Changing my approach to PD
Today was a good day for me. Students in my district were not in school and the entire day was committed to professional development. While this is not a new thing in the world of education, one thing I liked about the structure of today was that this afternoon, all Communication Arts teachers came together in one of our buildings for a mini-conference of sorts. There were two one-hour sessions, each with about 6 different choices for teachers to attend. I led one of the sessions and focused my hour on the idea of student feedback and peer-review. English teachers often find themselves with a mountain of papers in which they need to wade through. We know that timely feedback is important, but when you’re staring at a pile of papers, it’s sometimes hard to imagine that you will actually be able to make meaningful comments on each and that students will take these comments to heart and that the feedback will ultimately improve writing over time.
In this post, I don’t want to write about the presentation itself, I really want to share a direction that I’m trying to take in all the classes I lead with teachers. So many times in technology, I think we tell people what to click on and tell them how to use a specific tool. This is sometimes appropriate, but I also think that we are missing an opportunity to show how these tools can be used for instructional purposes. Today I wanted to show them Google Sites and Docs, however, I didn’t want this to be the focus of my presentation. Rather, I wanted them to see how these tools could be used for instructional purposes while at the same time keeping my focus on feedback. By using the tools and telling them why I chose that tool as I was focusing on the content, I was able to capture and hold participants attention at 2:30 on a Friday afternoon. They were exposed to the tools and shown where to find them and my focus stayed on the content I wanted to cover.
Not that this is a groundbreaking strategy, but it’s something that I’m working on so I can better help the teachers I work with. I know there are times that I will need to show what to click on, but in situations like today, my goal is to focus on the content and use the tools to help me.
This is what makes you good at what you do, because from a teacher’s perspective THAT is what we want and need. Using the tools to make the content/curriculum more meaningful for our kids. I wish I could say the same for the one I was at! I wish I’d been at yours!
So, I appreciate you sharing your approach. I can only imagine that your participants were thrilled to NOT be presented with a list of website to check out, but rather to see the tools in action. I bet you did keep them engaged even at 2:30 on a Friday. What were their questions? How did you tie the sites to your topic of feedback? I went to the presentation site but couldn’t find an agenda…probebly my mistake! I would like to know more about the google site, I think I see some connections to my work there as well.
Sisul