PLP Journey: Planning Our EdCamp PD Day

Our faculty has been very active throughout the year implementing innovative teaching strategies and creating engaging projects that fit their IP21 (Individual Plan for 21st Century Teaching and Learning) professional goals.These goals are not mandated by the administration but selected by each teacher. Giving ownership to teachers to design their professional growth makes these goals relevant and meaningful to our teaching practice. So why not apply this same PD approach to designing our Professional Learning Day?

PLP's Voices from the Learning Revolution: Our Easy Reference Index (Posts 01-29)

Just two months ago, we launched Voices from the Learning Revolution. Nearly 30 posts later, it’s time for a recap. Here’s what our teachers, librarians, IT specialists, principals, district leaders and consultants have shared so far. A special thanks to all our twitter friends and blogs like MindShift, The Answer Sheet, Connected Principals and many more for pushing some of these great ideas and insights out into the viral stream.

The Teacherprenuer. They exist. The trick is to keep them in our classrooms.

Classroom teachers who are working to make a difference have reached a critical juncture point. We can’t be expected to continue running ourselves ragged trying to do it all, battling the demon that is time. If the status quo remains, expect to see more quality teachers exiting classrooms for other pursuits, and watch our profession continue to struggle with the challenge of adapting to the learning landscape of the age we are living in. The authors of Teaching 2030 propose to address this issue by encouraging investments in “teacherpreneurs.”

Make the Shift: Teachers learning from teachers

I am a believer in the power of professional sharing. I’ve experienced it first-hand. It is both empowering and satisfying to teach a skill, share a best practice, and learn something from someone with whom you thought you had nothing in common. And I always circle back to this question: If it works so well for us, and makes us feel so good, imagine what it would mean for our students. Shouldn’t our students have opportunities to teach and learn from one another – to develop and share their expertise?

In a transparent world, we're always being observed

Our lives are becoming more transparent as we use social media for communication, and the things we post in social networks might become our undoing. Just as we teach responsible internet use to our students, so should we be making sure that all our teacher colleagues grasp the viral implications of a hastily worded tweet, or what was an amusing, but easily misinterpreted photo captured at a social event.