PD opportunities for teachers in HWDSB

The following is a guest post from my teaching partner Chantelle Davies.  Thanks for looking up and sharing some PD opportunities for teachers.


In this fast paced world of teaching with so much to absorb, one thing that I have found essential for teachers who want to stay current is their ability to engage in self-directed learning.
Click for photo source

When I first started teaching for the Hamilton Wentworth District School Board, there was always a plethora of after school in services being offered. I indulged in as many as I could. It seemed that as funding decreased, so has the boards ability to offer these face to face in services. However, as my experience with technology and education has increased I have come to appreciate that it is much more challenging to service everyones' learning needs; offering face to face learning in the many areas teachers want to know about, while ensuring a full session of people attending. Hence why I assume the board has shifted models a bit.

The Hub (or D2L) is our boards new learning space for both students and teachers. For those looking to expand their learning, there is much available here. Through the Hub, online PD sessions have been offered about all of the tools that are available through the Hub. There is also a “Recorded PD Sessions” section for anyone who missed the sessions or wants to refer back to these at a later time.

Similarly, the Hub also has a section entitled “How to Videos” that has many videos walking you through the variety of tools that are offered through the Hub. Some are repetitive of what is in the Recorded PD Sessions, but many offer tutorials on tools that PD sessions did not cover. Examples of the How to Videos include; Activating Your Course, Using Rubrics, Creating Quizzes, etc.

The Hub is also a place where announcements are made about upcoming face to face in services and online in services. For example, recently a series of PD sessions were offered on the iPad and many of its apps. Again, the great thing about the Hub, is that all of this information remains available online, should a teacher have missed a session.

Finally, for more online learning and again accessible through the Hub is tv.HWDSB. This is a video service that operates much like YouTube, but within the protections of our board site. This is where many of the How to Videos I spoke of above are loaded. However, it’s another starting place for teachers if you just want to search specific topics.

If face to face learning is still something you prefer, HWDSB still does off a selection of PD sessions in this format. Some of our upcoming inservices are as follows. You can register through the boards PD Place, as has been past practice.

Dec. 10th 4:00-5:00

Technology to Use with English Language Learners (ELL), 195197

The focus of this session will be on the use of web-based tools as well as iPad apps to support ELLs in acquiring the English language and accessing the Ontario curriculum.

Starting January 13, 2015 4:30 PM – 7:30 PM

Leaders Facilitating Learning, 194878

This six-session leadership program focuses on HWDSB as a learning organization. Participants will engage in learning team experiences that provide them with the knowledge and skills to facilitate/support improvement activities within their school/department.
The program is aligned with HWDSB’s key strategic directions of Achievement Matters, Engagement Matters and Equity Matters and addresses our Staff Development Standards.

If HWDSB's offerings don’t meet your needs, I highly recommend building a PLN through twitter and outsourcing your learning interests. There are so many knowledgeable people on Twitter and it is a platform that is based on the idea of sharing. You can put your question out there to a few key people in the education field (just see who others are following) and they may pass it on for you. Alternatively, find a twitter chat that you can participate in. Speaking from experience, you may find the twitter chat overwhelming at first. If there are many participants, it can be hard to follow. However, even if the first few times you just read the feed, you will likely gain something. Work at your own pace, add your thoughts where you can and you will get the hang of it. In my first chat, I shared that I was a ‘newbie’ and was so impressed with how welcoming everyone was. When I was worried about sounding like a dummy, many of the people were sending messages of welcome and letting me know to ask if I needed help with anything. It was a great experience.

In sum, there are so many directions you can take your learning as a teacher. You need to decided what it is that you need to know more about and then figure out where you can best learn about it. Take charge of your learning. Know that there are many resources available to you to further your knowledge.

The Impact of Technology on Professional Development

Effective professional development enables educators to develop the knowledge and skills they need to address students’ learning challenges.

In the past, Professional Development required individuals to sign up for a workshop from a list of available topics. The problem with this is that the workshops that may be offered may not fit with the individual learners’ needs. A second scenario that could occur is for administrators to dictate to staff what PD they should attend. Again, this may result in individuals attending workshops that are not of interest to them or it may not fill a learning need. Technology has changed the way individuals can access professional development. I think the largest changes in professional development has become the focus on the teacher’s individual needs and they way teachers can access professional development through Professional Learning Networks (PLNs) and the use Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs).

Ways Technology Has Changed Professional Development

Individuals are teaching each other on their one time. 

• brings together a number of individuals with similar goals
• co-learning - as everyone brings in their own expertise
• develops future leaders/experts as knowledge is gained

Individuals are sharing knowledge.

• resources and ideas are readily available
• offers a support group
• reduces the feeling of isolation some teacher may feel within their school community

Individuals can personalize PD through the use of tools such as Twitter.

• brings many experts to one table
• collaborative discussions allow deeper understanding 
• exposes individuals to a greater diversity of thought

Individuals have access to PD anywhere anytime.

• allows for self paced learning
• can be accessed on a variety of mobile devices
• allows for flexibility in time without the need to worry about a meeting place

The change in Professional Development mirrors how 21st Century Teachers are changing their role within the classroom. The teacher is no longer the giver of information but should be a facilitator who is their to guide students to achieve their goals. In the case of Professional Development, technology allows many individuals to come together and co-learn. Professional Development is about each individuals needs. Technology allows each individual to find or create a learning community to fit his or her needs.

It would be interesting to find out if anyone has signed up or considered a MOOC course. Please share some pros and cons of MOOCS.

The following MOOC List is specific to teaching on a variety of topics.

MOOC List for Teacher Professional Development

An Educator's Role in Protecting Students Online

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As the year unfolded this year, my teaching partner, my teaching partner and I were committed to getting our class blogs up and running for our respective classes. As we discussed what this would look like on a computer screen and in the classroom; we knew that we would need to consider our students needs. The things we considered were how to keep students safe, did we want the public to access and share on our blogs, and how do we ensure the students are acting appropriately online. As we continued our discussions, colleagues began to inquire about our methods. We found that not only were we working at ensuring student safety, we were also in dialogue and sharing ideas with our peers.

 
According to OCT Standards of Practice, teachers should promote and participate in the creation of collaborative, safe and supportive learning communities (OCT Standards of Practice). At times, participation in learning groups happens in formal settings and other times it happens informally. The two of us have been involved more with informal learning. As I have stated, we often discuss the learning that is occurring in class and where we are heading with the students. I had one colleague ask one day, “What do you two talk about each night?” One of the things that I shared with her was how we were working on getting our blog started. This sparked an interest in her as she had attended a tech night, put on by our board that dealt with classroom blogging. Suddenly, our informal group of two grew to include another member and we had begun to create our own personal learning network. It has since grown further with a few other staff members who are venturing into blogging and other 21st Century learning experiences with their students.

Within our PLN, our main focus was how to manage the blogs with our different grade levels. We wanted to expose students to the world of blogging while keeping them safe. According to the ethical standard of Care, teachers are committed to students’ well-being and learning through positive influences, professional judgement and empathy (The Ethical Standards for the Teaching Profession). It is with the Ethical Standards in mind, that we began to share some of the knowledge we had gained in our Integration of Technology Course Part 2. We began to share lessons we had created with our colleagues and we continued to discuss the importance of ensuring the safety of students. Using our professional knowledge, we decided that with our primary grades, we would create a blog that would be worked on as a class in a type of shared writing opportunity. We would focus mostly on sharing our information and comments within our immediate community of students and parents. Our juniors would start blogging as a shared experience as well, with the goal of eventually interacting with our blog independently from home and by interacting with other blogs globally. This decision was based on our knowledge of students’ ability and their access to technology. With in class support and modelling, we felt that this was the best way to ensure the safety of our students. The next step would be putting our theories and planning into practice. 

 
Within our PLN we have had many discussions about how students today are part of the ‘digital generation.’ Most of them are online on a regular basis (whether their parents like it or not). This year when surveying our students, we learned that most of them are online at least once a week and many of them are online daily. We feel that not only does this show us that using online tools is a motivating factor for our students, but that it is also becoming more and more important to have conversations in the classroom about online safety and digital responsibility. As well, a quick conversation is not enough to instill good habits into our students. Rather, frequent modelling and practice of these skills is what will help ensure safe and responsible use for our students.
With doing so much activity online at school, we have developed lessons to start the year off to introduce safe online activity. In addition, we have continued to revisit these concepts with our students each time we get online or use our class blog. Our students have now become ‘experts’ at pointing out when someone else in the online community has done something poorly to impact their digital footprint or when someone else has provided information that may not be keeping them safe.
Without us intending on doing so, this has become great sharing and modelling within our PLN. Our colleagues see how our students now naturally think about their actions online. They see how much students online activity increases through the primary grades into the junior grades and they have come to recognize that early discussions about safety and online etiquette help to shape responsible digital citizens. While our lessons and ways of teaching are newly developed and will need tweaking in the future; they have provided some of our colleagues with a jumping off point or with an idea of how to create their own lessons on internet safety and digital responsibility. Our informal discussions within the PLN have encouraged others to agree with our views that tackling these issues in the classroom is important and valuable. Hopefully this suggests that we ourselves are becoming good leaders with respect to our online actions.

In the spirit of sharing, here are some of the things we have done to help ensure the safety of our students online, as well as some of the lessons we’ve used to encourage them to be good digital citizens. It is our hope that these actions are ensuring the safety of our students.

Discuss the value of blogging with students and parents - WHY BLOG

Create blogging guidelines for our students to follow and send this home with a letter letting parents know what will be involved in our online activity at school

Teach lessons on what information should not be shared online - STUDENT SAFETY ONLINE

Teach lessons on creating Quality Comments so that students are safe and so that they are kind to others online

Teach lessons on how to copy work properly, so as to respect other online users and the original authors of online work - COPY THE RIGHT WAY

The Essence of 21st Century Learning and Leadership - Getting Connected

The essence of 21st Century Learning and Leadership comes down to the idea of becoming connected and one way of doing this is by developing a Personal Learning Network.  Personal Learning Networks or PLNS allow individuals to connect with others to share, communicate and request.  By creating a PLN, an individual creates relationships with others who have similar interests or needs.  This relationship leads to the sharing of ideas and resources, collaboration and new learning.  Over time, the PLN grows, connecting the individual to the global community Individuals interact in a variety of ways by using social networks and other online platforms.  Networking allows individuals to connect with leaders in education who can support the individual in their own self directed professional development.

When an individual self directs their professional development it leads to greater exploration or inquiry based learning.  In the past, teachers have had little input as to what PD would best fit their needs.  With a self directed inquiry process in mind, a teacher can create a PLN and seek out leaders for support and guidance.  An example of this is being done within our own school.  Our administrator has asked for our input as to what direction each individual feels they need to develop.  As a result of the needs of the individual teachers, our administrator has created five learning teams.  In a traditional setting, our administrator would need to facilitate five groups and bring in a variety of experts to meet each groups needs.  However, with social networking (i.e. twitter) our administrator could invite a number of experts to attend discussions or chats.  These experts would share their knowledge and provide prompts for the group to have dialogues that would lead to a deeper understanding. As the group of learners continue to dialogue and share information the expert or leader takes on the role of co-learner as all members are contributing to the learning.  As the conversation grows in the network, new experts are drawn into the network leading to greater collaboration.  With a wealth of input, a sharing of resources and rich conversation, the original learning group will become leaders.  These new leaders will be encouraged by their peers and leaders to join other PLNs in order to share their knowledge and expertise.

Here is an example of our personal learning network.  As we continue to develop and grow in different areas our links with others will continue to grow. In some instances we will be leaders and in other instances we will be the learner.



Below are a number of links that describe Personal Learning Networks and tips on how to create and develop you own network:

http://teacherchallenge.edublogs.org/creating-a-pln/
http://gettingsmart.com/2012/01/personal-learning-networks-for-educators-10-tips/
http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.ca/p/create-personal-learning-network.html

Chantelle and I were wondering if you have considered your personal learning network?  Who are the people you connect with and how do you access them when you have questions?