Professional Development

I am an admitted Twitter-aholic. There are so many amazing and informed professionals that share so much. My learning has expanded ten fold by this exposure. I heard on a podcast that professional development should become personal development. I love that idea. As the lone Instructional Technology Facilitator it is difficult to offer training's that are relevant to all teachers. Every teacher is at a different place in their technology use and I struggle with what to present to teachers. As a district we are moving to BYOD and Google this coming school year. I have offered sessions on both of these topics during the summer, but there is only so much one person can do. I am very concerned that I have not prepared the teachers enough. I need teachers to take charge of their own learning and therefore administrators to treat these teachers like the professionals they are. This district has a long standing habit of "Gotcha" and punitive measures. Teachers will only participate in training, or curriculum meetings if they are getting compensated. I heard Vicky Davis on a podcast recently that " to be in the top 10% you need to spend 1 hour a day reading in that subject", I wonder how many people in our district do that -- teachers, administrators, any one?

Reflections of a Math Conference from a non-math teacher

I attended CAMT (a State level math conference)  this past week in San Antonio. I am not now nor have I ever been a math teacher. I am the Technology Facilitator for the district and work will all teachers and staff. These are my observations from this unique position.

1. Good Teaching is Good Teaching
Instructional strategies that work in the math classroom are applicable to any classroom, including professional development. You can always take something away from any conference. I may not have gotten something from every session but I did get something from every conversation I had with fellow participants.  

2. The amazing lack of technology in the teachers hands and heads
The majority of participants were taking notes the old school way (with pencil and paper).  There were sessions being offered about Web 2.0 tools, Twitter and Facebook, yet none of that was accessible during the conference. Many teachers had never even heard of these 21st Century tools and were intrigued by the possibilities but were unable to fully understand their potential without the ability to connect. I personally attended several sessions only because the presenters are part of my PLN on Twitter. 

3. So many teachers willingly give everything away
In many other professions people do not give away for free everything they have created. I'm happy to say that is not in most teachers nature. Some of the presenters had a website or a blog with even more free stuff. I noticed in the conference app there was a place for the presenters to upload their handouts, but sadly there were only 2 there.  

All in all, it was a great time of learning. I had enlightening conversations with teachers from my district. It was also amazing to see so many teachers giving up their "vacation" time to become better teachers. 

Using Google Forms for Formative Assessment

Google forms is essentially a survey tool that teachers can pose questions and student’s answers can be analyzed. Knowledge skills can be assessed using these Google form question types: "Select Response", "Check Boxes", or "Choose from a list". Reasoning skills can be assessed using "Text", "Grid" or "Scale".

Examples:

A “Ticket out the Door” assessment that focuses on knowledge and skills would ask specific questions and answers designed by the teacher.

Describe/summarize a concept in 3 words and the 3 words they choose must demonstrate what they have learned about the concept.   

A “Flipped Classroom” entry interview to access how prepared students are for class using a short answers text response. The student’s answers would reflect if the students understood some of the deeper reasoning from the independent assignment.

Students can complete a self-assessment/reflection form for students to complete after they have completed a project.

Give students a chance to voice their opinions, concerns, and questions though the use of “Text Paragraph Style” question. This allows students a chance to communicate about their learning.

Drinking from the information fire hose.

In this blog I hope to provide instructional technology strategies, tools and practices. I will try to weed through the abundance of information to find the ones that have the potential to increase teaching and learning. 

jessiehart / Flickr

Remember when you were getting a drink from the water hose in the yard and just as you got your face down to the water, your brother turned it on full force? Today, that's how the information is flowing out of the Internet. You can quickly become drowning in too much information. 

I do most of the the technology training's in my district, I am repeatedly asked " Which tool should I use" or "Why should I use this tool instead of what I am doing Now?" My response always is, do what is best for you and your students. If what you are doing is working for you, than keep on doing it, dive into and use that tool to it's fullest. Personally, I am always experimenting with new tools. I have a Dropbox, Goggle, SkyDrive, and Box accounts. I am trying to decide between Evernote and OneNote. I have courses in both Moodle and Edmodo. I have moved from Delicious to Diigo to Livebinders to Pinterest and finally Symbaloo. All of that change does come at a cost, a cost of time, energy and the depth of knowledge.

I have found that teachers are used to the "sit and get" model of professional development. As much as they want their students to take ownership of their learning, I would like my students -- the teachers -- to do the same. I model self-directed learning, so they can model it for their students. Our students are connected and expect their teachers to also be connected. It is our job to show how to connect properly and safely.

I understand that not everyone has the same level of comfort but you can do something. Take the baby steps and try one small thing. Set aside some time every week for personal Research and Development, just 15 minutes a couple of times a week.  Teachers are not satisfied if their students do not improve every year, school districts should hold the teachers to the those same standards and not be satisfied if the teachers don't grow and improve every year.

Think about it --- What do you want to learn today? --- edtechlisa