Teachers are a signinficant change agent in any society. Therefore, teachers are obliged to maintain current in all aspects of the education process.To do this, pofessional development must be an integral part in developing new methods or adopting new ways to use in the classroom. Nevertheless, professional development must be self-identified by the teacher, since it is the teacher him/herself who knows what the professional need is.
The exciting part of this is that there are as many PD formats as there are stars! As a professional, one must find what is that format that will suit your needs, keeping in mind that PD is not an isolated event, but a process in which one finds growth that will result in improving the learning experience. Grant you, this growth may start by an event, but it should not stop at that. Practice, review, assessment, discussions and sharing may be just some ways of expanding the PD experience.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
What motivates us?
There is a boatload of research that shows that learners learn best when they have a say with their learning. This is equally true for children as it is for adults.
Dan Pink recently authored a book titled Drive: the surprising truth behind what motivates us. In it he outlines how the best learners need autonomy, mastery and purpose in order to succeed. To achieve any of this learners must be provided the opportunity to own their own learning and trusted with the responsibility to engage in life-long learning.
I wonder what effect this information will have on how we provide teachers with professional development opportunities?
Dan Pink recently authored a book titled Drive: the surprising truth behind what motivates us. In it he outlines how the best learners need autonomy, mastery and purpose in order to succeed. To achieve any of this learners must be provided the opportunity to own their own learning and trusted with the responsibility to engage in life-long learning.
I wonder what effect this information will have on how we provide teachers with professional development opportunities?
My first post
By Dorice Swensrude
Professional learning ideally could embrace a partnership with the teacher's individual growth plan and the professional learning opportunities provided by the school, the school jurisdiction and the local PD. My hope is that we will all see our professional learning as a process and not as an event or a one shot PD. Our professional learning road map can encompass many possibilities from twitter, to book studies, action research, committee work to collaborative grade group meetings - an endless list of possibilities!
The purpose of this blog is to have an ongoing discussion about the professional learning needs of our teachers.
Professional learning ideally could embrace a partnership with the teacher's individual growth plan and the professional learning opportunities provided by the school, the school jurisdiction and the local PD. My hope is that we will all see our professional learning as a process and not as an event or a one shot PD. Our professional learning road map can encompass many possibilities from twitter, to book studies, action research, committee work to collaborative grade group meetings - an endless list of possibilities!
The purpose of this blog is to have an ongoing discussion about the professional learning needs of our teachers.
Why are we here?
Professional development is about individual teachers taking ownership of their own professional learning needs.
Professional development is not something done to teachers; rather it is something done by teachers. If professional development is simply code for top-down mandates, and a grocery list of demands nothing will ever improve.
Because professional development needs to be seen less as an event and more as a process, this blog represents a group of educators who wish to be authors of our own learning.
Professional development is not something done to teachers; rather it is something done by teachers. If professional development is simply code for top-down mandates, and a grocery list of demands nothing will ever improve.
Because professional development needs to be seen less as an event and more as a process, this blog represents a group of educators who wish to be authors of our own learning.
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