Module 4 - Professional Development Strategies (Tiffany)

Professional Development Strategies

My Experiences with Professional Development

      Effective professional development is the same as any type of learning; it needs to be relevant, interesting, and supported by a network of others. 

     With my current employment, the majority of my professional development opportunities have been in the form of either conferences that are sponsored by associations that I am a member of, such as the West Virginia Association of Museums and Appalachian Studies Association, or workshops that are hosted by local venues, such as Pricketts Fort or regional historical societies.

      In my experience, what often makes these conferences and workshops beneficial, aren’t just the knowledge they convey, but the network of support that surrounds them. Most often, I attend these events with colleagues, which helps greatly when we want to implement new ideas. It makes things easier when someone already gets your vision. It is also great to know that there is support in the associations themselves through the other members; we often call upon each other for assistance in answering questions, locating resources, or sharing ideas and experiences. 

     This is especially true with the WVAM, as we’re a small group. It also means we have a lot of control over our conference sessions. If enough people express an interest in learning a particular skill or knowledge, then the board tries to accommodate that in sessions. A lot of sessions center on being more effective in various professional aspects and some do speak specifically on leadership. Last year I attended a session on how to effectively lead volunteer staff which I’ve found to be immensely helpful at work, not only with our volunteers, but our undergraduate student employees.

Technology Integration Initiative

     The professional development strategy that I would like to employ would begin with introducing the initiative, with the basics such as how and why. A demonstration would be provided to illustrate the procedure(s), followed by the opportunity to train, and then evaluations. 

     During all steps of the process, it is vital to ensure that a strong network of support is already in place before charging ahead. A leader cannot lead without a supportive team. In thinking back to some of my weaknesses in my Leadership Assessment, I'd would need to exhibit a strong sense of assurance, not only in myself, but the team and the initiative as a whole.

     In an ideal world, I would suggest hands-on training, either on site or off, with an expert. However, this isn't always feasible due to time or financial restraints. This would be where Personal Learning Networks will be indispensable. Networks beyond the work place would provide the opportunity to engage with others that have undergone a similar TI Initiative. What were some challenges and how were they overcome? 

     I don't consider the strategy to be a strictly linear procedure, but rather continuous process that strives for evolution.

     Below are links to two websites that I've found beneficial, especially Cited.org. I've also included two articles that are accessible through our library's database. 

CITEd Center for Implementing Technology in Education

Leaning Forward

Kopcha, T. (2010). A systems-based approach to technology integration using mentoring and communities  
      of practice. Educational Technology Research and Development, 58(2), 175-190. Retrieved March
      9, 2015, from JSTOR.

Penuel, W., Fishman, B., Yamaguchi, R., & Gallagher, L. (2007). What makes professional development
     effective? Strategies that foster curriculum implementation. American Educational Research Journal,
     44(4), 921-958. Retrieved March 9, 2015, from ProQuest Central.

Branding

     “Brand-ED” School Leadership is bringing together a team whose aim is to help establish and then share their school’s identity. Sheninger explains that positively “branding” your institution “will instill a greater sense of pride in the leaders’ work and/or school function” (p. 105). Consequently, through effective branding, the leader will assist in positively impacting the school’s culture, finances, and student performance (p. 106).

    I found an interesting blog post written by a former principal who discusses how his school attempted to brand his elementary school after hearing Eric Sheninger speak. What I found salient is how the school decided to accomplish this and the results.

Why Leaders Should Brand Their School 
     Yesterday during a discussion with a professor concerning getting the word out on what exactly it is that we do here, especially concerning students, a lot of what we've been reading and discussing in this class came together. I explained to her the idea of branding and we discussed some different ways of achieving that. By the end of the conversation, I learned from her students that Facebook is out, Instagram is in, and I'm looking into Fairmont's Technology Policy to see about implementing an Instagram account for the Center.We have some other ideas, but social media is one that I can tackle first.

Personal Learning Networks

      While I do consider the associations that I am a member of to be a part of my PLN, another channel  that I frequently use are interest groups on LinkedIn. Chapter 8 discusses LinkedIn briefly, and while I know that it is often used as a way to network to help find jobs, I mainly use it to read and engage in discussions. 

     I first began using the site as an undergrad, seeking information from museum professionals. At the time, I didn’t know many personally and I wanted some information that I was only going to get by engaging with those working in the field. Since then, I’ve joined various groups that are specific to certain aspects or jobs, such as collections management or museum education. So while I do run across people looking for or advertising jobs, I also get to see ideas bounced around, questions being answered, and people providing a  date for a webinar that I might not have known about otherwise. It's has helped me by providing some guidance in my academic and potential professional careers.
      Referencing what I said earlier about this field being a some what small one, at least in this area, having access to PLN such as LinkedIn is vital. A majority of museums are small scale, with limited budgets and limited staff; technology based PLNs help tremendously.

Module 4 Posting

I am a firm believe in conferences to help with professional development. I think you can gain so much insight at conferences as well as rejuvenate yourself by being around others that are doing the same thing you are day in and day out!

In the readings I wasn’t able to find a whole lot on conferences but in the article Job-Embedded Professional Development: What It Is, Who Is Responsible, and How to Get It Done Well on the topic of What is Job-Embedded Profession Development I felt they hit on some very similar concepts. The 2 keys ones I felt in the Table 2. Formats for Job-Embedded Professional Development and Related Research Findings where Professional Learning Communities and Study Groups. I really liked these 2 strategies for the group setting and discussions. I think hearing new innovative ideas triggers your own thought process of how you can improve. 

I have personally attended multiple conferences over my 4 years of professional work. Each conference I have been able to bring back at least 1 concepts and implement that to improve our department. On top of bringing back information I personal always feel rejuvenated after getting away even if it was just for a day. I am excited to get back to work and work on the improvement for he future. 

On top of conferences or inservice I really believe having support at your school/department are key. Before some of the articles I read for this assignment I would have said mentor and coaches played the same role. I feel now each play a very critical role that has it own set of important factors. 

I have a sports background so I apologies but this helped me identify the difference between the two. In sports your coach is still your coach in the educational setting. Your coach draws up the plays and integrates them at strategic times and places. They are open to your suggestions but in the end they are their to lead you and your team to success. 

Your mentor I see as your captain of the team. You go to this person for advice and help adjusting to what your coach puts into place. They are your seniors members of your team. They are their to help you adjust to the environment, as have tricks and suggestions to easy into the strategic plan set in place by your coach.

I think teachers and administrators can hold both of these roles it will just depend on your schools setting. Both are a key part of any successful team and identifying who these people are will be key. 

I recently moved to a very small department where I might have to wear both of these hats for certain team members. Though I feel I am going to mostly have to wear the coach hat now which is a big new role for me. I think my biggest struggle in the next few month is going to be figuring when I am supervising/coaching to when I am mentoring. Finding the balance and being able to clearly make the difference for my staff so I am not confusing them. 

The article  Supervising or Coaching — What’s the Difference? strategy give some great insight on how I can effectually work on differentiating between mentoring and coaching. The strategy of Clarify When you are Supervising verse Coaching was very helpful for me. I am currently working on my expectations for my staff as well has how to guide them to further grown in their own careers. 

In the end I have a different approach to leadership then the traditional educational setting. There are however a lot of similarities that I can relate to.

Sources:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3pswPvSjn5_MGlmV0FMbEprUDFmaWVjd25GYU1fSnhmeVZF/edit 

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/mentoring-coaching-tech-integration-mary-beth-hertz 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3pswPvSjn5_aVA4OW56Ulo0WGxDM3ZVWi14RFVjcmtpcnZN/edit 

Module 3-Sophie

Describe how leaders can harness the power of free resources to improve communication and ultimately improve their overall effectiveness and efficiency. 

Just getting information out there is not enough anymore. Having a two-way street of communication with the stakeholders is key; If you can achieve this with free technology, then that is a plus! Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and blogs are just a few ways you can get connected with the stakeholders and have communication going in both directions. Communications shouldn't just be about school delays and cancellations; it should also include individual student, teacher and sport achievements and upcoming events/activities that are going on at the school. 

Getting parent involvement in schools can be difficult, especially the older the kids get. If they can still participate while still being at home, then let’s do it. Teachers also have lives outside of school and may not be able to stay after for hours just to be present during a presentation. Using free Web 2.0 tools such as Skype and Google Hangout is an easy way to get parents and teachers there. Not all parents can drive to the school for whatever reason, if they have a mobile smart phone or a computer with Internet, they can still be a part of the school and they can still be informed and involved.

Describe your current position (workplace, student, etc…) and how social media efforts are used to promote transparency and engage stakeholders.

I work in a middle school on the lower social economic side of the county. There are two middle schools in the county and my school is a third the size of the other school. I teach computer technology education. I have just recently lost many of my computers because of water damage that happened in the building to computers in other places in the building. They took mine to replace those.

This is my first year at this school, but for as much as I know, there is no use of social media. Some teachers have tried to use some behavior apps to get parents involved and informed about their child's behavior in class, but most parents don't access it. Each parent and student has an account that can access their grades and communicate with the teacher. However, the same thing applies there; parents and students don't really access it or use it. I have tried to keep my grade book not only updated but ahead of the game so if they do check it, they can see what is planned. Other teachers send out messages each day or week to inform their students and parents about missing assignments and what they have covered that week or day. But again, not many others access it. We do not have a Facebook or Twitter account. They have a school website but it gets updated once a year to update staff and that is about it. They have a message thing that you can hear when you call the school. It informs you of all the sporting and after school events happening at the school for that week. I think that device gets updated weekly (but that is only giving information).

I don't think there is a whole lot of two way communication unless they come to the school during one of the assemblies or after school events.

In fact, they are removing my job at the school, so I don't see the use of technology getting any better any time soon. It’s just not in the principal's plan or vision for the school.

Standards

Many of the teaching standards now have technology integrated into them; the ISTE Standards even more so than the others. I am not surprised at how much importance has been placed on technology integration in the classroom. It would be crazy for use to not use it and teach it and teach with it because that is the kind of world that we live in, a technological one. I work with the “21st CENTURY LEARNING SKILLS AND TECHNOLOGY TOOLS CONTENT STANDARDS AND OBJECTIVES FOR WEST VIRGINIA SCHOOLS” every day in all my classes this year. However, I think I might be the one of the few who does even though these standards are supposed to be taught at every grade level integrated into regular class instruction. I find that teachers are intimidated by them; they think that it will take time to create lessons and integrate the technology. What they don’t see is that it will eventually save time and make their jobs easier because the students are more engaged.

Three Pathways

I think teachers should be treated like we say we should treat our students. If a student is interested in trucks, then we create problems and activities around trucks. If a student is new to the school, then we make sure they s/he understands all of the rules at the school before we serve harsh punishments. (and so on…) If a teacher is interested in becoming an administrator, before s/he spends thousands of dollars on a degree, let them have a peak behind the curtain of the life of an administrator. Let them shadow for a day or even a week. I think exploration should not only be allowed but encouraged! How will we know if we like something or not if we never try it?! At my old job, my principal placed many of her responsibilities onto the teachers so she could free up some of her time. I found out quickly that, not only was she not a very good principal, but there was so much paperwork that went with being a principal (and I wasn’t one she was shoving work onto, I just saw what other teachers were doing). I learned in my first year of teaching that I never wanted to be a principal. However, not all teachers get to see that in their first year and some principals are so good that they make it look easy.

I guess what I’m saying is, that all teachers should have every opportunity to grow and explore if they want to. Just because they are not students anymore, doesn’t mean that they can’t learn new things and grow to become a better person and teacher. I think every district should have a program for those teachers interested in becoming more, and I think it should be seen as an honor to complete it.

Social Media I Use/Plan to Use

In the past, I have used a separate Facebook account for my students and parents. I would love to start using that again to gain more parent involvement in my classroom and more transparency. I am also thinking about starting a blog/schoology/Edmodo for my position that I am starting next year. I want it to be something that the students and parents can access for information and can interact with and give ideas. I think my new job will be better prepared for this because the home Internet usage is much higher at my new school than it is at the school I am at right now.

Module 3

The ISTE, NBPTS, and WVPTS all promote teacher leadership.  Throughout each set of standards technology leadership is embedded.  However, the ISTE standards focus solely on leadership in technology.  I look at these standards frequently and try to plan lessons that will incorporate as much as possible.  Last year my school required us to follow tech steps, which were technology activities/lessons that were set up to ensure that students received technology access/practice.  This year, I am pleased to say that we are not required to do tech steps anymore.  While some people liked these planned activities I prefer to come up with my own activities based on what we are doing at the time or planning for the future.  I feel that what we do with technology should build on or enhance what we are doing within our lessons and not just be a predetermined activity made up for all students.  
All educators must chose their own path, based on what they feel is best for them.  I have found that many teachers decide to follow one path because they feel it is best for them, but end of switching back or pursuing a different one.  In order to prevent this teachers should be able to observe and substitute in different positions.  They should also have mentors to help guide them into the future.  I had a mentor my first year of teaching, but my second year was on my own.  How many beginning teachers stay in the same class or position that they started in?  Not many!  In order to find what we want we need to be given the chance to explore each.
Chapter 5:
There are several free resources that I try to utilize in my classroom.  One of them is live grades.  We are able to email parents and students to discuss and talk about any concerns of just observations.  I like this tool because it gives the students the opportunity to look at their grades as well as their parents so that I am not getting daily notes or calls with questions about grades or missing work.  I also like students using the site MobyMax.  While I did not set this site up so I can not guarantee that it is free, I do like it.  My students go in and work on different activities tiered to their level.  i can set up different activities for them, and get a report of their progress.  We are not encouraged to participate with our students or their parents on facebook, but the school does have a site in which we can post positive things about the school.  This is to keep parents and the community updated on what we are doing as a school.  While my phone service is not free I encourage all my parents to text me if they have any questions or concerns about what is going on within the classroom.  I also sent home a letter at the beginning of the year encouraging parents to give me their email addresses so that I can send out emails with up dated information.  I feel to be a good leader in technology you must be willing to try new things and out forth the effort to encourage people to follow the example you have set.  For example the principal at my school decided to send out morning memos via email instead of paper copies.  This made several veteran teachers angry because they did not use email often and were use to receiving that paper copy daily.  The principal stuck to her decision but offered support to the teachers and helped them to learn how to receive and respond to the memo.  At the beginning of the year it was crazy at the meetings because these teachers spent the entire time complaining.  However, after she supported them and encouraged them to try they are okay with it.
Chapter 6:
I work at an elementary school teaching third grade.  Since I work with younger students I do not feel that social media is as important.  This is simply because they are at an age where they are learning how to work with and use technology, but not quite old enough to participate in many things.  Only a few have devices that will connect to a form of social media.  However, I do feel that it is important and that in higher education there should be more implementation of it.  Which means that schools would have to stop blocking some of the services and allow students to explore technology freely.  Like it or not technology is our future and to make our students as successful as possible we must embrace it and allow them to learn from it.

Tomorrow People

If I were designing a program to prepare teacher leaders for multiple pathways, one of my strategies would be to pair them up with exemplary administrators and TIS/teacher leaders for observation and clinicals including modeling and demonstration of integrated technology for instruction and communication, so they would get a sense of involvement from the ground up. I would also require them to read “Stratosphere: Integrating Technology, Pedagogy, and Change Knowledge” by Michael Fullan, as it underscores the urgency for dynamic change in current educational paradigms. Fullan recommends training teacher leaders to be “digital ambassadors” who can then outreach to other teachers to help embed innovation.  

I would also have them attend a leadership conference so they would get a sense of community and empowerment. Conferences were not part of my teacher prep program, and I have never been to an educational conference. If I’d already been to a conference, I wouldn’t have anxiety about it as a new experience. I think sometimes we are so focused on pedagogy for the kids that we forget how important it is to build ties to the adults we will work with. The WVPTS standards address this, especially in regards to Communicating with all Stakeholders and building a community centered around learning.

One of the strategies I will use to assess technology needs will be to talk to other teachers in my building and our TIS to determine what we could be doing to better engage students but aren’t due to lack of technology. Additionally, I can also talk to students and families about what kind of learning activities they would like to see happening. I can get access to current inventory lists, as well. I’m already aware of some obvious needs, and plan on asking teachers about their current or desired level of use of interactives in the classroom, as I’d like to focus on procuring equipment like Smart projectors to enable interactive instruction. There are several classrooms in my wing that have dead boards and no or low-functioning projectors, and I would use data showing the benefits of technology integration for interactive instruction as part of my proposal.

Playing Catch-Up in the 21st Century

Because social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook require no economic investment and operate in real time, they are attractive and viable options for enabling open communications with shareholders. Information that could take hours to distribute via phone calls or days of paper trail can be distributed to all connected parties in the blink of an eye, greatly increasing efficiency. Social media is also a great way to offer convenient two way communications options to families, meeting them “where they are.” Most families are already using some form of social media, so it makes sense to provide information and promote positive branding where the parents are already, instead of expecting them to remember yet another login to another site that only provides one way communication. SMS messaging alert capabilities ensure that everyone can be kept in the loop and up to the minute. Opportunity appears at a moment, and disappears as quickly. A multi-faceted communications plan provides much better chances of recognizing and acting on opportunities for success.

Perhaps one of the most important aspects of leveraging tech channels of communications to allow for dynamic conversations is that it acknowledges the equal importance of all stakeholders for success of our students. It gives recognition and value to the parents and makes them more comfortable and less anxious, taking the paradigm from “us vs. them” to just us, all together, working to help students.

Currently I teach ELA 7 at a 7-12 high school in rural WV. There is no Facebook or Twitter page for our school. The only consistent internet outreach that I know of here is Edline, which is mostly static rather than dynamic. This school has been the target of several nasty internet smear campaigns by anonymous community members who seem to have personal vendettas with administration. In fact, before I applied to work here, I contacted people I knew who lived in the same town to get clarification on just what was going on, because I could find nothing positive on the internet. Thankfully, after getting the facts, I decided to apply. It turns out we have a Success school where all stakeholders care about positive outcomes, but it's hard to see from the outside looking in.

One of the things which really stuck with me from the readings for this module is the idea of differentiating communications to meet the needs of all stakeholders, just like we do with instruction. I can see how beneficial it can be to have integrated Twitter and FB accounts, but at a former school I worked in, the administrators made teachers shut down social media class pages because they claimed it constituted “improper contact” with students, and that we could be fired and/or sued. I am unclear whether this is really true, as they liked to threaten us with getting fired every week at our meetings. Although laws are always in flux, I think covering this in teacher prep programs would be beneficial, because then we would know if it is acceptable.

Recently we were introduced to Schoology at a training. I’ve started using it as much as possible and learning my way around it. I discovered it has a blog feature built in, and I plan on using it to communicate with stakeholders. I would love to help our school re-take control of our brand and build it up to be an accurate reflection of what we do. If we don’t take control of it, we’re letting others dictate our presence in the world, and that doesn’t make any sense.

I’m most comfortable discussing these issues with my team before taking them anywhere else, and plan on bringing them up at our next meeting to see how others feel. Integrating social media into our communications would help tremendously to strengthen and maintain relationships with stakeholders, and a strong community produces strong learners. 

Jared's Module Three Discussion

These readings come at an appropriate time for me.  I just spent an entire weekend working with parents on learning to “fly” students using some special effects equipment we rented for a school production of Peter Pan.  Flying students takes about a day of installation and about three days of training for me, the Technical Director, and for a group of parent volunteers who were willing to accept this unique challenge.  When the parents were feeling exhausted from the physically demanding work, I sometimes remarked that this would bring us all closer to our children.  Well, even though I was half-kidding, I turned out to be right.  Working with their children in this way has given them an opportunity to learn to listen, trust, and cooperate as families. I also found that this challenge was forcing me to connect with my students and with their parents like never before. 

Between rehearsals I found myself reading our text, Digital Leadership, and connecting Sheningers chapters about “communication” and “public relations” to my experiences.  Here I was spending more time with parents than I usually would, all for the purpose of accomplishing a common goal shared by their children and me.  It wasn’t hard to see the metaphor of parents, students, and teachers working together in education.  And since I was reading the text, I could help but think about the importance of communication.  Was there some way to use technology to link us all together so that we could work this closely on learning to be better writers, or to do research?  My time in working to earn this degree in Digital Media has made me feel the answer is probably “yes.”

Looking at Chapter 5, I think teachers who avoid using ALL of the free digital tools are in denial.  Social media is really the new, preferred form of communication for students and for many parents.  With that in mind, I like to use Schoology.  As far a I know, it is free unless you want certain features.  It really seems modeled around current social media.  I think websites like this are just thing we need right now: A place where students and parents can see assignments, turn in papers, receive announcements, ask questions, and track their own progress. I think it makes my classroom more efficient because it allows me to return papers to students immediately, which gives them time to create revisions before deadlines.  It’s much faster and more open than working with traditional methods.

The ideas in Chapter 6 are something that my school is currently working to address.  Apparently, all teachers will soon be required to maintain a website that the community will use to gain information about our courses.  In the past, such activity was optional.  I look forward to this change, but one teacher today commented that this level of transparency may be used against her when overbearing parents try to follow the progress of the class.  I, however, would like to see this website linked to our other services such as Livegrades and Office 365 e-mail.  Anything that helps me communicate quickly with students and parents makes life easier, and builds relationships.