Asking for help

The next Innovator Academy is in Sweden and the closing date for applications is September 6th. You can get more information here.

Teaching is an isolating profession. You are in a classroom with 30 students and you often feel like you are alone. The pressure to maintain standards is intense and teachers feel like the responsibility for this falls firmly at their feet. Yes, once in your classroom, you are the only teacher and often the only adult but it is important to know that you are not alone. My membership in the Google Innovator community has told me that.

First steps for my Innovator project were to gather wisdom from teachers and network managers about those settings in the G-Suite for education admin panel that vexed them most when they first started as a G-Suite school.

So, I dutifully created a Google form to gather information about which settings perplexed them the most. However, I needed to give them the option of suggesting which settings they were and then I didn't want multiple versions of the same setting in my dataset. Simple, I thought, I can collate all responses and add this list of options back into the question they are answering.  Got so far but couldn't quite get a clean list and it was driving me crazy! Staring at a nearly working solution is so frustrating. Smelling the coffee but not being able to sip from the cup!

In my previous mindset, the problem would have been mine to sort. I would have Googled it, fiddled with code, tried different formulae in the hope of stumbling upon a solution. Not this time. I now know, I have a community of people who are actively supporting me and to make my project a success and I have been building my personal learning network for many years but Innovator status has made me realise its true value.  So, I carefully explained my problem in our chat and within seconds I had a solution. 

So, now, after my Innovator Academy, I am much more open to seeking help and so far I have been delighted by the responsiveness and kindness of people who are struggling with their own projects. Long may it continue.


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