The other day I blogged about a summer technology course that I'm running for our faculty. It starts next week and so far it is going great... That statement is not as odd as it seems. I assigned some homework to be completed this week. We've kept the school library open all week and I and the Librarian have been there to help any who really need it.
I'm feeling rather optimistic about this. We have about 50 people signed up. With equal shares from our high school and elementary school (plus a couple of relatives of faculty who are also teachers). To be honest, I wasn't sure how many would actually do the homework. As of my writing this (Saturday morning), just over 30 people have done some or all of the homework. It would not surprise me if this number were to grow a bit more by Monday morning. For teachers in the first week of summer I call this a resounding success.
The idea of having pre-homework has been working well, I think. Those people who need a lot of extra support have come in to get it and those who only think they need the support seem to have tried it on their own first before coming in. By the time I get them in front of me most will have already: sent me an email with the school email address, created and shared a Google Doc, joined our Ning community and left a comment for someone else and uploaded a video, and created a blank page in Google Sites.
It is my fondest hope that this program will lead to year round professional development (life long learning, if you will). As we all know, single day or even week long PD rarely has the power to change the way people teach or learn. But, if we can build a community of practice, personal learning networks, or some other buzz word I haven't mentioned, then we may have the power to change the way people teach and learn.
I'm feeling rather optimistic about this. We have about 50 people signed up. With equal shares from our high school and elementary school (plus a couple of relatives of faculty who are also teachers). To be honest, I wasn't sure how many would actually do the homework. As of my writing this (Saturday morning), just over 30 people have done some or all of the homework. It would not surprise me if this number were to grow a bit more by Monday morning. For teachers in the first week of summer I call this a resounding success.
The idea of having pre-homework has been working well, I think. Those people who need a lot of extra support have come in to get it and those who only think they need the support seem to have tried it on their own first before coming in. By the time I get them in front of me most will have already: sent me an email with the school email address, created and shared a Google Doc, joined our Ning community and left a comment for someone else and uploaded a video, and created a blank page in Google Sites.
It is my fondest hope that this program will lead to year round professional development (life long learning, if you will). As we all know, single day or even week long PD rarely has the power to change the way people teach or learn. But, if we can build a community of practice, personal learning networks, or some other buzz word I haven't mentioned, then we may have the power to change the way people teach and learn.
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