Creating a Lesson

Creating the inquiry based lesson made me think about how many skills can be incorporated into one lesson. Teaching kids a skill and then having them apply that skill to a project, while integrating multiple subject areas, can be both rewarding and lengthy. It's definitely worth all the planning and teaching and reteaching. I think its these lessons that show the students how and when they will use their skills in real life. Because its so realistic, the kids are more interested and focused. I am looking forward to helping teachers use this method in their classrooms as the school year finishes up.

Last PD I implemented.....

The last PD I implemented at Spencer was a 45 minute presentation on quick ways to use technology in the classroom.
First of all I found out I was doing the presentation about 1 day in advance, so I had very little time to prepare for it. So after thinking about what I could show the staff that they had not seen already, I decided on glogster.
The session was about 45 minutes to an hour which was shared with the Assistant Principal, the other Lead Tech teacher and myself. I decided to make a glogster project about using tech in the classroom to show a finished product but also take ideas from the audience and add to the project. From there we had about 10 minutes to look at the site and discuss how to use it in a classroom setting.
To improve upon this session, I would have has the teachers sign up for accounts previous to the PD. I would have also given a small assignment so that they could have some familiarity with the tool. I would have then discuss technical issues they had with the site, what they may foresee their students having issues with, and lastly what projects they want to do with their students. With the remaining time (if any), I would have had the teachers plan a math or vocabulary lesson that they could have gone back the next day and implemented.

Definition of Professional Development

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT— The term “professional development” means a comprehensive, sustained, and intensive approach to improving teachers’ and principals’ effectiveness in raising student achievement.

After reading this definition I wondered if I have been missing out on something at the PD's I have attended this school year. I am pretty sure that every professional development that I have attended did not intend to increase my effectiveness in raising student achievement.
I am not sure if I agree that this a necessary component of PD. I think that sometimes professional development can be used to inform, educate or simply raise the morale of a staff.

Even more importantly PD can be used to teach teachers and administrators new information that may not have an affect on student achievement. For example if we were doing a PD on using Grade Book, the end product would not raise student achievement but it's necessary so that teachers are aware f how to record students' grades.

Overall, I think that the majority of Professional Development should definitely increase a teacher's effectiveness in raising student achievement. However, I don't think that should be the all encompassing definition of professional development.

What is the best way to get others at your schools to use more technology in their teaching and the students' learning?

I think the best way to get teachers at my school to use technology is a combination of a few things.

First they have to see that it is easy to use for themselves. If a teacher thinks or feels comfortable using something they will be more likely to use it with their students. Along those same lines, they have to see that it is something that they couldn't do without technology. Most teachers feel that if they can get the same message across without having to sign-up for lab time or check-out laptops, they may as well teach the lesson more traditionally.

Second, they have to see the technology as something that their students will want to use. The teachers do not want to have to sell the students on using anything. They feel that if the students are already interested, teaching the tech will not over shadow the content material that they are trying to teach simultaneously. Most teachers at my school feel like they are already selling education and coming to school, and they don't need another item on their list.

Third, they have to know that it is mandatory for them to use! Like most things if they can get away with not using it or doing it then they will do just that. At my school, administration has to take a stronger role in making tech integration a must do. Our administration already embraces technology and loves to add things to the building for availability. But it will always be the same teachers who are using everything, because they want to use it.

21st Century Literacy Skills

Literacy itself is a very important aspect of life! Just as we have multiple intelligences we also have multiple areas of literacy. I think it would be difficult to label one more important than the other also nearly impossible to teach one without addressing another. The most important aspect of 21st century literacy to me is teaching children to "read the world". The video http://faculty.nl.edu/rrevzan/tie512w2010/21centlit.htm has very interesting concepts presented by educators. They speak about social literacy and outdoor literacy, which are really important but rarely taught directly to students.
I doubt that anyone would argue that technology skills must be taught to students to ensure that students will be ready to compete in the world. The definition of literacy can definitely be expanded to include so many different things. However when you really get down to it, the basic definition of literacy can encompass everything we want or need children to do. Being able to read and write are fundamentals that we will never be able do without.
If students are taught to "read the world", they can become successful at every area of literacy. They learn to read cues from people, how to read and use the areas in which they live, and how to meet their own basic needs.