Professional Development: Which Way Would You Choose?

Entry written by: Cary S. Topic: Professional Development and Educational Technology

Education is focused on learning, growth, and development. One must remember that this focus is not just associated with student development; it also includes teacher development. As teachers, it is important to learn and grow right along with students. Many schools require that teachers take steps to develop professionally. Professional development is usually approached in an often frustrating manner. Days are set aside for teachers to go to meetings and listen to lectures on teaching. These meetings occur in classroom environments and tend to take up a lot of time. After working many hours to meet all the demands that teaching encompasses (lessons, testing, report-cards, grading), how many teachers really want to spend a day sitting in a classroom being talked at? Technology offers a wonderful new avenue for professional development. Through the use of Web 2.0 tools, teachers can gain insight in a more efficient manner that will help them develop into better professionals.

Many technological tools can provide valuable information to teachers. Blogs and Google Reader offer information for teachers that can be conveniently accessed at any time and from anywhere. Blogs are a great tool that teachers can use to see what other teachers are doing and to share insight with other teachers. Goggle Reader is a wonderful tool that can be used to organize blogs. Teachers can learn so much from others and can grow through acting in response to what others are teaching. Through using these tools, that are accessible from the comfort of home, teachers can continually be updated with new ideas that can be implemented into classrooms to strength teacher and student learning.

I was given the opportunity to explore educational blogs organized in Google Reader. I gained so many great ideas. I saw information concerning lesson plans, technological integration, classroom management approaches, and new research. From little things like using a staple remover in removing knots from shoelaces to big things like lesson plans that connect books to content standards, information in blogs can assist teachers. I can picture myself using a visually enhanced step-by-step lesson plan presented by another teacher in my Kindergarten classroom someday. I saw how Deborah J. Stewart presented a cool Earth Day science lesson for preschoolers and kindergarteners in the blog Teach Preschool. The plan includes collecting items from nature and observing them pressed between plexiglass. This observation is to be done in correlation to reading the book In My World, by Lois Ehlert. I can use this great lesson in the future to strengthen my teaching ability and my students' learning. This is just one example of how a blog can present me with lesson ideas from other teachers that can help further the learning in my classroom.

If teachers can develop into better teachers when they take valuable educational information presented in blogs to heart, then it can be said that blogs are a great way to foster professional development. If I had to choose my favorite professional development approach, I would choose the option of exploring blogs on my own time to gain new insight rather than spending all day in a meeting listening to a speaker. Using technological tools to gain information for teaching is more efficient, more flexible, more visual, and more fun as compared to older methods of professional development. I can see so many benefits in using blogs to direct professional development. The question for you my reader is... Which way would you choose to approach professional development as a teacher?



Stewart, Deborah J. (11 April 2012). "Looking At Our World Through a Window Book." Teach Preschool. http://www.teachpreschool.org/