Okay, our first “sort of” class meeting turned into a full blown class. I had no intention of people staying that long but I think the discussion was a good one.
Let’s review what we talked about and agree to do.
1) 1) We decided that it was okay to learn about new technologies in order to find new ways to raise achievement. We decided that we would not fill out the SMART goals sheet at least at this point. Raising achievement (ie student learning) remains our ultimate goal, but it is too early in the class to lock in to a target yet.
2) 2) Please read the Bill Ferriter article that I posted on the blog called Learning with Blogs and Wikis. The article should help you better understand how you can harness online PD.
3) 3) If after reading the Bill Ferriter article you feel ambitious and are ready to start with a blog and/or Google Reader or Bloglines then please proceed. I have faith that you can figure it out.
4) 4) If you don’t have any luck with that or would like to wait for a group effort or catch me at school or just want to wait until the next class that is fine too. At the next class I will show you how to get a feed reader account, find good feeds, and subscribe to those feeds.
5) 5) I am a believer in online PD. I get about 2 hours each Saturday morning looking through the feeds I read. It is one of the highlights of my week. I have never given the assignment for people to write blogs and follow other blogs. I am also asking for some additional reading to be done. I couldn’t “gauge” the class reaction to this assignment earlier tonight. I hope we can give this assignment a try as I think it has great value. We can feel our way through it and I will adjust as necessary. I think the best place to start is simply to ask yourself….what do I want to learn more about?
I feel so lucky to work with all of you and look forward to working our way through this class together. As always please feel free to email or call me.
1 comment:
Response to the Bill Ferriter article:
I like the idea that PD doesn't just have to be some expert coming along each year with a new idea but rather that teachers can self select what is important for their fields or interests. I also like the idea of ongoing conversations via blogs so that information can be shared and doesn't just vanish in some notebook.
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