Via apcampbell
If you’re in TESOL and looking for FREE professional development opportunities, check this out. I know I’ll be atttending something here, and passing this page along to our team of teachers.
Link> http://webpages.csus.edu/~hansonsm/announce.html
Just listening to a really interesting podcast by George Siemens entitled “One way” only approach to learnng design…
I totally agree with what he has to say. In fact, over the last few days as I’ve been working on preparing our professional development program for 2006, I have often found myself wrestling through the temptation of “one size fits all.”
And it is a temptation isn’t it? To take the easy road and perscribe and blanket instead of tailor.
I’m thinking, in particular, of my fascination for blogging, podcasting, etc, and how hard it has been to “encourage” our teachers to get into it as well. Perhaps I’m guilty of perscribing something that works for me, and is cool for me, and is interesting for me, to others who just don’t care about such things.
“You mean there are folks out there who don’t like this stuff????”
So reflecting on professional development here…blogging, for me, has been one of the most powerful PD activities I have ever undertaken. However, what works for me doesn’t automatically work for my peers.
I strongly believe that professional development is something done BY the teacher, not TO them. That then means that forcing a certain development method or approach on everyone (read: blogging, podcasting, book reading, conference attending…whatever) is simply violating my ideals.
Professional development then, from an organizational point of view, becomes an exercise in chaos and flexibility. Siemens discusses this a little - the whole area of flexible learning.
If the end goal is professional development….GROWTH….our goal as an organization must be to encourage curiosity, then step back and watch what happens. Maybe lend a hand where needed, AND WHERE ASKED FOR, but to begin to step away from the vehicle.
Organizations as trajectory coaches, now there’s a thought.
