One: Professional development is a FUN, EVERYDAY affair; and for me, is best done with an inspiring TEAM of enthusiastic educators!
It is fun to learn and grow in the company of other professionals. Whether it be online through blogging or recent Twitter connections, or communities of practice like Learning with Computers or Webheads, I am learning new things every day. For instance, I'm discovering new tools to try out, like Tumblr and YouAre. Also, through face-to-face attendance at professional organization meetings, presentations, and conferences, I revisited some classroom activities, like K-W-L, self-assessment, and vocabulary learning. Through these experiences, I found that I could learn about many new tools and activities to use in the traditional classroom setting, and on our class blog.
Two: Taking risks to grow professionally is a good thing.
Risk: And then the day came, when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to Blossom. Anais Nin
This year, I learned that I needed to take some more risks professionally. I developed articles, chapters, lesson plans, presentations, and workshops, and I challenged myself to take on some different learning opportunities.
One of the biggest challenges is yet to come in the new year, as I join a fabulous group of moderators to lead the Blogging for Educators EVO session. Although not all of this year's endeavors were successful (I never did come close to learning to webcast), I feel that learning to share my ideas with a wider audience was the biggest step. As a teacher, I find that I'm often coaching students to share their thoughts and that what they have to contribute is important, but I needed to take my own advice!
This post was inspired by Larry Ferlazzo's What did you learn in 2007 post, and an abbreviated version was sent to be included on his upcoming blog post. Also, I have posted a link at The Learning Circuit blog for December's Big Question.
5 comments:
Dear Mary,
I've really enjoyed reading the things you've learned in 2007. I'm very glad we'll be able to collaborate in B4ED.
anamaria
Dear Mary,
Taking the risk is what moves me, too. It makes me go beyond and improve as an educator and person. The Blogging4Educators has been a delighting experience mainly because of this fantastic group and the possibilities to keep sharing questions, opinions, ideas and resources with all of you and the world.
Thanks for being there for us.
Beijos.
Hi Ana Maria and Carla,
Thanks for taking the time to read my blog! Carla, this post was really inspired by your blog post reflecting on all the things you learned from teaching the online listening course! Taking risks, and pushing ourselves to do new things is definitely a necessary part of growing professionally. That's why I love being a part of online communities of practice--we are always encouraging and motivating each other to try new things! Let's continue to work together.
Hello Mary, It is really important to have objectives when starting a new year. And of course, it it a bit disappointing when you don't reach your target, but there is always new year :P. The most important thing when setting an objective is to be realistic. PS: I like your post.
Yes we need to encourage and to motivate each other in order to grow. Great article >:D<
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