ON BEING A LIFELONG LEARNER & THE IMPORTANCE OF PRO-D

(Image courtesy of Pinterest "Top 10 teacher quotes")

HOW DO I LEARN NOW???

This question is easy for me to answer.  Since the beginning of my career, I have experienced many different learning journeys to keep my skills current.  For example, I did formal learning through graduate work at SFU and currently am enrolled in this TL diploma program at UBC.  I have always participated in school based pro-d activities and local PLN on topics of personal interest (especially if there was a promise of a free book).  I have attended major conferences in both Canada and the US and subscribe to many professional associations such as BCSSTA, BCTAML, BCTELA, CUEBC, ACPI, BCLCA, NCSST, etc.  I have done Ministry work first in the field of Social Studies as a 20th Century History 12 curriculum consultant, then as a Trial Writer of Provincial Exams as well as a marker for over 10 years.  Marking exams was amazing prod and a great opportunity to network with other teachers.  More recently, I was part of the Ministry Think Tank on Assessment as a representative of French Immersion teachers and also as a teacher consultant critiquing the new graduation program curriculum for Français langue 11 & 12.  I also read pedagogical resources such as books, journals, digital articles, blogs and watch videos to help me be more learned.

Given my passion for ProD, I have chosen to take on more leadership roles in my school and district.  I currently am the Chair of the ProD committee in my school and have been for the last 3 years.  In this role, I lead a committee in planning school professional development goals and occasionally lead staff development activities.  Over the last 10 years, I have presented workshops at our district conventions and also at a few PSA's.  I joined a team of educators to help assist with curriculum implementation in our district and have mentored many new teachers through the PDP programs from both UBC and SFU.  Furthermore, I was involved in the district action research project titled Intermediate Reading Initiative under the direction of Dr. Deborah Butler and Dr. Leyton Schnellert.   This was a 10 year longitudinal study of the how and why students in grade 8 read as well as look at teacher professional development and how to collaboratively construct student assessments. (Schnellert, Butler, Higginson, 2007) Finally, over the last 3 years, I have collaborated with two other colleagues from my school on an innovation project.  Our district awards school teams interested in exploring innovative teaching and assessment practices with grants and our team has explored varying topics related to assessment.

As a last example of how I learn now, I would have to say that I surround myself with people who inspire me and I collaborate on projects with people who share similar passions and visions on education.  And voilà, that's how I learn!

WHAT CAN I IMPLEMENT IN THE FUTURE TO MAINTAIN MY PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT?

(Image courtesy of Google Images)

First, I can experiment with new tools.  For example, for this week's staff meeting, I created my first Google Form survey!  A colleague shared how to use Google Forms on our last ProD day and so in the spirit of trying something new, I designed the end of year pro-d staff feedback questionnaire and sent it out to our staff.  It wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be.  Now that I have done it, and see all of the options, I can see me introducing the tool to students to help with Genius Hour research projects and the like.  I also see the potential to use the tool for quick formative check-ins, course/unit feedback questionnaires, etc.

(Image courtesy of Pixabay)

Second, I share my knowledge with others, however when I read Richardson's (2012) question "How many of you can I find online sharing your best practices and the best thinking about education?" I must admit, I don't share online.  One, I never thought about it as the tech piece of how to proceed to do this was not familiar to me.  Two, people with much better ideas and sources are already out there so why bother adding to the mix.  That said, when at a recent FI consultation meeting with teachers from around BC, I noticed how isolated many FI teachers are in their communities.  The program at our high school graduates usually 3 FI grad classes (75-90 students).  Some high schools, like the one in Prince George, have only 5 students in Français langue 12.  I work with 4 other teachers... some work alone and have no one to help them.  Of course, teachers network and share emails but one idea I had was how great it would be to have a central place for French Immersion teachers (from BC or even all of Canada) to perhaps upload and share their activities in a central location.  Le Point du FLE, is a European site that provides this service.  Vetted teachers upload and share for free what they have created and make it available online for anyone to use.  I'm not confident enough to start up something like this on my own, but perhaps this could be a future collaboration project which would help extend my teaching reach beyond the classroom.

When I read the section on becoming a "Master Learner" in Richardson's book, I was reminded of a strategy I tried to incorporate in my practice called "think-alouds".  This term, coined by Jeffrey Wilhelm (2012) was a teaching strategy that encouraged educators to show students their thought process when they read a text.  With a piece of text on the overhead projector (yes... it's an older strategy), teachers would work through literacy skills spontaneously so students could see how to use these skills themselves.  While I appreciated the intent and benefit of the strategy, I loathed using it.  I felt I was being so boring as a teacher when I tried to use the strategy with the whole class.  I preferred using the strategy when working in small groups or one on one with the kids.  Eventually I dropped the practice but I am always trying to show students how I figure things out, especially when it comes to technology and that requires individuals to get comfortable being uncomfortable in front of others.  I am fine with this... in my own classroom.

(Image courtesy of Pixar Films, Inside Out 2015)

 Finally, I have to say, dear Heather, that I have never felt more uncomfortable publicly learning than I do now in this course.  Normally, I do not have difficulty participating in class discussions, or getting work done, however, doing all of my learning in front of the online world makes me frankly quite anxious. I consider myself a fairly confident person, but this process has been humbling and yet also rewarding.  As previously mentioned, my students participated in a Genius Hour Project this year and I made them blog even though I had no idea how to do it.  I made them uncomfortable.  I assessed their blogs and gave them advice on how to improve the posts by adding images, videos, hyperlinks without even knowing how to do any of it myself.  I hugely empathize with what my students were experiencing this year while documenting their learning publicly.  Now that I have been forced to learn this skill, I will be much better equipped to guide and assess students in the future when I do another IBL project.  I also have a greater understanding of the advantages of learning openly in a community of learners. Thank you for the torture Heather... it appears that I needed it!  Who knows, now that I have a blog, I may choose to maintain it.  We will have to wait and see...

SOURCES:

Richardson, Will. 2015. Why School? https://www.amazon.com/Why-School-Education-Information-Everywhere-ebook/dp/B00998J5YQ

Schnellert, L., Butler, D. & Higginson, S.  (2007). "Co-Constructors of Data, Co-Constructors of Meaning: Teaching Professional Development in an Age of Accountability".  https://education.ok.ubc.ca/__shared/assets/Co-constructors_of_data42725.pdf

Weinachter, Hélène. (2002). Le Point du FLE. https://www.lepointdufle.net/pcom/contact.htm

Wilhelm, Jeffrey. (2012).  Improving Comprehension with Think-Aloud Strategies:  Modeling What Good Readers Do (2nd Ed.).  New York: Scholastic Inc.