Opportunities for professional development in teaching increase exponentially each year due to the creation of blogs and other online resources. Before the advent of online professional development, teachers relied on attending workshops, reading professional books, and collaborating with other local teachers. For reasons, such as monetary and time constraints, not all teachers are able to meet their professional needs in these traditional formats. Blogs allow teachers access to global professional development at any time and on specific topics that meet their needs.
In choosing the blogs that I would follow for this course, I reflected on my own professional needs at this point in my career. Since I am a classroom teacher, teacher-librarian, and student, the blogs I chose were a classroom blog created by a teacher in my school, my district’s superintendent’s blog, two BCTLA (British Columbia Teacher-Librarian Association) blogs, Will Richardson’s blog, David Warlick’s blog, and the blogs of fellow students in the course.
The first blog was created by a colleague for her English class. She invited me to join and I am grateful to her for allowing me to participate in the blog and to witness the effects of blogs on student learning. The students involved were quite open with their enthusiasm about completing class assignments through blogging and both they and their teacher shared their trials and tribulations. I now feel confident enough to create my own class blog and have the wisdom and support of my colleague and her students to guide me through.
My school district superintendent’s blog was another I chose but have been following it since it was begun. Professionally, reading the blog gives me a window through which to see some of the teaching and learning that is happening across our district. This opens a forum for discussion, not only with the superintendent, but with the teachers involved. For instance, if I read that another teacher in the district has taught a great unit that is relevant to my students, I can contact them to learn more. The knowledge gained then leads to greater lessons in my classroom. The blog is one avenue for networking professionally in the district.
The BCTLA blogs I currently follow are the BCTLA’s president’s blog called “In Circulation” (http://bctlaincirculation.blogspot.com/) and the “Drop Everything and Read!” blog (http://bctladear.blogspot.com/). As a teacher-librarian, I find “In Circulation” to be indispensable. I frequently access the sidebar links including “The Virtual Bookmark” where I raid the lesson vault and keep up to date on new books and news articles concerning school libraries. To locate great age-appropriate books that boys will read, the “Books for Boys Wiki” is a great resource (I will have to remember to add some of my own recommendations). As for the “Drop Everything and Read!” blog, I began to check this site while we were preparing to participate in the DEAR challenge on National School Library Day. After it was over, I went on to see how other districts met this challenge and plan on suggesting at the next local teacher-librarian meeting that we add our district to the blog. This would also be great to share for advocacy purposes. The BCTLA blogs keep me connected to a vast wealth of knowledge generated and shared by other teacher-librarians.
Will Richardson’s blog “weblogg-ed “ (http://weblogg-ed.com/2008/11/) and David Warlick’s blog “2¢ worth” (http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/index.php) meet my professional needs both as a teacher and as a student. I have found the posts on their blogs and the various links to be insightful and to further my understanding with regards to Web 2.0 in the classroom. With Will Richardson’s blog, it was great to read further after having devoured his book “Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms.” (Richardson, 2009) One day, I may even get the courage to comment on their posts or to ask a question!
My classmate’s blogs are incredible and have been professionally beneficial. Reading about their experiences and learning with regards to Web 2.0 has deepened my own learning in this area. I enjoyed commenting on their blogs and can see how valuable discussion is for professional development.
Blogs have added a new dimension to meeting professional development needs.
References:
Richardson, Will. (2009) “Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms.” California: Corwin Press.
.JPG)
4 comments:
Thanks for the links to the two BCTLA blogs Sheila, I'm adding them to my list too. Great pro d in a matter of seconds!
Jan P
Sheila,
You've been following some interesting blogs and obviously been getting a lot out of them. I like the idea of a divisional/district blog. Not only would that be informative but what a positive role model it is for blogging in general.
Jo-Anne
I found it interesting that your superintendent blogs. Like you said, it is one way to keep you informed on what's happening around the division.
"if I read that another teacher in the district has taught a great unit that is relevant to my students, I can contact them to learn more."
An excellent example of how blogs and other web 2.0 tools can be used to create professional networks and learning communities, locally and globally. I think it's great that your superintendent has a blog that you can access to find out what is happening in your district!
Post a Comment