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Professional Development Meme 2009 June 3, 2009
Directions
Summer can be a great time for professional development. It is an opportunity to learn more about a topic, read a particular work or the works of a particular author, beef up an existing unit of instruction, advance one’s technical skills, work on that advanced degree or certification, pick up a new hobby, and finish many of the other items on our ever-growing To Do Lists. Let’s make Summer 2009 a time when we actually get to accomplish a few of those things and enjoy the thrill of marking them off our lists.
The Rules
1. Pick 1-3 professional development goals and commit to achieving them this summer.
2. For the purposes of this activity the end of summer will be Labor Day (09/07/09).
3. Post the above directions along with your 1-3 goals on your blog.
4. Title your post Professional Development Meme 2009 and link back/trackback to http://clifmims.com/blog/archives/2447.
5. Use the following tag/ keyword/ category on your post: pdmeme09.
6. Tag 5-8 others to participate in the meme.
7. Achieve your goals and “develop professionally.”
8. Commit to sharing your results on your blog during early or mid-September.
My Goals:
1. To design:
1 – a 9 week iMovie 09 class lesson plan for 6th graders to complete integrating their Building Boys Making Men curriculum.
2 – great presentations on 1 – the basics and 2- advanced tools found within iMovie 09 for this summer’s iSummit conference.
( http://www.lighthouseschools.com/isummit.html )
2. To organize my home and work calendar system to help better maintain all of those important people and things in my life.
3. Establish connections educators from around the world to skype in on the Mais-Tec monthly meetings to share what is going on in their school in regards to the education revolution!
(Mais-Tec) Memphis Association of Independent Schools Technology Education Consortium ( http://mais-tec.org )
(And now I am bucking the system by adding a 4th goal so that I may possibly finish it. To complete and publish my Internet Safety curriculum for grades 1-6.)
My Vision June 1, 2009
I would like to set up iGoogle accounts through Google for Education for my 5th and 6th graders. I would like for these students to have their own iGoogle Homepage with widgets to get to their teachers’ blogs, shared and private Google Docs and presentations, use the To-Do list to keep up with their agendas, and gmail accounts to send homework, projects, and questions to their teachers and when working on group projects. I am not sure as to how to begin setting this up. I have gone to http://www.google.com/educators/index.html and looked at the tools, but don’t know what my next step is. I am looking for someone to advice me, send me to the place where to start, etc. I am stuck. Has any technology integration specialist or teacher done this and is willing to help me get started?
Party Discussion May 31, 2009
I just attended a party where the majority of all the mini conversations were either about Facebook or Twitter. I sat at and ate with a Sociologist High School teacher who grumbled about how his teens were always needing bathroom breaks to go text a friend about the latest breakup discussion that was going on. He talked about how interfering this was in his class, how disconnected the kids were, how they have lost the ability to focus on their learning because of how the Internet kept their social lives going on. I was so mad at how he doesn’t get the newest, most exciting trend that is going on in education! If he complained about how technology interfered with his teaching, how come he can’t see that he should tap into this new revolution to enhance his teaching! I asked if cell phones were allowed at his school. No, of course not, but they all have them, but aren’t supposed to have them on. So, if they have them, and they really have them already on, why not use them? Have the kids continue conversations going on in the classroom by texting their ideas to sites like Twitter, Yabber, Edmodo. I have seen where a teacher, in a lecture based, large classroom used cell phones to allow all to share ideas. They allowed others, outside of the class, to chime in their thoughts on the topic. It allowed kids who weren’t the self-confident ones to vocalize their thoughts through the use of technology. I have seen, first hand, a teacher whose students were irresponsible, lazy, disconnected to the old fashion 20th Century teaching style – tap into this new revolutionary style of teaching and grab her students interest. The students blogged, connected with other classrooms, created multimedia presentations, used free tools off of the net and, in turn, all 70+ students scored in the 90 percentile or higher on their writing exam. Their scores offset the national norm for the Independent Schools writing exam. The kids worked at night, and on the weekend on their assignments. If teachers, like the High School teacher I conversed with tonight, don’t see the worth of that these technology tools have and can’t adjust to this new revolution going on in the classroom then I feel sorry for the students and ashamed that educators, who chose to enter a career to capture students’ interest to teach and instill idea of loving learning, are working in this field. Teachers need more professional development in this new revolution. They need to understand and be made to grasp this new era by administrators, parents, and students. It would benefit them, the students, the classroom management, the interest in learning, and so much more. I am just baffled and disappointed.
