While browsing on Edutopia this week, an article by Pauline Zdonek 'Why Don't We Differentiate Professional Development? prompted me to consider teacher's different learning levels when it comes to professional development.
Just like our students, teachers are all at different levels with their learning in ICT curriculum and pedagogy. UNESCO provides a detailed ICT Competency Framework for Teachers that is jam-packed with information about how teachers can work towards greater competency with ICT and how this can benefit students in their learning. So far, I have only skimmed through the document but I have bookmarked it for closer reading as it looks like an incredible resource.
So keeping these ideas in mind, how do we (as Teacher-Librarians) support them in their learning and ongoing development (and our own simultaneously)?
I really like Zdonek's suggestions of gauging teacher's readiness and experience around a particular topic by using informal surveys. This in turn allows for flexible groupings during workshops or information sessions. In making this as easy as possible for busy teachers, an online tool like a google survey could be emailed out prior to a session or mid term when teachers need tools for engagement, teaching strategies or assessment in their classrooms.
I also thought about other ways in which I currently support teachers at my school and I believe that it mostly falls under two main areas - collaboration and sharing/facilitating.
Microsoft One Note
Allows you to creates digital 'notebooks' and 'folders' for teachers to reference and contribute to (similar to creating a shared Google Doc). I am beginning to use this to share resources with teachers and also create digital notebooks for students when they are researching. I am hoping to increase my confidence and proficiency with this tool throughout the year. Thankfully, there are other teachers and teacher-librarians in the district who are quite experienced with it and they are happy to share their knowledge.
Microsoft Teams - reminiscent of MSN Messenger, Teams is a 'chatroom-like' tool where teachers can have ongoing conversations, ask questions and share resources. You customize the members of each group - I have a school based one with staff at our school and a district based TL one.
I have also used SymbalooEDU (an online bookmarking tool) to curate and share resources for teachers. Pictured below is one that I created to share digital resources and tools that can be used by teachers and students alike. I have had to update it periodically as tools come and go but overall it has been my favourite bookmarking tool for a while now. Click here to access it.
Staff meetings and Pro-D days
I usually ask for a time slot at our monthly staff meeting and share any important updates or information for teachers. I try to keep it short and sweet (5 minutes or so) because no one wants a staff meeting to be longer than it has to be! I also display some teacher resources or new books on the tables for teachers to look at.
I worked with the Pro-D chair at my school (Grade 4 teacher) and we planned a 'soft start' at one of our summer in-school professional development sessions where we had technology and maker space resources displayed in the library learning commons as well as coffee and muffins available. Teachers were free to explore and ask questions at their own pace.
A few years ago, a VP that I worked with used to hold 'Lunch Bites' meetings once a month where she would bring some home-baked goodies and share curriculum ideas and resources with teachers at lunchtime. I would love to do something like this with a focus on technology and digital tools.
Social media
I have a confession! I haven't actually shared my twitter account with teachers at my school yet! Not exactly sure why... but either way, I realized this week that sharing my twitter account with colleagues and highlighting resources, articles and links that they might find useful is something I need to do asap! For that matter, I should also be sharing this blog 😊
To finish, here is some related Twitter inspiration from my feed this week:
Hour of Code 2019 is coming (December 9th-15th). I have never done this with my students before so I am keen to try it as the teacher-librarian. I am planning to approach the Grade 6 team to see if they are on board to do this during collaboration time.
Just like our students, teachers are all at different levels with their learning in ICT curriculum and pedagogy. UNESCO provides a detailed ICT Competency Framework for Teachers that is jam-packed with information about how teachers can work towards greater competency with ICT and how this can benefit students in their learning. So far, I have only skimmed through the document but I have bookmarked it for closer reading as it looks like an incredible resource.
So keeping these ideas in mind, how do we (as Teacher-Librarians) support them in their learning and ongoing development (and our own simultaneously)?
I really like Zdonek's suggestions of gauging teacher's readiness and experience around a particular topic by using informal surveys. This in turn allows for flexible groupings during workshops or information sessions. In making this as easy as possible for busy teachers, an online tool like a google survey could be emailed out prior to a session or mid term when teachers need tools for engagement, teaching strategies or assessment in their classrooms.
I also thought about other ways in which I currently support teachers at my school and I believe that it mostly falls under two main areas - collaboration and sharing/facilitating.
Collaboration
By inviting teachers into the library learning commons space to use digital tools and resources with their classes, I am able to extend learning opportunities to the staff that is relevant to the learning goals of their students. Happily, collaboration time can be adapted to the experience and confidence level of the teacher. We co-teach or I lead and they explore at the same time as students. Here are 6 different co-teaching models that can meet student and teacher needs in various ways.Sharing and Facilitating
As I have mentioned before, Surrey School District has recently been promoting the use Microsoft Office 365 for all staff and students. Some of the tools are great for sharing and communicating.Microsoft One Note
Allows you to creates digital 'notebooks' and 'folders' for teachers to reference and contribute to (similar to creating a shared Google Doc). I am beginning to use this to share resources with teachers and also create digital notebooks for students when they are researching. I am hoping to increase my confidence and proficiency with this tool throughout the year. Thankfully, there are other teachers and teacher-librarians in the district who are quite experienced with it and they are happy to share their knowledge.
Microsoft Teams - reminiscent of MSN Messenger, Teams is a 'chatroom-like' tool where teachers can have ongoing conversations, ask questions and share resources. You customize the members of each group - I have a school based one with staff at our school and a district based TL one.
I have also used SymbalooEDU (an online bookmarking tool) to curate and share resources for teachers. Pictured below is one that I created to share digital resources and tools that can be used by teachers and students alike. I have had to update it periodically as tools come and go but overall it has been my favourite bookmarking tool for a while now. Click here to access it.
Staff meetings and Pro-D days
I usually ask for a time slot at our monthly staff meeting and share any important updates or information for teachers. I try to keep it short and sweet (5 minutes or so) because no one wants a staff meeting to be longer than it has to be! I also display some teacher resources or new books on the tables for teachers to look at.
I worked with the Pro-D chair at my school (Grade 4 teacher) and we planned a 'soft start' at one of our summer in-school professional development sessions where we had technology and maker space resources displayed in the library learning commons as well as coffee and muffins available. Teachers were free to explore and ask questions at their own pace.
A few years ago, a VP that I worked with used to hold 'Lunch Bites' meetings once a month where she would bring some home-baked goodies and share curriculum ideas and resources with teachers at lunchtime. I would love to do something like this with a focus on technology and digital tools.
Social media
I have a confession! I haven't actually shared my twitter account with teachers at my school yet! Not exactly sure why... but either way, I realized this week that sharing my twitter account with colleagues and highlighting resources, articles and links that they might find useful is something I need to do asap! For that matter, I should also be sharing this blog 😊
To finish, here is some related Twitter inspiration from my feed this week:
Hour of Code 2019 is coming (December 9th-15th). I have never done this with my students before so I am keen to try it as the teacher-librarian. I am planning to approach the Grade 6 team to see if they are on board to do this during collaboration time.
@MmeMcCormick is a Surrey TL and this post shows where she facilitated a Minecraft EDU session for teachers to try the program for themselves and discuss ways to use it in the classroom. Another post shows a collaboration session in the Learning Commons using Minecraft EDU.
References:
UNESCO. (2019, February 3). UNESCO ICT CFT version 3 (2018). Retrieved October 19, 2019, from https://www.oercommons.org/courses/unesco-ict-cft-version-3-2018.
Zdonek, Pauline (2015). Why Don't We Differentiate Professional Development? Edutopia. Retrieved October 15, 2019 from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/why-dont-we-differentiate-pd-pauline-zdonek.
Macushla,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your experiences with supporting teachers within your school through professional development and learning opportunities. Collaboration was a running theme throughout everyone’s blog posts this week. Pretty amazing to be apart of teaching during a time where collaboration is being valued! One of the schools a TTOC at regularly has a quote posted in there staff room “The most valuable resource that all teacher have is each other- without collaboration our growth is limited by our own perspective”. I always come back to this as it is such a strong statement, collaboration is such a great way for teachers to learn and grown!
As for sharing and facilitating, I have never heard of Microsoft one note. What a great way to share resources digitally. I have just learnt about symbaloo and began to create one with the mindset of a teacher librarian sharing links with the staff and students of the school. I thought of my own library and what I would like to incorporate in this recourse. I focused on the transition from library to learning commons therefore I wanted to make sure I incorporated all aspects of the teacher librarian’s role. I instantly began to realize just how far one could go using this resource. There are so many resources available it would be easy to create a more complex symbaloo filled with safe and ethical recourses for the school. I feel Microsoft one note brings another level of sharing and communication to the table and I am excited to look into this particular resource. Thanks for sharing.
Well done blog post full of useful suggestions, ideas and connections to a personalized relationship based support network, that respects and encourages individual choice and exploration. Good advice for sharing, connecting and learning together with food, play-time and short and sweet updates. Good idea to share your twitter and blog with your staff as examples on how to role-model ongoing development and inquiry to build up your practice, skills and repertoire. Overall, very good post.
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