Notes from Millie D

Well I was wondering how long it would take before I received a meme to complete and my answer is today. Skip Zalneraitis (twitter: skipz) tagged me this evening and I wanted to oblige as this meme is something near and dear to my heart, professional development.

Here are the directions:

Summer can be a great time for professional development. It is an opportunity to learn more about a topic, read a particular work or the works of a particular author, beef up an existing unit of instruction, advance one’s technical skills, work on that advanced degree or certification, pick up a new hobby, and finish many of the other items on our ever-growing To Do Lists. Let’s make Summer 2008 a time when we actually get to accomplish a few of those things and enjoy the thrill of marking them off our lists.

Here are the rules:

1. Pick 3 professional development goals and commit to achieving them this summer.
2. For the purposes of this activity the end of summer will be Labor Day (09/01/08).
3. Post the above directions along with your 3 goals on your blog.
4. Title your post Professional Development Meme and link back/trackback to http://clifmims.com/blog/archives/353.
5. Use the following tag/ keyword/ category on your post: pdmeme.
6. Tag 8 others to participate in the meme.
7. Achieve your goals and “develop professionally.”
8. Commit to sharing your results on your blog during early or mid-September.

Here are my goals:

1. Take away at least one usable concept, idea, process, or a-ha moment from EdubloggerConEast and BLC in July.
2. Read Brain Rules, Wikinomics, and A Whole New World.
3. Revisit K12 Online Presentations and implement change in my school.

I Tag…

• Alice Barr
• Cheryl Oakes
• Bob Sprankle
• Liz Davis
• David Trask
• Maria Knee
• Mark Spahr
• Richard Byrne

This weekend I spent a lot of time in the car and listened to some great podcasts that made me think.  One of the topics that kept popping in my head was meaningful professional development for educators.  Sometimes we know what we need to work on to grow as a professional but don’t have the time based on federal, state, or even local mandates.  That lead my thinking to Google’s 20% rule. 

As today worn on I knew I needed to further developed the idea.  I put out a twitter message to see if the idea had any resonance and I was encouraged to keep moving the concept forward.  Which leads me to my first draft of a plan I will be presenting at our school’s last professional development committee meeting this school year in 2 weeks.

Please remember this is in draft form, any constructive feedback is appreciated.

An Ode to Study Groups

URL: http://www.techlearning.com/showArticle.php?articleID=196605184

 By Folwell Dunbar

From the early Neolithic or late Pliocene
To just yesterday afternoon around half past four
The professional development most often seen
Had participants screaming and running for the door!

The principal would attend a workshop in July,
Buy the hottest new book or some videocassette.
He would come back to school with a twinkle in his eye
And write an S.I.P. teachers could never regret!

A Ph.D. with a huge ego and résumé
Would visit the school two or three times during the year.
And show every last teacher an enlightened way
To make A.Y.P. without even an ounce of fear.

He would stand at the podium and preach to the choir
Bout’ NCLB and shared accountability.
"We must raise the bar and then jump higher and higher!
Teach from bell to bell with sense and sensitivity!"

The teachers would leave the cafetorium in glee
With reams of information packed with jargon to spare.
Lugging binders and handouts (at a nominal fee),
They would return to class both in rapture and aware…

Of research-based "best practices" that were tried and true
And lesson strategies that could not possibly fail!
The administration was sharp, knew just what to do:
They had "stood and delivered" the PD Holy Grail!

But as we all know, school change is a tricky business;
It’s hard as a tack and never happens overnight.
Workshops don’t work, all victims would certainly confess.
It requires blood, sweat, and tears and a terrific fight!

Faculty buy-in and active participation
Are key ingredients for real, successful reform.
To bring about such a meaningful transformation
We have to make the two an essential PD norm.

Embed them throughout the entire training process
To ensure that teachers get both what they want and need.
Create a new culture dedicated to progress
Where everyone has an opportunity to lead.

To accomplish this, there is only one thing to do:
Sound the alarm and rally the much-beleaguered troops;
Get rid of workshops and empower the in-school crew.
Change the paradigm; adopt faculty study groups!

Six to eight people working together side by side
Go explore topics and issues relevant to each.
They travel miles and miles deep and hardly an inch wide,
Until they discover a better, new way to teach.

From crunching numbers to trying a new high-tech tool,
From reading a great book to designing a lesson,
They do any number of things to improve the school.
It is always worthwhile and occasionally fun.

Study groups will increase student achievement and more.
They will earn the school district and state impunity.
But much more important than any assessment score,
You’ll be a professional learning community!

My school is starting the process of creating Professional Learning Communities and this poem made me think about the journey.

The folks over at Common Craft have done it again.  This time they’ve created a nice video on podcasts.  Here it is

The usage of podcasts in education has only scratched the surface.  The potential is powerful.  Children can demonstrate their understanding of content through audio/video that can be shared with people around the world.  Teachers are able to learn best practices, virtually attend conferences/workshops, and build their professional knowledge.  I’m sure over the next few years podcasting will become a standard medium of classroom content.

On the eve of EduCon 2.0 it is time to shift the conversation of the impact of technology in the classroom from those who don’t use the technology to those who are and what tools are they using.

What should we be putting into our classrooms technology wise to achieve School 2.0 goals?

I understand that if we don’t have the person in front of the classroom who can use these tools it doesn’t matter what we put in there but let’s move the argument forward. We have a lot teachers who can and we need to promote what they do to help move others along to meet 21st Century Skills.

Tonight I asked the question in Twitter “If you had a $1000 to spend on technology for your classroom what would you get?” The results didn’t surprise me (more computers, cameras, ipods, mimios, webcams, microphones, etc.). I’ll bet if I asked the follow up how would these tools impact student learning/achievement others would be inspired to at least learn more of how they could use these tools in their classroom. The Return on that $1000 Investment is too great when it is used appropriately to ignore.

We need to be telling these success stories and helping to inspire others especially those new to the classroom.

Photo Source: Andywirtanen. “My Children” http://www.flickr.com/photos/andywirtanen/180890814/ (Jan. 21, 2008)

I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately about School 2.0, Professional Development, Meaningful Integration of Technology, School Improvement, etc. I feel like Education in the United States is like The Long Tail that Chris Anderson wrote about where 80% of educators are tapping into 20% of children’s potential. Is there blame? Sure, but does that solve anything no! So lets look for solutions instead of examining the problems.

How can we shift teaching and more teachers so that we reach more of a child’s potential? Barry Bachenheimer talks about how we should look at professional development, 21st century skills and change. His conclusion is that everything you know is wrong but seriously read his post because there are a lot of great points. Clay Burell talks about getting back to teaching and making a true impact on students instead of teaching towards accountability (gradebooks, tests, homework, static curriculum, etc).

Clay’s thought got me thinking. If we could employ the Google mentality of the Power of 20% then we’re getting back to teachers teaching and students learning. The Power of 20% is the theory where Google employees are encouraged to take 20% of their work week where they can work on a project that they are passionate about even if it has nothing to do with their current caseload. Imagine if teachers were given the freedom to spend up to 1 day a week to teach something meaningful or constructive that might not be in the “curriculum”. Chances are this is an administrator’s nightmare because of the “accountability of NCLB and making AYP!”

At some point someone has got to be willing to break the mode and do something different (even if it means falling flat on your face). If continue to follow the heard are we ever going to be inventive and transforming? I think not! Isn’t it nice to be reflective at the end of the year?

tags technorati : school2.0 clayburrel barrybachenheimer

I don’t normally share stories about my home life but this one connects to my professional life and it got me thinking.

I would like to think that I’m a capable and caring parent.  I’m always looking out for the best interests when it comes to my children.  I sacrifice personal needs/wants at times for those of my children.  My wife and I feel like we’re instilling a strong sense of values and morals to carry them throughout their life.  Our oldest daughter seems to have a good head on her shoulders, a sense of personal responsibility, and knows the difference between right and wrong.  Sometimes you take things for granted because they’re still young and think they wouldn’t encounter dangerous situations before you could prepare them for it.  Tonight that changed for me as my oldest daughter (who is the primary grades) told me about how she gave her webkinz password to a friend so he would add something to her account.

She didn’t think it was a problem giving a classmate her password, dad on the other hand was going ballistic inside.  I calmly sat her down and we talked about private information versus public information and what is okay to share with friends and what is not and other things around being safe when one is on the Internet.  She quickly picked up my vibe and asked good questions, in between sobbing stretches (she is a sensitive one).  In the end we came to an understanding about being safe online but still have fun, change the password, and how to handle the questions she might get from her friend at school. I tried to use this as a learning experience for her but it also became a learning experience for me.

This has made me think about online safety through a new lens, not through my teacher’s lens but through my parent one.  Should basic online safety be taught in conjunction with personal safety (don’t talk to strangers, 911 in an emergency, etc.)?  If you want your child to be part of the global society then yes!  There are so many good resources out there to help those who might not know where to start.  Personally I would like to see resources available for parents at pediatrician offices right next to other parenting resources.  Unfortunately (as a society) we need to do this kind of work to protect the innocence of youth.

More and more social networking opportunities are being pushed down to children at younger ages like club penguin and webkinz.  Even Disney has gotten into the fray.  As more and more opportunities are being presented to children, the time to lay down the foundation of safety and security while online is necessary.  The lesson that I’ve learned is the very first time you create an online persona for your child, no matter the age or the type of exposure, your role as a parent should be to have the conversation about online safety and keep reminding your child about it as new things come down the pipeline.  This small act of prevention now can save you a lot when you child is older facing similar situations when the potential dangers are greater and more dangerous.

Something a friend of mine told me that I recalled after talking to my daughter, “It is better to make mistakes early on in life and learn from them than it is later on in life.”  This is so true in this case.  The same kind of mistake 10 years from now for my daughter might result in a bigger, messier situation for our family.  I’m just glad my daughter has the ability to learn from her mistakes.

Looking at the situation through the teacher’s lens I’ll be approaching this grade level a little differently.  I’ll start my online safety unit a little younger than I had done in the past to help keep our children safe but still find value and fun to their Internet experiences.

One week to go until ACTEM’s 2007 MAINEd Conference.  I need to prioritize because lately I’ve fallen behind on my preparations due to NWEA training, school consolidation, Red Sox, Patriots, and life in general.  Let’s not even talk about the K12 Online Conference coming up with David Warlick’s keynote on Monday.  Thank goodness I have a 3 day weekend. 

Here is my schedule:

Thursday’s Pre-Conference:  Acting as an extra set of hands for CoolCatTeacher’s session on wikis.
                                       Conference Banquet

Friday:    Keynote Address
             Session I:  Presenting my Screencast session
             Session II:  Undecided   Anyone have any good ideas, I was thinking about Will’s session.
             Lunch:  Hanging out with the Seedlings crew for a Tools of the Day Session
             Session III:  Undecided
             Session IV:  Presenting my Google Earth session

What are others thinking going into the final week?

I thought this tidbit would be interesting to explore with professional development around technology integration…

clipped from www.lifehacker.com

Next time you’re trying to make a convincing argument, close a sale, win a debate or simply get someone else to do something you want them to, check out blogger Scott H. Young’s four insights into what makes people tick. While these are pretty oversimplified to explain all human behavior, they’re all still true in some respect:

Rule One: People Mostly Care About Themselves
Rule Two: People are Motivated by Selfish Altruism
Rule Three: People Don’t Think Much
Rule Four: Conformity is the Norm

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