Blog Wisdom: A Retrospective
I very much appreciated learning from other people’s experiences and suggestions in their blogs. For today’s response and blog post, I have included the resources and ideas that most resonated with me. They are not from one specific topic but are all ideas that I hope one day to implement in my school context. Thank you to my virtual classmates for inspiring me with these creative ways to challenge my teacher-librarian practice and to provide support to my colleagues as they acquire new technological skills for classroom application.
1) Chevron McPhee Blog: Adjusting Our Pedagogy & ICT Skills: On-going Professional Development
In her blog post, Chevron McPhee shared a link from the Alberta Teacher's Association which listed a number of different professional development activities. I found this website to be very useful and a great reminder of how diverse our options for engagement in our own learning can be. The list was detailed, clearly explained each activity and offered a variety which appealed to a wide variety of learning styles. Sometimes I believe that we forget to treat teachers as students who also could benefit from choice and differentiation. If PD programs allowed teachers the freedom of topic choice and offered diverse ways of representing their learning, I believe more teachers would be engaged in PD. This website challenged me to dream bigger and encouraged me to have a conversation with my administrator about what PD could look like at our school next year.
2) Tina Dahlby’s blog: Supporting Teacher's ICT Curriculum and Pedagogy
In her blog post Tina Dahlby spoke of two ideas I had never encountered before. They inspired me and I immediately wrote them down so as to explore them further and possibly implement them at the school. The first idea was that of a "Teacher Tech Playground" where teachers would be invited to explore a variety of technological tools layed out for their perusal. The teacher librarian and other confident staff would be around to assist if teachers had questions or wanted to try it out. I loved how this idea gives the power of choice back to teachers and tempts them with the possibility of fun new technologies. I could see myself implementing this idea before a staff meeting or during a PD day in the future.
The second idea that caught my eye was also included in this blog post. The idea of Pathways is a document which contains, "a series of links to videos and other resources to help us discover more about the various applications available to teachers through Teams" (Dahlby, 2021). I've included the example that was featured in the blog post although the links are not active:
I believe that this individualized guide to self-directed learning, aided by tutorials, videos and supporting documents is an excellent way to deliver a PD session. Not only does access to the "expert" last beyond the PD day itself, but it can be used when the user requires a refresher or as a tool to answer questions which may arise at a later date. I am desperate to learn how to create something similar myself and very eager to implement this idea at the next PD I arrange for the staff.
3) Roberta Harris' blog: Fostering Reading Cultures in School: When Reading Isn't Cool
The idea that stuck most with me from this blog post was about a Story-Telling Night that Roberta Harris described. At this evening, parents are invited to attend with the children while wearing pyjamas. Stories are shared together and reading is celebrated. I loved how simple, celebratory and community building this activity is. I'm not sure my school has ever attempted an evening quite like this but I have added it to my dream list of ideas to implement post COVID!
These are just a few of the ideas that have impacted me over the span of this course. Regrettably, there is no over-arching theme or one main idea which sticks out, but I believe that good teaching isn't always the creation of great lesson but the recognizing of a great resource. Thank you for sharing these resources with me. I will be a better teacher librarian for them.
References:
Dahlby, Tina. (2021, March 1). Supporting Teacher's ICT Curriculum and Pedagogy. tdahlby. https://tinamarie9.blogspot.com/2021/03/supporting-teachers-ict-curriculum-and.html?showComment=1614992188522#c6671441874585266109
Harris, Roberta. (2021, February 28). Fostering Reading Cultures in School: When Reading Isn't Cool. https://hargracethelibrarian.blogspot.com/2021/02/libe-477b-module-5-fostering-reading.html
MacPhee, Chevron. (2021, February 25). Adjusting Our Pedagogy & ICT Skills: On-going Professional Development. chevronkm. https://mrsmacphee.wordpress.com/2021/02/25/adjusting-our-pedagogy-ict-skills-on-going-professional-development/
The Alberta Teacher's Association. (2021). https://www.teachers.ab.ca/For%20Members/ProfessionalGrowth/Section%203/Pages/Professional%20Development%20Activities%20for%20Teachers.aspx
A good overview of three new learning opportunities that you found resonated the most for you over the last few weeks. You did a good job outlining the value and appreciation you have for your colleagues and their open sharing on their blogs, and what key learning you have gathered from them. A good overview of the new tools, websites, and resources you have collected from these three colleagues in your PLN. A good amount of resources to lean on going forward for your own continued, ongoing professional development.
ReplyDeleteHi Suzanne!
ReplyDeleteI feel so honored to be mentioned in your post; I am glad my post was encouraging to you! I also really liked how you approached this post by taking some classmates' insights and sharing your reactions to them. Awesome!
-Chevon