Professional Development

[Abby Kelton]

I think this would be a great spot to brainstorm Professional Development opportunities taking place over the summer - both online and here in Ohio. Please contribute your ideas and resources here.

To get us started, below are some resources with excellent online tutorials about technology integration. These are just some of my favorites listed on Landmarks for Schools:
Kidz Online: Streaming Video Tutorials on topics such as Digital Audio, PowerPoint, and Online Collaboration, plus a database of Lesson Plans
Noodle Tools: Variety of resources including sample Think Alouds on Online Reading Strategies, lessons on Visual Literacy, and strategies for teaching Information Literacy
Internet4Classrooms: Scroll down, the formatting is crazy but there's some good stuff here

How about you? What resources are you looking at for professional development this summer?

[Abby Kelton]

For those participating in teacher book clubs or professional learning communities, Stenhouse offers some free facilitation guides for many of their titles, including one of my all-time favorites, Strategies that Work. Click here for the link.

[Ben Dulin]

Here are some things that my professor had us read on professional development and technology. I found them very true and very interesting.

[Christopher Woofter]

Another simple thing to pull off would be more time with teachers together in a lab-like setting getting a chance for them to share what they know with each other. I think you put teachers together with an internet connected laptop in an open and comfortable setting and simply ask a couple key questions:
Perhaps..."show each other in your group what technology do you use that makes learning more meaningful, more rich (engaging) and what makes your life simpler in the long-run and allows you to work smarter..." That's an environment where possibly some real potential and lasting change can occur for those reluctant and it breeds great leadership ---- teacher leadership without a need for titles....

[Felice Willis]

I came across the following blurb in my latest edition of Tools for Teachers put out by the ODE. This summer opportunity looks like a great way to unwrap the Technology Standards and begin to think about how they can be woven into the Academic Content Standards....

"School teams encouraged to attend technology institute

The Technology Leadership Institute is being held on July 10 at the Metro School on Kenny Road in Columbus. The institute, sponsored by ODE’s Office of Curriculum and Instruction, will provide school teams with a better understanding of Ohio’s Technology Academic Content Standards and examples of authentic standards-based experiences that enhance learning. The workshop will help school teams build capacity within their building or district on how to implement and integrate technological knowledge and skills. School teams will engage in discussions with experts in the field of technology as they participate in hands-on activities, resource sharing and breakout sessions. Participants will have an opportunity to become members of a cohort group focused on supporting educators across the state in implementing Ohio’s Technology Academic Content Standards. The one-day institute will meet from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. with registration beginning at 8 a.m.

Participants are invited to attend as elementary, middle or secondary school teams. Each team should include a technology person, one or two grade-level teachers, a library/media specialist and a building administrator. There is no cost for participation, but space is limited. Participants can register through STARS. If you have questions or need help registering in STARS, please contact Lisa Simpson at [phone] or [e-mail]. "

[Abby Kelton]

Thanks for sharing this Felice!

Is anyone out there planning to attend?

[Nitin Julka]

Thanks Felice!

I have now officially added our first "event" in the events section.

[Abby Kelton]

This wiki has a bunch of self-guided technology tutorials for teachers: 21CTools.

[Melissa]

Wow! These are great Abby! To be honest, I haven't been able to wrap my brain around summer PD yet -- I'm just trying to survive the end of the school year. I will be sure to post once I have some ideas.

[Abby Kelton]

Found on Classroom 2.0 today:

There's a free online conference taking place next week called "Learning in a changing world - Web 2.0 and beyond."

Click the link above for the conference program, agenda, and registration instructions. If, like me, you haven't used Elluminate before, they are hosting Elluminate practice sessions before the conference session to make sure everyone can access the session smoothly the day of. Let me know if anyone else is interested in participating!

[Lani Ritter Hall]

I’d like to share an exciting professional development opportunity.

Will Richardson and Sheryl Nussbaum Beach offer a long-term, job-embedded professional development program called "Powerful Learning Practice" (PLP) which uses a blend of face to face instructional sessions with both Will and Sheryl and online technologies delivered over an 8-month period to immerse participants in 21st Century learning environments. Based on a very successful, Microsoft grant-funded model that Sheryl pioneered in Alabama, participants gain first-hand understanding of the transformative potential of Web 2.0 tools as well as an understanding of the pedagogy's needed to use them well in the classroom.

They are about to launch an Illinois/Ohio cohort in October and welcome interested educators in Ohio to become participants in this cohort. The cohorts are comprised of 20, 5-member teams from schools that are fairly close in proximity since there are face to face, full cohort sessions at the beginning and the end of the program. The host school for the full cohort session in the Illinois/Ohio cohort is Avoca School District 37, in Wilmette IL. Teams are usually a mix of teachers and administrators, and we can help guide the selection. The cost for a five person team from a school for this year-long professional development experience will be $7,500 ($1500 per teacher for the year long professional development opportunity). Will, Sheryl and the PLP staff will provide guidance in choosing optimal team members.

I see these advantages in the Powerful Learning Practice model:
1. It effectively and intentionally immerses faculty in 21st century learning environments:

• a private, educationally-grounded, curriculum-oriented social network
• virtual online training in a multi-media, multi-sensory, multi-tasking environment

2. It utilizes two face to face sessions reinforce all environments and are meant to build relationships, share struggles, and celebrate successes.
3. It provides archived multimedia sessions and wiki-based resources to extend the learning to other faculty and administrators.
4. It builds self-sustaining ongoing communities of practice (CoP) within and across schools and facilitates the modeling of best practices for one another, for parents, and for other constituents.
5. It's led by internationally connected experts and education leaders in the areas of communities of practice and emergent learning technologies.
6. When combined with internal leadership and vision, the PLP model creates awareness and budding practices that would be difficult to achieve independently.
7. It offers a powerful beginning to developing a relevant, meaningful, 21st century learning experience for the students at participating schools.

Additional information can be viewed at Powerful Learning Practice. I’d be happy to answer any questions.

[Denise Bunnell]

Lees Summit - a lot of good links and hard work put into this site for tech integration activities.

[Angel Miller]

www.educatorsclassroom.com offers professional development on interactive technology. They will come to you or you can attend one of their workshops in Ohio.