Top Ten Professional Learning Posts this Year

Our most fragile learners in school often face the day wondering where their next meal is coming from, how will they feed themselves to get through to the next day; we might see a shade of that same fragility in our teacher professional development system.

As part of the TeachThought January Blog Challenge today's prompt is: How am I going to update myself professionally? Specify support resources. I am glad to supply resources which have helped me develop myself. I recognize the importance of addition personalized development as... Continue Reading →

I have shared how I got myself back into the habit of blogging, by participating in blog challenges! If you are finding yourself overwhelmed start removing layers of things standing between you and a completed blog post. By participating in some blog challenges, I found myself practicing just writing instead of being paralyzed by selecting topics in addition to writing.

Today #AprilBlogaDay asked what is my passion project? Before I answered, I took a look at what I really pour myself into at work and came up with personalized professional learning . I am lucky. I am in a sweet spot for flexibility within my K12 district; I am not scheduled like a classroom teacher, and I am able to offer professional learning opportunities.

My affinity for the promise of the Massive Open Online Course, or MOOC, is well documented. However, while enrolled with thousands of colleagues I did identify the experience as disconnected from my daily practice. I sometimes wanted to brainstorm with local peers how ideas in the course translated to my classroom.

I assisted a group of local leaders explore an Edcamp option earlier in the week for a leadership meeting. This group consisted of people leading schools through real challenges and I respect them for their experience and results. It was fascinating to watch them work through the obvious uncertainty that an Edcamp brings with it.

We have all been new at something, done something for the first time, and we know some fast tips can make the experience better for everyone involved. Technology coaching in education has an especially high learning curve because you need to be effective since time is a valuable commodity to educators.

It is safe to say no other social media has been co-opted into education like Twitter. A recent post by one of the founders of #EdChat, @Tom Whitby, sums the relationship between Twitter and educators nicely: "...educators who are Twitter users are very collaborative and prolific in their use of Twitter.

Recently I read Teach Like a Pirate: Increase Student Engagement, Boost Your Creativity, and Transform Your Life as an Educator (affiliate link) by Dave Burgess. The parts of TLAP which stuck for me, which have me thinking about the future of the #EdTech movement, was when I identified my passions in different categories.

Your PLN is your Professional Learning Network, your PLN is also your Personal Learning Network. The two terms are often used interchangeably. After a professional conversation recently I am now considering never doing that again. The discussion centered around the future of professional... Continue Reading →