July is almost here, summer break is in full burn.
Well deserved, it's time away from the office - no students, administrators,
or cajoling parents. Yet, it's worthwhile to peek at the hill looming
on the horizon. I have some quick and easy professional development ideas
you can peruse from the comfort of your lawn chair to ease the climb.
Why? I think they'll satisfy that thirst for improving your teaching skills
without taking dollars from your pocket, and they won't reduce your leisure
time. Heck, you can even use 'em to fulfill your Professional Development
Plan (PDP) for 2010!
Nope, what I'm suggesting is not languishing away in a classroom or even
attending a vendor sponsored seminar. What I'm talking about is an hour
or two a week - or less - in the comfort of your own schedule to consider
improving the architecture of your instruction techniques. That's correct,
my intention is to have you grow these three core teaching abilities:
1. Classroom management skills: this influences every aspect
of teaching for both new and experienced teachers.
2. Multimedia resources: time to start putting technology
to work for you, in whatever capacity you have available in your classroom
or school.
3. Pedagogy ideas: taking stock of what you're doing and
listening to the experts provides new window(s) for improving student
performance.
Let's be real, acquiring additional skills in these abilities makes you
better equipped to capture student attention. When you're doing that,
you have engaged students, which means they're more adept at building
lifelong learner skills.
Capturing student interest is no mystery. I know this first hand from
my high school teaching experiences. When students are interested in class
material; student disruptions almost disappear and class time flies finer
than the stealth bomber. Lesson material that works with digital students
makes concepts relevant to life outside of class. Research shows this
is best accomplished using hands on activities, integrating technology,
creating and managing student collaboration, and accenting important ideas
with video clips (15 minute maximum). As you raise the bar on your lesson
making ability you demonstrate your commitment to excellence.
Like I said, all the resources I'm about to mention are absolutely free.
Need software to be more productive? This package works on any computer
and is in multiple languages; use it to make and distribute documents,
slides, or spreadsheets: Open
Office.
1. Tune up classroom management strategies
Without a solid set of classroom management skills, learning happens by
luck. Effective teaching isn't completed by winning personality contests
or being the student's buddy. Instead, learning occurs in a safe environment
where students are curious and there is an atmosphere of respect. Just
like a business has a set of rules and procedures to produce quality products
for its' customers, a teacher must have a clearly defined set rules and
procedures to conduct class. An extensive set of ideas and procedures
can be found at this scale of social
competence site. Another source for some tips and techniques is this
RSS
feed, beware it also wants to sell you a book at the end. The Empower
A Child blog has 10 excellent tips for teachers. On the left hand
side of the Cooperative
Learning Network page there are several useful articles worth your
review. My favorite there is Teaching
Social Skills. I had to adjust it somewhat for my high school class
but those ideas definitely worked for me. Of course, The First
Days of School, by Harry Wong, is the perfect resource for every teacher
library. Every time I pick it up I select one or two new ideas to use
with students.
2. Tweak your multimedia skills and resources
One picture is worth a thousand words. Images quickly validate obtuse
concepts and put the brain in gear. For example, students may not get
the verbal aspects of biotic and abiotic, but show 'em pictures of people,
plants, and fire; now they have a window to apply what is being discussed.
There are plenty of ways to use multimedia besides just using PowerPoint
or slide presentations. Thinking is an essential ingredient learning at
any age, using the Big
6 you gain a critical thinking resource and a web site that offers
a ton of worksheets and presentations. Start using media kits to supplement
your lesson resources. You can find one for any subject across the K12
curriculum by visiting the Orange County DOE site. Some other favorites
of mine: listen
to famous speeches, find any sound
and download it, and then the perfect music
to spice up classroom atmosphere or to add on your web page. If you, or
your students, are going to be using online much at all you probably want
an avatar. You can easily build one at YourManga
and it's available in multiple languages. The next step is exploding your
video library resources. Use one of these qualified sites to fulfill your
video cabinet with thousands of professional clips to enforce class concepts:
National
Geographic, Learner.org,
and Teachers
Domain. When you want to bring context of the past, present, and/or
future to your class, check out the tons of streaming video (no downloads
here) at TED and Fora
TV , or scour How
Stuff Works for material galore on any subject in an encyclopedia
set.
3. Dust off your pedagogy schemes
Each educator has their own teaching style, refining that art of instruction
never ends. Just like professional athletes always train to be on top
of their game; superior educators look for ways to refine teaching methods.
There are a couple of ways to accomplish this. One way is reading current
research on education. The Internet Public Library (IPL) has an array
of reading material on education
reform and measurements
and assessments. Another way is fine tuning the methods used to do
actual instruction. One of the most comprehensive sites I've seen is provided
by Intel. They've assembled substantial material to support building student
collaboration in classes and improve student critical thinking skills.
Project learning is a proven technique for getting students actively learning
in classes. Eutopia provides a RSS
feed with studies validating this methodology. They also have an extensive
video catalogue
for educators covering a range of topics on effective K12 learning. The
Global
SchoolNet is a project exchange site. It's a myriad of projects teachers
and students have contributed from around the world. The content at Center
for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education is aligned with
math and science standards and it offers clearly defined projects. Their
goal is to have classes use their projects to do cross-curriculum work.
Students contribute from their local area, giving students in other areas
an opportunity to learn about new areas while also exploring unique data
contributions. At Merlot,
teachers post their lessons and then get reviewed by peers. Covering all
content areas, you can dig into high caliber lesson material for your
new lesson or to revise an existing one. Another option is participating
in a variety of quality academic communities.
I encourage you to share this article with other educators and participate
in our reaching out to 25,000 teachers.
To obtain additional free resources to support K12 teaching, visit my
portal at http://www.educationreporting.com.
Steu Mann, M. Ed., an education journalist, is retired from careers in
teaching and project management. He owns Education Reporting ™ Inc
and works with teachers to implement experiential education curriculum.You
can reach him at educationrebel@gmail dot com (.com).