The process of thinking about what I choose to do for my lit review is ongoing. The idea behind the lit review is that New Teachers (year 1 and 2) need a different approach to PD from that which we have traditionally given/thrust upon them.
Things are changing and beginning teachers are also now different from the traditional model. They have access to and knowledge of, technology at a level never before experienced. This access is perhaps not being utilised to it’s full potential. The PD however, largely remains the same (Traditionally based and grounded in a chalk and talk approach with maybe an activity here and there.) An ex colleague (much younger than I!) who I met up with in the holidays confirmed this when she asked 'Who uses booklets any more?' So now I face the challenge of working with PRTs and putting my money where my mouth is - or rather providing what the evidence suggests is best!
PD should be engaging
PD should be differentiated
PD should be cost effective
PD should be future focussed
So how are we doing this?
The playing field has expanded and there are more highly effective digital tools and technology integration available to all teachers than has been the case in the past. What technology is being used with newly qualified teachers to improve the quality of professional development they receive?
One wonders......
While researching the Lit Review I found little research on new technology! There is an agreement that we need to review the PD that teachers receive BUT almost no solutions beyond the traditional - large scale delivery - one size fits all - seminar based options. This is astounding! VERY recent research takes into account the development of Twitter as a PD option. But more needs to be done on how this works, how it links with blogging, how it links with online forums etc etc
Later.. The Lit Review completed I started to prepare for the PRTs coming into my school and those returning as second years. I knew I wanted to ditch the booklets. I knew I wanted to put information online, I want teachers to access information independently, to seek out the knowledge. It is important to know where to start however!
So... The first stop seems to be the tool we use for PD - OneNote. It seems silly to reinvent the wheel and add more to the process so I am developing what was the 'booklet' where teachers ticked boxes and wrote comments, into an online document into which they can drop photos, link to videos, put documents, link to quizzes, the list is endless. Its a portfolio approach. One interesting spin off is that we have gone to GAFE (Google Apps for Education) at our school this year and here we are using a Microsoft tool - the irony is apparent!
Received 85% for my Lit Review - Whew! The benefits of being able to model my work on an exemplar. I also visited MindLab to check with Milla that I was on the right track, running my ideas past her - I struggle to study alone. I need interaction with others....
The next step is to run my Lit Review and a precis of my inquiry and reflective stance to my line manager and the Principal for some feedback.
I will also be running it by my PRTs for feedback - just to see how I am doing for relevance to the role I have with them. I need to know I am pursuing an area of interest that will have a positive effect on my community.
REALLY funny story - well, ironic is perhaps a better term..but damn it got me thinking!
Our staff PD on Inquiry Based Learning / Teaching As Inquiry - was delivered last week (29/1/15) to the entire staff - some 130 odd teachers over the course of a day - from 11am to 3pm.
I have to say it fulfilled few of the criteria for meaningful PD -
it was not engaging
It was NOT differentiated
It cost a lot of money I would guess
It was really not future focussed.
Most staff felt it was a total waste of a valuable day where we could have been working on getting things organised one day before the students arrived!
However, being teachers we dutifully jumped through the hoops and tried hard to make it work - but it was really hard to concentrate on the activities (poorly presented) when our minds were racing through all of the prep tasks and things we would now have to do at home after school. I have to admire the groups of young teachers I saw who were REALLY trying to make it work and were heard to say - we need more of this. By 'more of this' I would assume they meant the information around what Inquiry Based Learning was and the opportunity to put it into some sort of meaningful context for themselves - ie design their own specific inquiry.... not actually more of listening to the decidedly average presenter or doing the generic activities.
Looking at the information we were given I know I wanted to put it to work for ME. I didn't want to critique someone else's hypothetical and vague inquiry - I wanted to know how I could make the process serve me in my day to day practice.
The presentation was also not good but that's a whole other problem.
So I guess I am now bound to consider how this PD could have been more useful.....
The content was good. Im not denying that. However the idea of presenting it all at once to a diverse group - some who have had inquiry based learning presented to them before, some who are using it actively and some who have no knowledge at all was a huge challenge. Time is a valuable thing to teachers and when we feel our time is being wasted we get upset and become negative.
I gathered from the talk around the presentation, that we are going to be basing our case study for our appraisal this year on a teaching as inquiry (which to be honest we do minute by minute) basis. I gather we will have to develop an inquiry focus - thats fine. I gather we will have to use the teaching as inquiry cyclical structure model, involving reflection etc... thats fine. But all of this could have been made clear and given us context. It wasn't. I have a feeling it might be tomorrow at the staff meeting that will continue this process. I hope so! BUT there will be some damage control to do before the meeting as people are rather antagonistic towards the process as a result of the poor format of the PD.
What would have helped?
Received on 30 Jan an email about engaging PRTs with an online forum and support access through social media (Facebook at this stage) the person who sent it may not realise that there are already groups on Twitter who work this way - but hey - more is good.
Things are changing and beginning teachers are also now different from the traditional model. They have access to and knowledge of, technology at a level never before experienced. This access is perhaps not being utilised to it’s full potential. The PD however, largely remains the same (Traditionally based and grounded in a chalk and talk approach with maybe an activity here and there.) An ex colleague (much younger than I!) who I met up with in the holidays confirmed this when she asked 'Who uses booklets any more?' So now I face the challenge of working with PRTs and putting my money where my mouth is - or rather providing what the evidence suggests is best!
PD should be engaging
PD should be differentiated
PD should be cost effective
PD should be future focussed
So how are we doing this?
The playing field has expanded and there are more highly effective digital tools and technology integration available to all teachers than has been the case in the past. What technology is being used with newly qualified teachers to improve the quality of professional development they receive?
One wonders......
While researching the Lit Review I found little research on new technology! There is an agreement that we need to review the PD that teachers receive BUT almost no solutions beyond the traditional - large scale delivery - one size fits all - seminar based options. This is astounding! VERY recent research takes into account the development of Twitter as a PD option. But more needs to be done on how this works, how it links with blogging, how it links with online forums etc etc
Later.. The Lit Review completed I started to prepare for the PRTs coming into my school and those returning as second years. I knew I wanted to ditch the booklets. I knew I wanted to put information online, I want teachers to access information independently, to seek out the knowledge. It is important to know where to start however!
So... The first stop seems to be the tool we use for PD - OneNote. It seems silly to reinvent the wheel and add more to the process so I am developing what was the 'booklet' where teachers ticked boxes and wrote comments, into an online document into which they can drop photos, link to videos, put documents, link to quizzes, the list is endless. Its a portfolio approach. One interesting spin off is that we have gone to GAFE (Google Apps for Education) at our school this year and here we are using a Microsoft tool - the irony is apparent!
Received 85% for my Lit Review - Whew! The benefits of being able to model my work on an exemplar. I also visited MindLab to check with Milla that I was on the right track, running my ideas past her - I struggle to study alone. I need interaction with others....
The next step is to run my Lit Review and a precis of my inquiry and reflective stance to my line manager and the Principal for some feedback.
I will also be running it by my PRTs for feedback - just to see how I am doing for relevance to the role I have with them. I need to know I am pursuing an area of interest that will have a positive effect on my community.
REALLY funny story - well, ironic is perhaps a better term..but damn it got me thinking!
Our staff PD on Inquiry Based Learning / Teaching As Inquiry - was delivered last week (29/1/15) to the entire staff - some 130 odd teachers over the course of a day - from 11am to 3pm.
I have to say it fulfilled few of the criteria for meaningful PD -
it was not engaging
It was NOT differentiated
It cost a lot of money I would guess
It was really not future focussed.
Most staff felt it was a total waste of a valuable day where we could have been working on getting things organised one day before the students arrived!
However, being teachers we dutifully jumped through the hoops and tried hard to make it work - but it was really hard to concentrate on the activities (poorly presented) when our minds were racing through all of the prep tasks and things we would now have to do at home after school. I have to admire the groups of young teachers I saw who were REALLY trying to make it work and were heard to say - we need more of this. By 'more of this' I would assume they meant the information around what Inquiry Based Learning was and the opportunity to put it into some sort of meaningful context for themselves - ie design their own specific inquiry.... not actually more of listening to the decidedly average presenter or doing the generic activities.
Looking at the information we were given I know I wanted to put it to work for ME. I didn't want to critique someone else's hypothetical and vague inquiry - I wanted to know how I could make the process serve me in my day to day practice.
The presentation was also not good but that's a whole other problem.
So I guess I am now bound to consider how this PD could have been more useful.....
The content was good. Im not denying that. However the idea of presenting it all at once to a diverse group - some who have had inquiry based learning presented to them before, some who are using it actively and some who have no knowledge at all was a huge challenge. Time is a valuable thing to teachers and when we feel our time is being wasted we get upset and become negative.
I gathered from the talk around the presentation, that we are going to be basing our case study for our appraisal this year on a teaching as inquiry (which to be honest we do minute by minute) basis. I gather we will have to develop an inquiry focus - thats fine. I gather we will have to use the teaching as inquiry cyclical structure model, involving reflection etc... thats fine. But all of this could have been made clear and given us context. It wasn't. I have a feeling it might be tomorrow at the staff meeting that will continue this process. I hope so! BUT there will be some damage control to do before the meeting as people are rather antagonistic towards the process as a result of the poor format of the PD.
What would have helped?
- Perhaps a bit of pre-loading? Flipping the lesson so to speak - would have enabled the group to be more 'on the same page' = Future Focus and Engagement
- An overview of how it fits into the scheme of things for us = Future focus and Engagement
- Department based discussion of ideas for inquiry focus = Differentiation/Engagement
- Shorter, clearly delineated time frames for activities = Engagement
- Not sure about the $ side of things except to say we could have done this in half a day!
- Timing was another thing - mind you, is there ever a good time to deliver PD in this format?
- Perhaps the delivery could have been differentiated - choose to pursue information on your own using technology and report back to a small focus group? That way it could have been non siloed....and you could have built up the information YOU needed with a specific goal in mind....Give people the parameters and some headings/questions to pursue/research and a time limit and see what they can achieve for themselves - put us in a cooperative/collaborative environment - thus modelling what we should be doing with our students.
- Look at other models/templates that are out there and decide which ones are going to suit us as individuals
- In future meeting share ideas for inquiry from groups on powerpoint so that we realise others may share our goals and ideas and foci then teachers could collaborate - if someone is interested in 'formative assessment' is anyone else interested in this? - from within and outside silos. Developing specific PLNs within the community - agency - ownership - accountability....Or just work on your own thing! But hey wouldn't it be great to see what others are doing?
Received on 30 Jan an email about engaging PRTs with an online forum and support access through social media (Facebook at this stage) the person who sent it may not realise that there are already groups on Twitter who work this way - but hey - more is good.