Teachingwithipad.org | New and innovative ways to better use the iPad in teaching! Welcome to my Professional Portfolio! | Selena Woodward's Example.
5 Personal Learning Networks (PLNs) for Educators. Professional development and networking are vital in any field, and that’s especially true for educators. Whether it’s coming up with fresh ideas for lesson plans and classroom activities, seeking mentorship and support from veteran educators, or cultivating resources for technology integration or for meeting state standards, teachers need one another’s expertise.
That’s why working with other educators in personal learning networks (PLNs) has become as important in an educator’s day as the time he or she spends teaching in class. Below is a short list of PLNs that already exist, followed by some resources to help teachers build their own The Educator’s PLN is a Ning site (or online platform for creating your own social network) that facilitates connections between educators. Resources for Building or Finding Your Own Educators, which learning networks do you belong to? What value have you found from collaborating with your peers? Related.
What the heck is a PLN? - Personal Learning Networks for Educators. 0132610353. Will We Need Teachers Or Algorithms? Editor’s note: This is Part III of a guest post written by legendary Silicon Valley investor Vinod Khosla, the founder of Khosla Ventures. In Part I, he laid the groundwork by describing how artificial intelligence is a combination of human and computer capabilities In Part II, he discussed how software and mobile technologies can augment and even replace doctors. Now, in Part III, he talks about how technology will sweep through education.
In my last post, I argued that software will take over many of the tasks doctors do today. And what of education? We find a very similar story of what the popular – and incredibly funny! – TED speaker Sir Ken Robinson calls “a crisis of human resources” (Click here for the RSA talk from the same speaker which has been animated in a highly educational fashion).
I want to comment on what I consider a far greater misuse of talent and training: that of our children/students, mostly here talking about high school education. Envisioning Future Education. The Global Classroom Project 2011-12 (#GlobalEd11) Build iPhone and Android apps or HTML5 mobile web app online. Online communities are transforming professional development for teachers | Teacher Network | Guardian Professional. It's strange looking back now at when I first started teaching 10 years ago. I moved a long distance to take up my first post, and so the only teachers I knew in my new area were the ones who worked in my new school. When I left three years later, this was still the case. In those three years, the only teachers I discussed teaching with were those who happened to occupy the same staff room as me.
Even CPD events weren't that great an opportunity to network as the population of teachers in the south of England, where I was working at the time, is so vast that I never a encountered the same teacher more than once at any course. This form of professional isolation isn't a big problem if you work in a large and vibrant school where the staff and the leadership team are innovating and have open minds to change. However, not all schools are like this. This first began to change for me when I encountered blogging. And then Twitter arrived. What’s the point of lesson observations? I feel I need to start by saying that I am not questioning the need for lesson observations.
They’re a crucial part of developing our professional practice and ensure T&L is quality assured. No, what this post is really concerned with is asking what we hope to achieve by observing teachers. For some time now I have been musing on the purpose of lesson observations as well as considering new ways to encourage staff to develop their teaching practice. This has been merrily percolating at the back of my brain for some time but has now, I hope, turned into something a bit more coherent. Firstly, I had hesitantly and clumsily begun to connect the process of lesson observation with the thinking that underpins effective AfL. We all know that as soon as you grade a piece of work students only focus on whatever that level or grade is.
A good grade makes them feel good, a bad grade makes them feel bad. I then had a conversation with the English AST at my school. Related posts Like this: Vital | Transforming lessons, inspiring learning. Kidsmeet Blackpool. Yesterday Kidsmeet Blackpool took place at Hawes Side Primary School and I thought that people would be interested to hear about it.
The explanation of a Kidsmeet on the official site is KidsMeet is a concept developed from the success of TeachMeet. KidsMeet events provide children with the opportunity to speak about their learning in a positive environment. This is in the form of a 5 – 7 minute group presentation to be given by children, for children. Content can focus on the effect that their teacher’s innovative practice has had on their learning, an element of their learning that has gone really well or simply something they would like to share with other children and teachers that has made a difference to them or changed their approach to learning. I was honoured to be asked by the organisers to compere the event and to do the difficult part of being the only speaker there over the age of 11. This blog post shows their presentation My reflections So was it a success?