My 25% PD (Via The Thinking Stick.) Jeff Scofer finishes off a post full of referrals with these thoughts about professional development for teachers.
Wouldn’t this be great if teacher really could get recognized for the PD they do online? Instead you have to attend a conference and sit through sessions. Gee, kind of reminds you of seat time needed to graduate high school don’t it? It doesn’t have anything to do with learning, just as long as you attended. Could this from of PD be assessed? Sure, I could create a portfolio, or give an in-service in my school teaching others what I’ve learned and have been exploring. Would reflective blog entries suffice? Not in today’s word, but we can hope. Reflecting on ones learning is how you show understanding of concepts and stretch your own knowledge. How far away is education from this model? We talk about changing education for the students, but what about the way we learn as educators? There are some new ways popping up here in the blogoshpere like Shifted Learning and other PD opportunities on the web. But will teachers get the paperwork and credit they need to renew their certificates? We talk about a shift in education could it start by shifting the way WE as educators learn, attend conferences, and apply reflective models and social connections to our own learning? Could that be the key, to first change our model of learning before we change it in the classroom. HHHMMM, makes you think don’t it?
I too wish I could get some “credit” for the thinking and learning I am doing while reading feeds and blogging about them, but I suppose the intrinsic motivation keeps me going regardless.
Perhaps I ought to also take a hint from what Jeff has to say about this blog: “Most of these links came via Mark Warner [sic]. I can’t keep up with that guy. Every day I swear there are 10 postings.”
On one hand, I have a good system worked out. On the other, I am probably spending too much time on this, and I don’t want to overwhelm readers. Like I said, though, the intrinsic motivation, the high of learning, keeps me going.