The Dream of Professional Development
Posted by lisakurcina on October 27, 2008
My dream professional development plan would include this sea of bullet points:
v Steps for identifying student learning needs
v Steps for consulting with supervisor and technology professional to discuss and discover new initiatives for the district
v Consulting standards for the school, state, and industry
v Writing goals that are SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time frame)
v A way to monitor progression the goals say through a journal or portfolio
v Identifying others who can assist in achieving and supporting these goals
v Reflection on ways to incorporate new methods and technology into classroom practice
v Reflection on implementation on new learning
§ Its usefulness
§ Level of mastery or comfort of the teacher
§ Impact on students
§ Ease of implementation
§ Follow up by trainer or administrator
This is certainly not a complete dream; I think I woke up in the middle of it and could not get back to the dream (don’t you hate when that happens?!) As I stated before, in order for an employee to feel motivated to set and achieve some meaningful goals there needs to be some level of motivation from the employer. That motivation could be a clear outline of the direction the organization is going and how the employee contributes, for example. I want more than, “You gotta set goals!” Give me a good, tangible reason beyond my own intrinsic desire to improve my skills……I think I worked in government too long and I am still in that frame of mind…..Come on! Snap out of it!
jennyoooo8 said
You have a nice dream – I agree with all of your bulletd points. I work in a juvenile hall facililty so integrating technology is a bit difficult at times. I no longer have my own classroom, but when I did the only technology I had was my overhead projector (which I used all the time) and a television. I was told that I would be getting a smart-board and an LCD projector – but that never happened (for me nor for the teacher who took over my classroom).
We do have a few tech savvy staff members at my school site, but we don’t have a technology committee, therefore our staff is never trained on new technologies nor how to incorporate them into the classroom. One of my goals is to start a committee so that we can eventually come up with our own TUP. My administration is pro technology, but we haven’t had sufficient training.