I have been asked to suggest possible PD trainings for the veteran teachers on our staff who are bored silly with the usual stuff that is geared to newer teachers. Looking for ideas...thanks!
Do you have SmartBoards? There is so much to do with them, I'm still learning new things. I like when our tech director shows us the more advanced features.
I'm going to a 3-day workshop in a couple of weeks that is going to focus on Google Apps for Education and Web 2.0 tools. I've got some working knowledge, but can always learn more!
Do you have an official mentoring program? If not, how about PD on how veteran teachers can mentor new teachers? Do you have new data systems? What about how to make the most out of those systems, using data, etc.
Anything tech related is always good. Jo Boaler is connected with a lot of math education professional development that might also be helpful for veteran teachers. There are classes through Stanford, and tons of other resources that could be utilized. youcubed.org might be a good place to start glancing around, or searching her name.
We have state required PD those first few teacher meeting days: HIB, suicide, blood borne pathogens, etc. The rest of the year teachers are assigned to requested workshops from a curriculum center catalog, can request to attend outside offerings, plus in service on new resources/technologies that we are using.
Have you polled the veteran teachers on what they would like to look deeper into? Maybe some trainings from different sources on providing effective feedback?
Thanks for the thoughts. Always willing to consider things I may not have heard of. As far as polling teachers in my school, you are probably going to laugh. The veteran teachers are myself and 2 other teachers. We are a very small school. They really haven't been much help...along the lines of 'Whatever you think is good". So, I guess I am trying to find things that they will find useful. Keep your ideas coming!!
I like this idea, Pashtun. We have a new P this year and she and I were discussing this topic today, as well as how we can use data to inform instruction.
We are a private school, so no state required PD. Is your curriculum center catalogue something your district provides?
Several area districts financially support the center which runs PD courses. Many of the facilitators are teachers from the participating districts.
I really like that idea. Wonder if I can get something like that going with the private schools in our area? Some of our parents are public school teachers and we have had a couple of them come in and present a program.
How about Design Thinking? Here is Stanford d.School's Design Thinking Crash Course. And here is IDEO's free toolkit as well. both founded by Stanford Professor and IDEO Founder, David Kelly.
Most of the online PDs I've been attending / viewing later have been on how to help the ESL students placed in my classroom. The strategies are something EVERY teacher could use.
I am not really a veteran teacher (going into my fourth year) but I am always looking for content-specific PD - seems like that's harder to find around here.
I think even this would be a helpful PD - ipads *can* be simple, but there are lots of ways to make an ipad and apple TV really useful for teaching that may be more complicated for non-techy teachers. Using them for interactives similarly to a smart board would be helpful; I'm sure there are apps for ipads that work almost the same as a smartboard (though without the large screen interaction).
Thanks for all the ideas...especially home brewing!!! Too bad it's a religious school that frowns upon that kind of thing
I think you could use home brewing as an analogy, don't you? All the ingredients not only have to be present, but they must be there in the correct amounts. Then you must provide the right conditions, or nothing happens, and there is always a period of trial and error as the person brewing becomes more confident with the rules and process, finally allowing for more creativity and exploration within the guidelines. Now, I'm not sure you can sell this to your school, but maybe those 3 experienced staff members could take this "training" together. If you can write it up and make correlations to teaching, the school just might pay for the training!
I was thinking beer but thought that it was something new that I had not heard about. L guess I was really focusing on PD, that one went over my head!
Something to think about is PD which is "training" and PD which is "exposure". Exposure type PD is usually a couple hours listening to a person talk about the latest craze related to a specific topic or in general. Handouts are usually provided. Sometimes participants are asked to "do" something with the materials. There is no follow-through, continuation, or on-site coaching/review beyond the initial meeting. Participants are expected to remember what was presented, often months later, then apply it flawlessly into their teaching. An example is a PD meeting I recall advertised as "training" in which the district sent a couple trainers to teach staff how to navigate the desktop when computers were being assigned to classrooms (showing my age here). At least half the staff did not have home computers at the time and majority who had them in their rooms never used them. The training lasted two hours. There was, perhaps, at minimum, 10-15 "skills" demonstrated in rapid fashion (one practice each) to a room full of teachers afraid to pick up the thing in front of them because it was called a "mouse". After the presenters left the most common comment from teachers was, "What was that all about?" In short, the topic of PD is certainly important and may initially grab participants. Whether that "grab" is worthwhile, long lasting and leaves participants the feeling of wanting more will depend, for the most part, on the skills of the presenter. There is nothing wrong with exposure type PD as long as participants are aware that's what it is - exposure - and not training.
That is a good distinction, Loomistrout. IMO, I think veteran teachers and myself in particular benefit more from exposure PD than training. For example, I want to be exposed to different POVs, strategies..etc on a system for giving students feedback, as a professional I want freedom to choose, combine, implement what I learned that would best suit my classroom. Trainings on the other hand are less about thinking and learning to be a better teacher and are more about compliance and implementation. My experience is when a district has PD trainings, that is now a program that is mandatory in your classroom.
