Much is made of the effect a 1:1 move has on students in a school district. But what about the teachers and administration? How are they affected and what can they do to better handle the change? This is the premise behind Edutopia’s piece about bringing professional development into a 1:1 district. In the article, they focus on the Salisbury Township School District and its mission to not only bring 1:1 devices to the students in the district but also change the mindset of its teachers and administration as well.
[1:1] requires a shift in mindset and in the daily practices of school leaders, teachers, and students. In order to support school leaders and teachers to become their most effective at using digital technologies with new pedagogies, it is vital that a district support the digital transformation through varied building-level and district-level professional learning opportunities.
Changing the mindset and daily practices is no small task, but Edutopia gives us some helpful hints:
Align PD goals with 1:1 program goals – with goals clearly defined, professional development efforts can be fine-tuned.
Rethink use of human resources – rethink the human and financial resources dedicated to supporting change.
Personalize the PD program through differentiation and choice – adult learners come to the work environment with a variety of knowledge.
Instructional Technology Cohorts – professional development took the form of a cohort model over three years.
Summer Academy – professional learning offerings has been provided for professional and support staff.
Conferences and Workshops – encourage staff to attend conferences and workshops offered outside the district.
Learning for School Leaders – school and district leaders meets monthly in a lunch and learn format.
Evaluate PD efforts to meet developing needs – professional development should be monitored and evaluated to stay relevant.
Who doesn’t love free money?? With 15 different grants to choose from, our CMLE Grants page is a wonderful resource to get extra money for an innovative project or idea for your library, school, or classroom. Here are just a few. Make sure to check out the rest on our page!
AASL Innovative Reading Grant: Funding for programs for children which motivates and encourages reading, especially with struggling readers.
Adopt-a-classroom: Donors partner with teachers for funding critical resources and needs for the classroom.
Digital Wish Grants: Submit a technology-based lesson plan for a chance to win over 50 different technology grants.
DonorsChoose.org: Post classroom project requests on DonorsChoose.org. “Citizen philanthropists” can browse project requests and give any amount to the one that inspires them.
Plus several more to check out here. There are grants for all library and school types on our page.
Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/pzn8nto, licensed under CC BY 2.0
Think about it. What if there was one central place in your school or district that had all of its professional development resources together? Digital materials from a year ago, last month, or even last week? There is no step-by-step or specific way to do this, but Edutopia has come up with a number of good beginning discussion points to implement this in your school or district. Click here for the article.
Image credit: https://unsplash.com/ (Caroline Methot), licensed under CC0 1.0
Everyone is excited about digital badges and their use with students in learning. But what about using digital badges with teachers?! That’s the premise at Houston Independent School District (HISD) where they partnered with VIF International Education (VIF) “to provide our teachers with globally themed online professional development and a customized digital badging system.”
Teachers would participate in some online question-based professional development modules and then were awarded a digital badge for the successful completion. HISD and VIF touted the benefit of this digital badging system with these five features:
Badging requires demonstrating understanding and implementation of a target content or skill.
Badging provides recognition and motivation.
Badging allows for knowledge circulation among teachers.
According to the iLibrarian at OEDB, “professional development opportunities are still in full swing this month with an incredible 62 Free Live Webinars going on in the area of libraries and librarianship. So don’t switch to a summer schedule yet! Instead, look into attending some of these amazing sessions this month!”
No chance to attend these webinars live? We get that….CMLE staff often have the same problem. Consider attending the archived versions at a time and place that allows you to focus on your personal learning. Make a nice cup of tea and enrich your mind….
