Professional Development Plan

Professional Development Plan

               The importance of professional development is well understood among the teachers of Michigan. Michigan requires school districts to offer so many hours of professional development each year. Although some of the workshops/lectures I have attended have not fit well with what I needed, most of them have offered something I could use in the classroom. Since I have not been teaching for the past two years, I have found that I find it difficult to find professional development opportunities. This class has emphasized for me the need to seek out not just any professional development opportunities, but especially ones that deal with technology use in the classroom.

                I have been very excited about the things I have been learning in this course, but find when I mention things I have learned to teachers who are in the classroom, there are well aware of these things. It has shown me how far behind I am, especially as I get ready to search for jobs. Technology is being incorporated into every aspect of our lives and we need to, as teachers, have the savvy to help our students navigate through the plethora of information and gadgets available to them. The internet is a treasure trove of professional development programs – some free, some for a fee – but they are easily available.

               One of the best free online sites I found was http://www.pbs.org/teacherline/ - this site has some wonderful programs available to help teachers. There is a catalog available broken into categories for easy navigation. One link is to implementing technology in the 3-5^th grades – perfect for what I am looking for (although for a bit younger grades than I plan to teach, but I have found almost any lesson/unit plan can be adapted to any age level). The link to this section is http://www.pbs.org/teacherline/catalog/browse/?sa=4.

There are other sources out there that offer courses (most for some fee or subscription). But all offer a significant number of professional development opportunities. The links are found below:

http://www.theteachersguide.com/Professionaldevelopment.htm

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/professionaldevelopment/

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/pro-dev/resource/5778.html

I am hoping to investigate these sites more in-depth throughout this summer; I especially want to look into the PBS site some more. Professional development is important in all professions, but especially in the education field. Educators must stay current on what is happening in the world if we are to teach the future.

Teaching today for the future

Chapters five and six offer so many ways to help an educator integrate technology into the classroom. It is only for the instructor to take the foundation and begin to build a wonderful structure of learning. In the teaching of social studies, I have always told my students that all subjects are touched upon. This being the case, the software, programs and materials discussed in these chapters can be incorporated in most any avenue of the social studies that the teacher wishes to use it.

Chapter five includes a section on desktop publishing. This is probably one area all teachers incorporate technology – sometimes without even realizing it. Students today, especially once they reach middle school age, are well versed in desktop publishing tools and use many facets of it in papers and projects, even when the teacher does not require it. Long gone are the days of having to plan that research paper so carefully so that your footnotes line up right or of writing it out long hand and editing it more than once and then having to re-type a whole page because you made a spelling error or missed a word. Today desktop publishing programs offer an ease of use in these areas, that teachers of all subjects should be assigning some form of research paper from at least eighth grade on.

I love the puzzle generators. I have used them a few times before and find them a fun tool. Near the end of the year, as students are getting antsy and it is harder for them to focus, crossword and word search assignments are great – and they can create them for each other to enhance the learning process.

Probably the greatest asset I found in teaching was the electronic gradebook. I loved the one I used from Teacher Created Materials. We had weekly grade reports that we sent home and this program not only helped with that, but at mid-term and marking period time – I found it much easier to have kept a weekly total of grades. It also allowed me to weigh tests, quizzes and homework assignments any way I wished and not include assignments for absent students or based on individual needs of students. I must say though that these programs are becoming obsolete as more and more schools go to a server/network program that allows parents to access grades daily if they so choose. My own children’s school has one and I love to be able to see how they are doing and get reports weekly through e-mail.

Other things mentioned in chapter five that I have found or would love to implement in a classroom include: student response systems (kids love the anonymity of them and the competition aspect), the various graphic tools are wonderful for teachers working to incorporate the multiple intelligences into their classrooms, charting and graphing tools are helpful for students that might be a bit ‘math deficient’. One feature discussed that I really must utilize more and investigate are the planning and organizing tools. I think that if I would become more familiar with them, they would help me greatly in my classroom.

Chapter six offers so many opportunities for implementing concepts of multiple intelligences it makes my head spin.  The section discussing evaluation of software is one of the most important. Often times, educators are dazzled by the ‘bells and whistles’ of a product, but once purchased, find that it really isn’t practical in the classroom. That is one reason the six phases of TIP are so important. I love that as technology expands, we can offer projects that include blogs, podcasts, and editing movies and such. Students are so well versed in what they can do, it behooves us to implement that which will be an integral part of their world in the future into their education today.

Digital Natives in an Industrial world

Every generation must teach a new generation who has so many new things to learn and so many new ways to learn them. The current generation is being labeled the ‘Digital Natives’. We are challenged to teach a generation that is growing up with instant gratification: instant mac and cheese, movies on demand, 24 hour news cycles, etc. The use of multimedia in teaching this generation would seem like a no-brainer, yet schools have been slow to integrate technology into the everyday classroom. There are many reasons for this. First and foremost is the cost factor. Multimedia in the classroom is an expensive endeavor for schools that can barely afford up-to-date textbooks.

One of the biggest benefits of allowing students to learn with the aid of technology is its ability to help meet the multiple intelligences. The movie, ‘Digital Youth Portrait: Sam’, helps illustrate this point. Sam obviously learns best in a way that does not follow the typical learning mold of school. By allowing her to learn outside the box and create projects that are in the realm of her interest while still meeting the objectives of the lesson, her teacher is helping her become a life-long learner. In ‘Schools Use Games of Learning and Assessment’, schools are using simulation games to help students learn. It also discusses the use of simulations for training purposes for future pilots and doctors. These are wonderful ways to incorporate technology and get students motivated to learn. It might seem cost prohibitive, but the long term benefits and cost analysis should be looked at. It may seem cost prohibitive, but might prove cheaper over the long haul.

Students respond much better to things they understand and are familiar with and whether we like it or not, computers, the internet and fast moving information is what they know. It would be smart for educators to work outside the box to find ways to connect learning objectives with available technology. Sam and the students in the other movie are examples of the positive reaction students have when they can use technology to aid in their learning. It is important that educators make sure that learning is occurring. This can be one of the more difficult issues when integrating technology. Using simulations does allow for learning to occur. Training programs can be helpful, giving students real life experiences without the fear of causing some serious harm to others.

The book discusses so many options for integrating technology that it allows for the use of the multiple intelligences. The many choices available allow for teachers to structure unit objectives that fit in the box that the student feels most comfortable in.

MI and TPAK

TPAK fits within the realm of the goals set by Gardner's Multiple Intelligences Theory. By incorporating TPAK and the TIP method, a teacher can develop unit plans that touch on many, if not all, the MI's - which benefits all students. Just as TPAK strives to get teachers to focus on having technology, pedagogy, and content all work together to form a cohesive unit plan, TIP gives the instructor the framework for achieving this. Technology Integration Planning involves 6 phases, phases that we all do as teachers as we develop any new unit or project - but TIP encourages us to focus on the relative advantage aspects of technology can offer us. I would also throw out there that teachers should challenge themselves to look to include as many MI choices/aspects as possible - let's walk through a quick example.

Students will come to understand important cultural aspects of different European nations by planning a trip through six European countries and create a visual diary.

Phase one: What is my technological pedogogical content knowledge?: I have a solid pedogogical knowledge - may need to focus on a few aspects of MI of individual students. Technologically, students may be farther ahead than I am. I may need to walk myself through it to make sure I understand what problems might arise.

Phase two: Why should I use a technology-based method?: There is a definite relative advantage to using the internet and having students create a power point presentation diary. Students find textbooks about geography boring and far removed from their world. By having them research actual places on the internet and where travellers go when visiting these places, geography can take on a much more 'real' experience for them. Students also have more fun writing about something when they incorporate fun music, graphics and transitions in a power point presentation. This also gives them a more realistic, true lesson about Europe, since they could, in theory, actually take the trip they plan out.

Phase three: How will I know students have learned?: A scoring rubric for their power point will be used to score the final presentation.

Phase four: What teaching strategies and activities will work best?: Students will need time to plan the trip, research on the internet and create a final power point presentation. My role as teacher should be much more advisory than instructing as students are fairly well versed in both internet research and power point techniques.

Phase five: Are essential conditions in place to support technology integration?: Students will need enough scheduled lab time to work on project. Many can do research at home, but the power point aspect should be done at school. Time may prove to be the biggest constraint to this project.

Phase six: What worked well? What could be imporved?: By evaluating daily how the students are doing, having them critique the project at the end, and having 80% of students have a better appreciation of European culture, I will be able to determine if project was successful, should be tweaked in the future, or simply not done again.

Introduction

As the title of my blog suggests, I love reading and enjoyed teaching 5-8th grade literature classes. I fell into that area, since my degree is in social studies. I created many projects that integrated technology. I had my geography students create an diary of a trip through Europe that everyone enjoyed. I had history classes create early colonies - both of these incorporated power point presentations. As more and more classrooms are getting access to interactive white boards, I would like to pursue use of virtual field trips into the social studies. The last class on anthropology gave me many ideas in this area. Being able to post to things such as schooltube (I think that is what it is called) can open a whole new avenue of projects for students. Newscasts, historical 'you are there' plays, etc. Blogging is also an approach that could prove interesting.