What does a PD look like to you?

Professional development should extend past an houror a day don't you think? What better way to continue teh ocnversation then via wikis blogs and web 2.0 tools?

Great post by Will Richardson, this was my reply ..it's something that I would love to spend more time thinking and talking about.

Pd should be a conversation of learning. Karl, Bud, and Ben put on what I thought was the best professional development day that I’ve been a part of. “What is Learning 2.0: A Colorado Conversation?” It truly was a conversation, with great content and meaningful discussion and at times some productive debate. Those connections with each other allow us access in these economic times to a great resource, and that’’s other teachers. It’s an exciting time we love in, I’m happy to be apart of it.
But, I think that hooking our audience with web 2.0 tools or any other “carrot” is also a good thing. Getting teachers on the computer and interacting with content sometimes is a great learning opportunity that if rushed creates push back in my experience; so “playing” first can still be a good thing.

Grown Up Digital

Cyber guru Don Tapscott talks about how the New Generation is changing the world by developing new ways of thinking and interacting. His latest book is called "Grown Up Digital"

What are you thinking about when you watch this video? Are you thinking that work should be fun, that this generation of digital learners are ahead of their time? Are you thinking that the secret of reaching these learners is socialnetworking and wikis? Or do you think of something else entirely? Watch this video and tell us what you think he is trying to say.

How long do you plan ahead?

When I first began teaching I believed that the farther in advance I planned, the more prepared and therefore the better teacher I was going to be. Soon after I realized that I was throwing many of my plans out the window because a) new plans came up or b) there was something else I wanted to dive into. It didn't take long for me to realize there was also a c) that students guide their instruction by their needs and desires for more knowledge. I can now say with comfort that if I plan more than a week in advance I am doing a disservice to my students and my teaching. A pacing guide is another story Pacing Guides allow for cohesiveness across a large group of grade level tecahers when otherwise there may not be. Building connections and authentic discussion within a pacing guide is a great way to integrate technology. Using Inquiry Based learning as a guide can be another method. I've embedded a great inquiry rubric courtesy of Galileo Educational Network

Questions I have?
How can I plan to keep planning?
How can I make sure that students are guiding their learning through productive discussions, collaboration and questions?
Will this make my teaching better or just keep me on my toes, constantly planning and tweaking with my students needs at the forefront in my planning?

Inquiry Rubric below ©2000-2008 Galileo Educational Network

Language of teaching success

So when judging schools and universities we now talk about "performance indicators" as a substitute for assessing the quality of their teaching.
BBC Article Here

What does this mean? I think it means that we are attempting to create a false sense of performance evaluation. Great teachers are everywhere; assessing them and their methods through pigeon holed means will not do anything to make us better at our job/craft or passion IMO

Are you letting the tools drive the lesson?

When working with teachers I'm often asked about tools and rubrics and how do you incorporate the tool, does the tool get in the way of the learning, is the content better because of the tool? My answer to these questions is the tool doesn't drive the instruction so the grade/rubric should reflect that.

When a teacher looks at my students work and tells me the writing and content isn't any good and uses that as justification for NOT using technology, I quiver. Not because the students did a bad job, but because I didn't teach it well enough. I didn't model and explicitly teach the goal I had set. This shouldn't be a surprise, but the tools don't drive my lesson plan the standards, benchmarks, and needs of the individual students drive my planning.

I have said to my peers before, think of a laptop as another tool for learning in the classroom.....it is no different than the pencil, the ruler, or the whiteboard. It is a tool to enhance our teaching and student's learning experience.

But what about productivity and time...do we ever have enough time as teachers? Well, I believe that technology should allow us to work more productively and in the long run it does indeed save time. Like everything that we want to do to improve our classroom we have to understand that there's a learning curve for us, but that's the fun part IMO. Learning is Messy, but it's rewarding.

This is a digital generation that is in our schools right now and if we want to continue to adapt, differentiate, and challenge all the learners in our classroom, it would only make sense to use their medium as a authentic gauge of their knowledge. I have been using wikis for two years in my class and I can tell you that the "newness" doesn't wear off, in fact there's a connectedness beyond the classroom that enables applied learning to take place at every corner. The discussions that take place about the books they are reading is great.

Once again, it's important to remember that a wiki is not the assignment. I'm not grading whether or not they can edit a page and add content, I'm grading them on their writing and grammar, their depth of knowledge about the books and their use of context clues, identification of figurative language, use of vocabulary across the curriculum, ability to plan, draft and revise, keep perspective in their writing, stay on topic, etc. Everything I do in my classroom is aligned with CAP, State and National Standards, technology doesn't change this, it only enhances it and allows for the interaction and digitalness they crave. I hope that it's the same for you.

Great article here from T.H.E. Journal titled "Teachers Lead Adoption of Web 2.0, but Perceptions Stifle Social Networking"
It reinforces my belief that if we're passionate about the use and availability of social networking, web based tools, and student created content going "live" then we need to do more modeling, sharing, collaborating and embracing ourselves.
Here's a quote pulled form the article "As for the future of Web 2.0 tools in schools, the researchers reported that teacher-generated online content will be the 'the next area of growth in the use of Web 2.0 technologies.' Almost half of districts have plans for adopting or promoting the creation and sharing of this content through Web 2.0 tools."

Open up the discussion...or lose the audience

First of all...conversations RULE!!

Had an interesting conversation today with a prospective teacher (1st year college) regarding the use of discussion boards in learning.Best practices tells us that asynchronous and synchronous discussions are great ways to share and learn content in all areas and levels.
His school uses Blackboard and he expressed frustration that in his class there were only 10 people, so the discussion is slow and unproductive. He said, "Why can't they just open it up to anyone that is taking that class or one similar anywhere in the world." My first response was accountability, and safety, but we're talking about college kids and much of what I've read lately says that the internet safety issue may be overblown; and Friendly Fiends are a concern under emphasized. I told him this was a benefit of moodle and told him about UOP, but I didn't know how to guide him in the right direction.
I found myself telling him about the benefits of setting up or joining a social network of prospective teachers with similar interests and taking the discussion global. Teens using Social Networking isn't a bad thing after all.
It made me think that we need to use these formats at younger ages, so the demand is there and the suppliers (colleges) will do more to meet those needs and expectations.
I'm sure there are many schools that have social networks, supports, and ways to group students with similar goals, but I'm sure it could be more productive and user-friendly.
Because, how disappointing is it if we fail to meet our students need and necessitate the need to "find knowledge and good discussion" outside the classroom.

Do We Need to Teach Web Page Reading and Decoding Skills alongside Creative Commons?

Are we doing enough to teach students how to decipher and decode internet materials? I wonder if there are state testing questions asking kids where the web page publishing date is or who is the author? What about the copyright restrictions on materials? This seems like authentic tasks that our students need to know how to use and apply. What does the Creative Commmons logo look like? Do you have permission to reproduce this web page's work?

I'm looking at tightening up my assessments and intervention techniques and I'm curious where these "lost" skills fall into place.

Goomoodleikiog (Huh?)

This weekend I watched, then "re"watched a series of videos, then watched as my tweet deck blew up with retweets and posts about how cool this videio and idea is. "Goomoodleikiog" huh? OK I know Google, I sort of know moodle, wiki's are an Like so many of us this week, after watching these videos I was enthralled and excited with the possibilities and opportunities brought by this dynamic combination of tools and learning structures. I applaud anyone with the vision and support to use Moodle in their district. Coupled with its easy interface and adaptability I think that these tools can revolutionize the way we look at inquiry based online learning tools and their use in a k12 setting. Ben Wilkoff posted a great blog about how important it is for us to name our tools.

I agree, but more importantly is our ability to share the vision, teach other teachers, and change the way that we reach the Higher Order Thinking Skills deemed necessary by so many of us in our classrooms.

Let's have these conversations in our schools, there's no need to "sell" them, they "sell" themselves.