Four Easy ways to Revitalize your Professional Development

 Professional Development has been around for quite some time. Yet, have we taken the time to fully understand its full potential for our professional educators?   I think we can take our PD to the next level by implementing few changes with our current format.
Professional Development has been around for quite some time. Yet, have we taken the time to fully understand its full potential for our professional educators?

Build PD into the school day: Redesign your school day to incorporate Professional Development to take place during the regular school hours. You can at least use the time your staff arrives to school to the start of the academic day as protected PD Time. IF you are a Professional Learning Communities (PLC) district, you may already be doing this.

 

Tech Café: Embed technology Professional Development into the lunch hour. Here you can invite teachers to participate in PD while they eat lunch. Schedule multiple sessions during a specific date (Eventually leading to monthly Tech Café sessions). You can provide lunch for the staff or they can simply bring their lunch to the PD session.  Survey the staff to determine their technology PD needs. Lead learners can facilitate these sessions! Our teachers truly appreciate this monthly focus on Tech PD.

 

Edcamp style PD: Use the UN-Conference style PD for your building or school district. Organize the event based on needs, wants, and desires of those attending the professional development. Pre-determine the location and space for each PD session. Determine the length of each breakout session and decide how many sessions you want to have that particular day.  Allow for the participants to sign up to present on topics of interest. It will create an opportunity for teachers, technical support staff, administrators, and community members to lead out and facilitate relevant PD for your community. You will be amazed at the level of involvement with will create with your school community!

 

Host a Gallery Walk: This is great when you have a limited or set amount of time to work with Professional Development. Set aside PD time for your staff to share out in a 45 to 60 minute session. Pre-determine what areas you want to “showcase” or expand upon with your staff. Then allow for your teachers to move from “station” to “station” learning about the designated topics. Your staff can easily serve as the facilitator for the given stations. You can also use district experts to assist with hosting a gallery walk station.

 

By simply redesigning the format of our Professional development, you can accomplish two primary goals: 1. Create consumer driven professional development, and 2. Create a more authentic professional development for our staff and community. I am curious to learn what you are doing with your school’s Professional Development design!

Inspecting Social Media Tools

With the onset of Social Media’s meteoric rise to popularity and use with teenagers, it was inevitable that with all the great things that come with using, understanding and exploring Social Media for its positive purposes, we would someday encounter negative facets too.

As a father and educator I rely on Social Media for professional development, education, and connectedness. These two roles often merge together at times which require the blending the responsibilities of each together. This past Saturday (Feb 8^th) I was fortunate to be part of the #edcampSTL experience. This UN-Conference was incredible (to say the least). Eighty breakout sessions were offered throughout the course of the day. One particular session “Social Media How Kids Use It” caught my attention. What I learned in this session, I need to share you with parents, teachers, and administrators.

Last spring I shared with my parents some information about Ask.fm and how students are using this App. Ask.fm is a tool that students use to ask questions of their peers. The person asking the question can remain anonymous. Anyone can follow you or access your Ask.fm account to see what people are asking you. Just as important, they can see your responses. Personal, private questions are being posed to our teens. Now the scary part is ….they are answering these incredibly personal questions.

During the “Social Media: How Kids Use It” break out session, college Professor Julie Smith shared with us some of the other Social Media tools our children and students could be using (on a regular basis).  She told us that our students’ (and childrens’) digital footprint are really a digital tattoos!

Here are the iPhone Apps that she suggested we check out before our children started using them. Or if your children/students are using them, we need to have a conversation about the way they are using them. Here are several. I’ve given a very brief explanation and how to access the app via iTunes or their website.

·         BuzzE: Rate people with ‘stars’. iTunes App. www.buzze.com

·         HotorNot: Rate people via their profile picture/s.  http://hotornot.com/

·         Tinder: Meet people, date people. www.gotinder.com

·         Voxer: Voice/text/photo sharing. Location sharing too.  www.voxer.com

·         Whisper: Totally anonymous. Free to share information. iTunes

I will continue to share information as I learn more about Apps and websites that parents should be aware of. There are many, many other Apps that are out there. By being proactive we can work to keep current of the latest Apps of Social Media that may not be the best for our students and children to use. Feel free to share information on Apps that you feel parents need to know and understand.

One Word

Collectively a team, group, club, community, or school staff can create a pretty comprehensive “to do” list, resolutions, and/or goals, (personal and corporate). To this end they then can move forward working to “check off” their accomplishments as they move through the year. Often we miss the mark in checking everything off the list and our resolutions (albeit important) tend to fall by the wayside. So  there must be another way to set goals and remain focused.

This month our school staff opted forgo the traditional New Year’s resolutions and decided to select a single word that would represent our goals, vision, and focus for 2014. We each selected that single word to represent our focus for 2014.

Jon Gordon, author of “One Word that will change your life”, explains that by narrowing your focus to a “one word” vision you add clarity and focus to your year.  Gordon’s January 1, 2014 appearance on the Today Show solidified my decision to begin this process.  You can learn more about selecting your “One Word” by checking out Mr. Gordon’s website: 

http://getoneword.com/

Here’s a sample of the “One Words” from the staff at Francis Howell Middle School: Perseverance, Relationships, Character, Motivate, Risk, Balance, Ambition, Embrace, Sacrifice, Dedicated, Encouraging, and Strengthen.

Soon our student community will begin the process of selecting their “One Words” in their Character Connection Classes. Keep us posted on your journey and if you feel like it, share your “One Word” with us.

It’s time for Snow-cial Media

When life gives you a snow day- make Snow-cial Media work for you. In maximizing the best facets of our snow day/s, there are a plethora of avenues to pursue in order to feel productive and validated. You definitely need to take time to shovel the driveway or build a snowman, but you can also spend time relaxing, reading, reworking projects, or renovating your social media venues.

Making the best of your snow day using Snow-cial Media…

·         Start/Continue/Finish reading “that book”:  I have several books on my iPad that I’ve started reading. So on my first snow day, I carved out some time to simply read.

·         Write a Blog post: Many of have our established blogs. For some our initial initiative to blog weekly may not have come to fruition. So… take this snow-cial media opportunity to write a blog (or two). It will help rejuvenate your Blog (or keep you on track).

·         Participate in a PLN chat: Take this time to branch out. Look into other chats that you would not normally participate. This is a new way to expand your PLN.

·         Unearth educational websites: This is a great time to carve out time to what new websites you can use as secondary resources to implement in your classroom, share with your teachers, or parents. Www.canva.com is home to Canva. This is what I used to create the picture insert for this blog post.

·         Research APPs: this is a great time to delve into APP research and discover new tools to use to maximize productivity, enhance learning, and increase your creativity. Compliments of @2Guysshow I discovered @Gosphero). Also, I just came across Thinglink. This APP allows you to insert video and text into your pictures.

·         Watch a Podcast: For example, three Social Media leaders here in St. Louis led out a Snow Day PD session today on “Social Media in the Classroom”. Check out this podcast on Google Hangouts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gtlM5Dg1AQ

·         Educate staff and parents: This is a time to prepare information tweets, blogs, or video letters for your community. I plan on using this forum to help educate parents on some of the social media venues their children are using which they should be monitoring (i.e. askfm.com).

I hope you are able to relax during your next Snow Day. Who knows, if time permits you might be able to turn your snow day into a Snow-cial Media Day!!!

Taking your game to the “Next Level”

As we will soon enter the year of 2014, there is no time like the present to consider making few changes or adjustments to how you are embracing 21^st century learning. Look at the new year as a way to broaden your perspective with technology in the classroom, understanding the different facets of Common Core, and/or embracing Social Media. Below are six areas where you could consider beginning or enhancing this journey.

·         Follow a Twitter Hashtag: A very easy way to increase your understanding of social media and the multitude of benefits it will bring your way. A several hashtags  (or accounts) that I’m following include: #Venspired, #2Guysshow, #cpchat, #txed, #satchat, and #edchat, #flippedlearning, @cybraryman1 and #moedchat

·         Participate in a new PLN Twitter Chat: By doing this you will be able to learn from experts in your field.

Simply join a specific chat. Here’s a link to a pretty comprehensive list of chats:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AiftIdjCeWSXdDRLRzNsVktUUGJpRWJhdUlWLS1Genc&usp=drive_web#gid=0

I’ve learned quite a bit from #moedechat, #txed, and #satchatwc.

·         Embrace a new APP in your classroom: Thanks to Brett Catlett (@catlett1) I just learned about Flipagram. This APP allows you to design a picture collage using pictures from your Camera Roll, edit them and add music. Then you have a picture story. I just created two Flipagrams. One that chronicles our first semester at Francis Howell Middle and another that celebrates my oldest son’s first year marching with the Blue Stars Drum Corps.

·         Look at Augmented Reality as a tool for your classroom. Taking the APP process one step further, you will actively engage your students from the onset when you use AR Apps. www.twoguysandsomeipads.com is a great place to check out some pretty cool AR apps. Brad Waid and Drew Minock are leading experts in this area.

·        Look at implementing a new Social Media Tool to enhance the learning experience. Evernote, Google Hangouts, Backchannels, Google+ are all important tools that will help you become organized,  advance your understanding of technology, and help connect you and your students to new facets of 21c.

·        Read a forward thinking book: There are several books out there that can push you forward, solidify your pedagogy, or enlighten you. Frederick Hess’ Cage-Busting Leadership is a great read. You can even participate in a Twitter Book Chat.  Presently #moreads and #moedchat chat are leading out a chat focusing on Daniel Isenberg’s Worthless, Impossible, and Stupid. Finally, Dave Burgess’ (@burgessdave) Teach Like a Pirate has been a very popular Twitter Book chat. You can also follow the #tlap for continued professional development.

There is no time like the present to broaden your understanding and application of educational resources of the 21^st century. Those listed above can be of great resource for you as you continue this incredible journey!

Reframing Professional Development

As we continue to move forward will all facets of our educational transformation, it is important to include PD in this movement. We must move beyond the traditional “sit and get” format and reframe our Professional Development. Authentic PD encompasses the needs of students, teachers, and administrators. By implementing a variety of formats and presentation styles within your PD will best benefit the educational professional. Knowing that your staff learns, processes, and acquires knowledge in different ways, it is paramount to design your PD around those information acquisition styles.

I’ve found the following to be quite beneficial formats for Professional Development:

·         Flipped PD

·         Google Hangouts

·         Podcasts

·         Twitter Chats

·         PLNs

·         Edcamps

There are a multitude of formats and ways to deliver Professional Development.  As you discover or implement different successful formats for PD, I’d like to hear how it goes!

Taking “Student Voice” one step further…

I hear from multiple colleagues saying that by empowering “student voice” in their schools it has re-energized classroom instruction. As we move further along in our educational journey, we need to continue to branch out and look at new ways to further this cause.  There are multiple ways to achieve this goal. One way is by utilizing the “backchannel” feature of different websites or programs. In researching ways to incorporate the “backchannel into the classroom, faculty, meetings, or for Professional Development, we’ve learned that one particular tool has made a positive impact. The “backchannel” feature of Todaysmeet has helped transform different classroom settings in our school.

It is important to note that is not the purpose to merely introduce new technology to students for technology sake, but instead to have an educational purpose (with a vision) as you introduce the new tool. The “backchannel” will allow multiple students to participate in classroom discussions at the same time while completing other assignments or activities. This collaborative tool gives merit and worth to “student voice”. Look at it as a way of “thinking out loud” without talking! Our students need additional ways to process, gather, and share information and the back channel format is an excellent tool for them to use.

Keep me posted on how you are using the “backchannel” in your classroom!