katie.christo.blog

I have started to offer 40 minute professional development sessions once a week at my school.  These are really to help our teachers see what is out there.  The list of the trainings I’m offering is out on my wiki.  I really enjoy doing these trainings and helping our teachers see and “explore the possibilities” (thanks donna!).  I think these trainings are really important and they have been received very well.  However, most of the trainings so far have been me “showing and telling” what is out there with some hands-on time.  This is important, but what I feel is lacking is starting conversations.  My colleague and I have been talking about the importance of conversations.  She is working in her trainings to really get the teachers talking to each other and not just a conversation between the “trainer” and the “participants”.  These teachers have a wealth of knowledge and individual expertise that we really want to tap into.

Looking forward to next semester I’m trying to figure out how I will evolve my trainings to get some conversations started.  We have talked about starting a Ning as a Professional Learning Community for our teachers.  We have also thought of bringing teachers in to do some of the trainings.  I also think it might be excellent to have some truly just trainings on ideas and concepts of teaching and learning today.  I have also thought about setting aside 5 min in the beginning of the training and 5 min at the end for conversations.  The issues are the same as they always are – time and because of that priority.  What is the most important message to get out there?  What do I really think will impact teaching and learning most? How much time do you need to train and how much for conversation?  There just never seems to be enough time in the day, week, or month.   I feel like there is so much that I want to share and do.  It is always just picking and choosing what and when and then hoping that you made the right choice.

At the moment I’m thinking that my Wired Wednesdays will be a jumping off point.  I will try to get conversations started within the training and then continue the conversations on the Ning.  I think that the main points of these Wired Wednesdays need to be:
1. Creating a community of learners interested in a particular topic and helping them to see that they can be their own network within the school.
2.  Showing them what is out there and what is possible.
3.  Starting a conversation about where to go next with each tool, service, or resource.

Any thoughts?  How are you doing Professional Development?  What is working for you?