This post was born of an idea I am tossing to my admin. No rest for the weary. Educators everywhere in the south are preparing for the return to school, and generally that means a little professional development. Too bad one size does not fit all in this case most of the time. So I am pitching an idea to address this dilemma.
57 PD Opportunities
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There are 57 different videos from the ISTE 2011 conference. I’ve been slowly watching them as time permits. I attend this conference every summer (well almost) on my own dime, and I find it so worth it every year. Since ISTE began professionally recording sessions and keynotes, I often forego those sessions recorded and catch them after the fact. So as I finish another session today, I am thinking this should be shared with my school!!
Why is PD a bad word today?
Many schools are on a shoestring budget for professional development–or absolutely have run out of time to plan. Another consideration is that many schools suffer from offering PD that a segment of the staff finds irrelevant and a waste of time. Planning relevant PD is a challenge of the day for sure.
A PD idea
So here’s my idea—I’m a sharer-I just can’t help it. Please feel free to file (even in file 13!) Work up a document (or online survey/google form) with titles and descriptions of each of the 57 ISTE videos). Ask folks to express interest by ranking them, let’s say 1-10, with 1 highest interest and 10 being lowest interest. Analyze the data and then create rooms for 20 different video showings from ISTE. In each room, have a room facilitator show the video streamed from the ISTE site. Each one is roughly an hour. After the video, have the group answer some questions related to the video and their discussion, impressions, opinions, application to their teaching context, etc (i.e. how was the information useful, what were the main ideas learned, what will attendees try in their teaching context, or other conversations that occur.) Have each attendee sign the single document used to outline the conversation, and that document is turned in to you for PD documentation.
Of course, this could be done for everyone of the 57 videos, so that catering to individual interests is not limited at all…. But using only a set of them –10, 15, 20 at a time gives an administratie leader the chance to repeat this activity if it is successful for later staff development days.
Who’s going to do all the work?
I did say I would be happy to create the document or the Google form. A document would require analyzing paperwork. A Google form would be a quicker way to analyze the data.
I know, I know. I’m just a think outside the box kind a girl. And I really think many would benefit from something like this. Perhaps this can be saved for a much later date if the back to school ideas have already been planned for implementation. Feel free to tell me thanks/no thanks (or get a life.)
Tags: ISTE11, Professional Development
I think that’s a great idea Cathy. It would be great, too, if there was a way that you could capture a summary/reflection from discussions of each group to share with the entire staff. Something very short, but a way that everyone got a quick taste of the videos they didn’t see. Might encourage someone to go and watch some of the other videos on their own. You certainly are always thinking!
I LOVE this idea. I’m putting together a 21 things program for our school (possibly district wide) and I’ve been asked to lead 4 tech classes for our district this year. I know three of the topics already, blogging, web tools, and mobile learning, but wasn’t sure about the 4th. This would be a great option.
I’m not a teacher but I think in any profession that this type of PD is very much needed. You have a great idea and I think you should run with it and hopefully you will get many doors opened to you and everyone is receptive. Now that we are going to be revamping the NCLB Act (hopefully it goes well and next school year there are some major changes of not teaching to the test, et cetera) there should be some monies opened up for this kind of thinking and creativity as well. Being that ISTE is all about new things to use in the classroom, I hate to say it but I think this should be a required PD workshop/whatever you need to call it and that the school districts should foot the bill – I mean after all they are only investing in producing the best teachers around and the most prepared by sending them to places like ISTE and other conferences of the sort. Go for it – E
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Love this idea, Cathy! I need to head over to the ISTE videos and see which ones apply to the PD we need this year in response to our HSTW visit.
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“Like” button please! Love the idea. Could really use this in the district I’m in now.
You always have the greatest blog posts. I didn’t get to attend ISTE this year and can’t wait to view some of the sessions I didn’t get to attend!
Just Brilliant, CathyJo! LOVE this idea!!
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That’s an excellent idea! For my staff, I think the ISTE videos might be overwhelming (we’re technology challenged). Your post made me think though – the most important part of PD is meeting the staff where they are and helping them to the next level right? So I think I might brainstorm a list of technology topics staff might be interested in, have the staff rank that list in order of which sessions they’d be willing to give up an hour for, and hold mini-PDs for them. Things like classroom website development, integrating technology successfully, etc.
Which topics, in your experiences, have come up regularly that teachers would be willing to give up time to learn about?
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It is impressive that you had never missed any of the ISTE conferences. It is great to learn that many valuable information and think about sharing them with others. I think it is a great idea to be teaching this in schools. God bless on your venture.
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