Ditch That Textbook by Matt Miller

Author:Matt Miller
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-9861554-1-3
Publisher: Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc.
Published: 2016-09-17T04:00:00+00:00

ON THE BLOG:

11 Class Activities with Sensors You Didn’t Know Your Phone Had

<Chapter 21>

YOU ARE YOUR OWN BEST PD

“Anyone wanna teach me how to use Twitter? #twitternewbie.” That was one of my first Twitter posts. Not very deep, I know. One my first retweets, however, was actually pretty good — and worth repeating here.

The original tweet came from Sean Junkins (@sjunkins), a fabulous technology integration specialist from South Carolina. He wrote: “I’ve yet to have a student tell me they can’t use technology in class because they haven’t had any PD on it.”

Unlike our students, many educators seem to have an aversion to new technology. Before daring to even consider a new tool, let alone think of a creative, engaging way to incorporate it, these technophobic teachers require an hour of group instruction in front of a computer.

Now, I’m not knocking school-provided professional development (PD). It can give you some valuable skills. And I love how these courses gather teachers in the learning process. But if you’re waiting for school-provided PD to answer your every question and guide you on the path of high-quality teaching, you’re waiting on the wrong thing.

YOU are your own best professional development. YOU. YOU know your strengths and weakness best. YOU know what you need to capitalize on them. YOU know your true vision of what you want to become. YOU have felt the excitement when the light bulb appears above your students’ heads and they “get it.” YOU. Not your school’s PD coordinator. YOU.

So take all of your strengths, weaknesses, vision, excitement and more, and run with them. Go do some learning. Information, lessons, philosophies, and ideas are all available at the command of a basic Google search or a question sent to colleagues via social media. Never before have so many resources been available, and tomorrow there will be more.

Our students are personal learning gurus, and great role models for us in this regard. Imagine a teenager who gets stuck on a level of Halo or Grand Theft Auto. He has played the same part of the game over and over and has exhausted every idea for beating it.

He doesn’t put down the controller and say, “Well, I give up. I guess I’ll never see the end of this game.” No way! He heads to YouTube and searches for a walk-through video. He texts friends who have played the game and asks them for ideas. Maybe he does a Google search for a discussion board about the game. Honestly, he’s probably already a member of multiple discussion boards and doesn’t need a Google search to find them.

Hmm… sounds like a good process, doesn’t it? Set a vision, find resources to help you realize your vision, and act.

If you’re stuck, or simply don’t know where to begin with a new-to-you technology, try one of these ideas to jump-start your learning process:

There’s a video for that. One of the best ways to learn about a new digital tool, teaching method, or technique is to watch or listen to someone doing it or explaining it.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.