-ressources pour le développement des compétences des élèves par l’intégration des technologies.”

    (and now in English) What does this mean? “a network of resource people for the development of student competencies through the integration of technologies.” (definitions found here)

    (and now, what does that really mean?) My role is as a helping professional, and it is two-fold:

    • to help and support the teachers at two Adult Education centres as they integrate technology into their teaching practices in purposeful ways.
    • to help the centres refine their plans for purposeful integration of technology into their programs.

    Purposeful is key here. There is no sense integrating technology for the sake of flashing shiny new gadgets around a building. Those of you who have read some of what I have been writing for the past 6 years or so know that, though I use a lot of technology in my own teaching and reflective practice,

    One of the reasons I went in before my official first day of work (Monday) was that Avi Spector, the (yes, the. If I understood correctly, the English system has 1 regional RÉCIT consultant, the French system has 17 for the same region…) regional RÉCIT consultant for Adult Education was visiting and I had a wonderful 1/2 hour (ok, maybe it lasted closer to an hour?) scheduled to talk with him. My biggest takeaways from meeting with him were that

    • a) he loves what he does,
    • b) he is extremely helpful
    • and c) he shares my belief that pedagogy comes first. Techno bling is not worth much if doesn’t enhance good, solid pedagogy.

    I had a lot of fun meeting the people I will be working with for the next 4 months. I spent yesterday at one of the centres, I will visit the other centre on Wednesday. So far everyone I have met seems to love what they do, so that is already a bonus! How lucky am I that I get to work with a group of people who love what they do? Talk about inspiring.