Sharing - Snipping Tool on Windows

Today I shared with a student and a colleague - at different parts of the day how to use the standard snipping tool on Microsoft Windows OS.

For the student it was to snip a QR code he'd generated to avoid having to create an account throught the qr generator website for his static image.

For my colleague it was to snip a photo and title from the e-asttle exam to be used as a creative writing prompt in the Junior English exams.

To me this is a simple task. I need to remember that there are many tasks that I take for granted now that are completely new for others.

While walking my student (J) through this, another of my student's (A) sitting beside J was singing my praises to his friend. A was saying that I get them to do their work on Google Docs and can check their work from wherever I am and help them when they're stuck and give instant feedback. Wasn't too impressed collegially by the comparison to another teacher they were moaning about that doesn't do this (yet!) - but it was nice that A recognised the effort I put into not only doing the marking (which I would have to do regardless) but the fact that I put time and energy into teaching them new skills like this.

I walked away from overhearing their conversation, once I'd helped J, feeling stoked and pleased with myself. I noted to another colleague how cool it was that J was going with the QR code idea and that I'd taught him something new and got barely a response. I was proud of them and proud of myself. It's not always appreciated though - maybe fear of the unknown, fear of my and my students success? Maybe I talk too fast or maybe they just weren't interested or were just busy.

When I helped my colleague with her snipping job - I felt that I took over because I'd tried to do the same steps as I had with J where I guided him where to go on the computer but my colleague was more hands off at first and needed to visualise it first before she had a go herself. She was a bit scared of what I was trying to get her to do - I think because she was working so hard on the new exam and didn't want to mess up what she'd already done and maybe I hadn't explained it clearly enough - and once she saw how it worked she was impressed and overly thankful. We talked through the process so that she could remember how to do it again and then I asked her to try it herself this time and again she did and was pretty impressed with herself too and how the tool worked - stoked!

I must remember that everyone has different ways of processing and that they need to be catered for individually. Also - just because I have been doing something for ages or using a tool some way with my students doesn't mean that others are and they need help or not as well - depending on their level of interest and engagement. I should be more considerate with my time and make sure that when I do those kinds of one-on-one sessions with my students and colleagues and try not to assume that the other knows what I'm on about because everyone is on their own journey.