Tag: Professional Learning

Professional Learning, continued

Posted on by ColbyClifford

I’m at the tail end of reading Katie Martin’s Learner Centered Innovation. It’s amazing to hear so many of the same ideas and research voiced by someone new (to me), but to experience everything sort of sticking because it all lines up with the work I’ve being doing.

In the tacit space between my course work and Martin’s publication, I’m realizing that out here in the real world I should be synthesizing the professional learning I’m involved in this summer. I should be applying that learning to this created space! I want to practice and become ever more comfortable in the ecosystem where I want my learners to live.

Creating Canvas Assignments and Providing Meaningful Feedback

I feel like I am never as comfortable with Canvas as I want to be. There is so much to understand! This training with Instructional Technology coaches from our district was super informative. We walked through different ways to communicate with learners within Canvas including offering video feedback.

Inspire Creativity with Adobe Creative Cloud Express

Adobe tools allow for students’ voice and choice to communicate and think creatively while learning and applying digital skills. We explored and learned the basics of the interface through creating as well as discussing curriculum integration ideas.

Graphic Design Made Easy with Canva

While Adobe Creative Cloud is a great application for students to use, Canva has been my go-to tool for a while when it comes to creating digital content. I learned so much more in this session, including how to determine size of images regarding pixels and translating that into banners, buttons, and tile cards for Canvas. We also played around with creating slide decks with audio and video. Best one second tip: eyedropper!

My favorite thing about technology professional development opportunities is that we, as learners, always have time to PLAY! We can ask each other questions and solve problems and learn by doing.

Professional Learning 2.0

Posted on by ColbyClifford

I am working with a small group of educators who believe the culture of professional development can be improved. For the most part, the rhetoric tied to professional development is negative. Many are constrained to a short time period, provide no support or modeling for teachers, while content presented is generic and passive. It doesn’t have to be this way.

We have begun to implement changes that make our classrooms more significant learning environments and are encouraged by the response we see in our students. They have been given more opportunities to take ownership and make choices in their learning and exercise their voice in an authentic way.

How might we create this culture of inquiry for the educators we work with as well? We can start with a simple shift in rhetoric. As teachers, are we not in fact professional learners?

Professional learning recognizes that teachers are learning and growing just like their students. While the term “development” indicates a process that has an end point, “learning”recognizes that professional growth is a never-ending, lifelong process.

The biggest effect in our business is the expertise of teachers. It’s teachers who work together, collectively, collaboratively, to understand their impact.

John Hattie

We believe we can improve the effectiveness of teachers and create a culture of inquiry with improved professional learning, and we believe using ePortfolios is the best way to achieve this vision. Below is the Why, How, & What to our mission.