Greenhaus Education and Other "Effects"

This week I meet for the fifth face-to-face with my two Sketchpad cohorts. It's only been 3 weeks since our last face-to-face meeting and it is also the beginning of their spring break, so planning for this week has been interesting, since I know their minds will be elsewhere! As I posted in last weeks online community development posting (part 4) , the teachers have really begun to think about student needs as they consider using Sketchpad and the Common Core Standards, so I want to continue to foster that in our face-to-face meeting.  As I did last time, I had participants make suggestions of content/topics they wished to focus on in this weeks face-to-face. Our content focus, based on their input, will be on learning some more about the multiple-representational capabilities of Sketchpad as well as some of the animation capabilities. In addition to teacher input as I planned, I also really wanted to think about addressing student needs, since in their online discussion for...

There has been a lot of focus on professional development for teachers in light of all the new technology, 1:1 initiatives, Common Core Standards...the list goes on. It's definitely a concern because in order for anything new or different to be effective in the classroom, teachers need training and practice. Which of course has many schools and districts in a bind since everyone is also in the midst of budget constraints. The question then is how do we pay for the necessary professional development when we don't have the money to do so? One answer is look within - good professional development doesn't have to cost money.  There are ways to utilize the resources in your own building or district and get quality professional development.  All that's really required is a little time, effort and commitment. Having been both a teacher, administrator, and now a provider of professional development, I have had a wide range of experiences with professional development and th...

I have been writing lately about my plans and experiences with hybrid/blended professional development, specifically with technology.  In my most recent post , I shared ideas for the next face-to-face meeting with my two cohorts.  Perhaps because this is foremost on my mind, I find that I am running across others' blogs and articles that are speaking of similar experiences or offering great advice about professional development and the need to rethink how and what we offer teachers in terms of professional development..  I wanted to share a couple that I have run across that I found very interesting. Mark Brumley ( @markbrumley ) wrote a short blog post the other day called Educating Educators Part 1 that talks about the importance of generating excitement in teachers about new technology BEFORE bringing them into any training.  I liked his ideas about creating almost a PR campaign to get teachers excited and interested in the new technology so that they come to a...

I am suffering a horrible sinus infection these past couple of days so the thought of writing and thinking is not a pleasant thought right now. So...I was looking at my previous blogs for inspiration, which were both private and course related, so only my professors saw my writings.  I thought perhaps I had said something that might be worthy of sharing in this more public arena.  What I found was that I definitely still have the same convictions I had previously.  I wanted to share a piece a wrote from my 'Advanced Instructional Strategies' course two years ago as it seems very relevant these days as well. The book being referenced here is Joyce, B., Weil, M. & Calhoun, E. (2009). Models of Teaching, 8th Edition. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc. Reflections On Sustaining Teacher Change         Teachers are often asked to adopt new teaching models or new curriculum that requires change and the learning of new skills. The discomfor...