This is a written response to an article for my Master's
Class.
Professional
development is a major focus for administrators and teachers. Now, more than
ever, there is a huge push for teachers to continue learning and improving
their craft, especially since it is now tied to evaluation of teachers. This
article looks at different ways that teachers can find professional development
online for teaching and technology integration.
One such example
was selecting professional development to support a digital transition. The
case study comes from Des Plains, IL last year. The school district partnered
with Discovery Education to allow teachers to design, implement, and share
innovative teaching strategies while utilizing the technology tools in their
classrooms. The professional development process spans across multiple years.
Other than professional development online courses, the article looks at other
ways that teachers can collaborate.
Teachers at a
middle school in Clear Lake, Iowa created a Professional Learning Community or
PLC. This is like a blog or social media group where teachers can collaborate
with other teachers and professionals. In this case, teachers are implementing
real world problem based learning. This allows teachers and students to
communicate and collaborate with real world professionals in their areas of
study. An 8th grade language arts teacher said that using Google Docs and Drive
made it very easy to communicate with her colleagues.
Lastly the article
goes into how when an administrator observes a teacher, the observation is
immediately shared with the teacher, using Google Drive, including where the
teacher should focus on professional development. The article ends with a list
of tips for offering professional development.
This topic is very
important since many schools are working to put a device in each student's
hands. Teachers are expected to be experts in how the technology in their
classrooms work and must be able to troubleshoot devices as well. Since this is
an area that is constantly changing, there will be an ongoing need for teachers
to learn new devices and strategies to implement the technology.
In my school
district, one of the biggest areas teachers want to see improve is professional
development for teachers integrating technology. I personally am in the process
of creating a PLC for teachers using Google Classroom. The goal of this PLC is
to allow teachers to share ideas and troubleshoot problems with Google
Classroom. It will also make it easier for the IT department to communicate and
see what the teacher/user end looks like. This is accomplished through Google
Drive. This tool was chosen so teachers can become more familiar with Google's
tools that Classroom will require prerequisite knowledge of.
Making
professional development more meaningful to the teacher's own practice allows
for greater implementation of the skills learned. PLCs offer a way for teachers
to conveniently get help or learn new skills at their own pace and at their own
time. The more convenient and easily accessible the PD, the more likely the
teacher is to utilize it.
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