When it comes to professional learning, who is in charge? For years the term was professional development, but that has come to have a negative connotation to it. Think about it, when someone says they have to attend a professional development session, you almost cringe for them.
You do this because the first thing that comes to mind is blood-borne pathogens, workman's comp or hazardous communications workshops. This feeling is shared across many professions.
But what if it didn't have to be that way?
It doesn't!
Before you try to correct me, I am fully aware that there is a certain amount of compliance based training that we all must go through. I don't consider that professional development or professional learning for several reasons. First, there is very little, if any, learning that occurs after that first year of compliance. Second, very few of those compliance courses were designed for true development/learning in your profession. They are broad spectrum training that span multiple occupations.
True professional learning must be meaningful and relevant.
True professional learning must be continuous or ongoing.
True professional learning must be immediately applicable.
If it isn't related to your growth, classroom or profession it is a waste of time for you. If it doesn't provide for followup, feedback or collaboration you won't be likely to succeed in implementing it. If you have to wait six months for materials or permission you will give up and move on because it becomes stale or forgotten during that time.
What we each need to do is take charge of our professional learning and do so with accountability. In Oklahoma we do that through the PL focus of your evaluation/observation process. Basically, you pick an area in which want to focus on growth, then develop a plan for growth in that area. This plan includes the resources you intend to use, when you are checking in with your accountability person (in this case it is your evaluator), etc. You could also pick your area of interest first, then align it with an indicator on your evaluation instrument (by the way, the professional development indicator does not count as an indicator in this case).
The goal here is to tie what you are doing back to instruction and try to focus on how it is improving you as an educator, which in turn improves learning for your students.
There are numerous ways you can accomplish this. Here are a few:
Thank you for reading The Cluttered Desk. You can find me on Twitter @jasonbengs. Please feel free to comment on the post and share your ideas with me. You can also leave a response on The Cluttered Desk Flipgrid page if you would like to leave a comment on this or any other post or podcast episode by going to https://flipgrid.com/03fa4e01 If you found any value in this post, please share it with others.
You do this because the first thing that comes to mind is blood-borne pathogens, workman's comp or hazardous communications workshops. This feeling is shared across many professions.
But what if it didn't have to be that way?
It doesn't!
Before you try to correct me, I am fully aware that there is a certain amount of compliance based training that we all must go through. I don't consider that professional development or professional learning for several reasons. First, there is very little, if any, learning that occurs after that first year of compliance. Second, very few of those compliance courses were designed for true development/learning in your profession. They are broad spectrum training that span multiple occupations.
True professional learning must be meaningful and relevant.
True professional learning must be continuous or ongoing.
True professional learning must be immediately applicable.
If it isn't related to your growth, classroom or profession it is a waste of time for you. If it doesn't provide for followup, feedback or collaboration you won't be likely to succeed in implementing it. If you have to wait six months for materials or permission you will give up and move on because it becomes stale or forgotten during that time.
What we each need to do is take charge of our professional learning and do so with accountability. In Oklahoma we do that through the PL focus of your evaluation/observation process. Basically, you pick an area in which want to focus on growth, then develop a plan for growth in that area. This plan includes the resources you intend to use, when you are checking in with your accountability person (in this case it is your evaluator), etc. You could also pick your area of interest first, then align it with an indicator on your evaluation instrument (by the way, the professional development indicator does not count as an indicator in this case).
The goal here is to tie what you are doing back to instruction and try to focus on how it is improving you as an educator, which in turn improves learning for your students.
There are numerous ways you can accomplish this. Here are a few:
- Book studies (some suggested books and where to purchase them are linked)
- Conference workshops
- Online chats
- Videos
- Podcasts
- Peer Collaboration
- Peer Modeling
- Webinars
- Online communities
These are just a few and if you would like links to some of them, let me know. I can connect you with groups on social media, professional associations and more if you desire.
Thank you for reading The Cluttered Desk. You can find me on Twitter @jasonbengs. Please feel free to comment on the post and share your ideas with me. You can also leave a response on The Cluttered Desk Flipgrid page if you would like to leave a comment on this or any other post or podcast episode by going to https://flipgrid.com/03fa4e01 If you found any value in this post, please share it with others.
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