This year one of my goals was to put on some PD that could immediately impact teaching. I choose to do this through the use of technology in the classroom. We have netbooks on sign out from our Library but other than using them as research tools many teachers do not have the tech or pedagoical know how to be able to use them effectively. Myself and another teacher show staff (they go to choose to come to our session and between the 2 that we ran about half the school came) how to use 6 websites that each only take minutes or seconds to set up. Many were for collaborating between students or to help with student to staff feedback.
I also am on a board committee that is focusing on Instuctional Strategies within schools. We have choosed to focus on Tech Deparments as they have not had PD in many years. We are hosting 2 conferences for them in the new year with Barry Bennet as a speaker.
The last item that I have been working on this year is just sending out ideas to our staff about how to use new ideas within their class. I am trying to do this in a very non-pushy way by just sending out some articles around what some others are already doing within the school and some facts about it and some of the comments from the teachers that are doing it. An example is around Flipped Classrooms.
Moving to the future I believe that my goal around this will be to follow 2 approaches.
1. Give teachers choice of what to go to but in a time that they have to go to something (PD days etc).
2. Have teachers that are already trying to be innovative in their classes but are not the usually outspoken teachers within your school share what they are doing. This comes from knowing your school well and using all of their resources. By this passive sharing some of the 70% will buy into some of the different practices that interest them and then they can work on it within themselves and at their own pace. This for me goes with the Encouraging the Heart Leadership domain. Most people want to be good and better at their job and if you give them options they will take advantage of them. If you do this enough your school will hit the tipping point and it will become cultural.
I also am on a board committee that is focusing on Instuctional Strategies within schools. We have choosed to focus on Tech Deparments as they have not had PD in many years. We are hosting 2 conferences for them in the new year with Barry Bennet as a speaker.
The last item that I have been working on this year is just sending out ideas to our staff about how to use new ideas within their class. I am trying to do this in a very non-pushy way by just sending out some articles around what some others are already doing within the school and some facts about it and some of the comments from the teachers that are doing it. An example is around Flipped Classrooms.
Moving to the future I believe that my goal around this will be to follow 2 approaches.
1. Give teachers choice of what to go to but in a time that they have to go to something (PD days etc).
2. Have teachers that are already trying to be innovative in their classes but are not the usually outspoken teachers within your school share what they are doing. This comes from knowing your school well and using all of their resources. By this passive sharing some of the 70% will buy into some of the different practices that interest them and then they can work on it within themselves and at their own pace. This for me goes with the Encouraging the Heart Leadership domain. Most people want to be good and better at their job and if you give them options they will take advantage of them. If you do this enough your school will hit the tipping point and it will become cultural.