Summer PD

Summer vacation has started and I am ready to go full swing into my own personal PD.  I have talked about personalized PD frequently lately. This summer is no different.  My goal is to spend at least one day a week working on PD so I can share things with my staff.  I am almost done with my TLC training to become a technology coach.  I have even established a website to send them to for tips and techniques.  I am hoping my experiences will better their experience with 1:1 learning and web 2.0.

In my TLC training, I have been asked to visit the Digital learning day blog created by the Indiana DOE.  It's a month of guest bloggers who write about a tool.  I have been challenged to try a tool and do my own blog post about how it would benefit me and also evaluate it for the SAMR model.  I think I am going to spend a little more time focusing on that challenge and come up with several tools.  While I may not go so indepth as to evaluate the SAMR component, I am going to find some tools and share them with my readers.  

That is my summer plan.  Let's get started on summer vacation and personalized PD.

Personalized PD: Finding webinars

As I spend a little time talking about personalized PD, it is only appropriate to share the concept of the webinar as a way to grow professionally.  Over the past few years, webinars have become one of the fastest ways of learning material and personalizing what is learned.  There is a lot of picking and choosing and a lot of options for many different content areas, grades and educators.

I have found several fantastic sites that offer PD webinars.  Some sites charge a fee to be a member, but they have free sessions from time to time. I do those free days like they are going out of style. My kids make fun of me because I am doing another webinar.  But, some of them are outstanding.   I have found a lot of good tools on the simplek12 website as well as edweb.net.   Both do webinars often and all of them have been great quality.  I have learned a lot of new things through both.

I have also found several archived unconferences with webinars too. (An unconference is a virtual conference where people all over the globe get together and go over various topics.  I have seen some through teacher2.0 and library2.0.  A few conferences have been archived, you just have to search for them.  They are all over the internet.

I recommend looking into these free webinars if you want to personalize PD for yourself.  It is very possible to customize what you want to learn.  I do a lot over the summer so when I go back to school I am fresh and ready to go.  I have taken a lot of information from these webinars and used them in my classroom, library and with colleagues.

Personalized PD: Google+

If you are interested in personalizing your PD, an easy way to do that is to create an account on Google+ and start joining communities.   Google+ has been around for awhile, but, of late it has become a really strong support system for educators.  It isn't as focused on the family, social and fun stuff people post on Facebook, but more of a professional based setup.   I decided recently that I was going to separate my Facebook for my professional life and focus on Google+ as my professional platform.

Here is what you need to do to use it for your own PD.

1.  Create a google account. (Gmail account holders already have Google+, so just login.)
2.  After you create your google account, you can go to the search bar and type plus.google.com and it will open your Google+ platform.   Under the Home tab, you can find communities and people who meet your needs.   Some communities let you join immediately, some ask you to request to join and they add you.  You need to make sure you have a profile

I have learned a lot of great tips and techniques from people on Google+, but like twitter, it can be a little overwhelming. Find some people on Google+ who you follow on twitter and add them to circles. (Circles are the "groups" people belong to.  For example, I have a circle called Hoosier Educators, another one called Library People, and one called Edtech People.  Some people are in more than one.  It is an organizational method.)

It seems to me that Google+ is less social and used more by the masses for things like personalized PD. It is a great way to see what is going on in other school districts around the US and elsewhere.   It is truly a great way to start developing your own personalized PD.

Personalized PD: Twitter

Often as educators, we are called to a staff development and hear about the newest trend, data that pertains to a small group of people and very irrelevant to others.  Yes, learning about math data is important to the staff as a whole, but, if there was a way as a teacher we could grow personally and develop our own PD, I think we as a whole can become better educators.

There are many ways, as educators, we can personalize our staff development and these are the ways you can do it:

Twitter:
If you are not on twitter, you should be.  Twitter is by far one of the most powerful ways to learn and grow as a professional.  If you spend 10 minutes from time to time glancing and reading what people post, you will learn something new.  I had a teacher ask me for some insight to a topic.  I went to my twitter, posted a quick question and in a matter of five minutes, I had close to 10 responses with suggestions.   WOW!  Who would have thought five years ago that something that powerful would be available at our fingertips.  (For more information about personalizing PD with twitter, please check this link and read this material.)  Select a few hashtags (#) and watch them from time to time.  There are a lot of programs that allow you to follow the chat, some even allow for an archive so you can go back and see it later.

Here are some fantastic education chats and links to places you should visit to learn more about twitter for education:
The Cybraryman:   This site is a plethora of information for everyone in education.  The link here is for Twitter and it includes a lot of informational pieces for you.  He has established a schedule of all of the education chats out there and the times. (PLEASE DON'T BE OVERWHELMED) There are many of them, but only a few may pertain to your needs.

Here are the ones I personally attend from time to time:
#edchat  (Tuesdays at 7pm)  Lots of fantastic ed topics.
#INeLearn (Thursdays at 8pm)  Directed by IN-DOE department of eLearning.  Excellent source of information.  Topics vary weekly. (Every state has their own, I follow Indiana's since I live in the Hoosier state.)
#edtechchat (Mondays at 8pm) Focus on educational technology.

Are you looking for some people to follow?  Everyone listed here are a good start of who should  be followed on Twitter.  As you follow these folks' posts, you will see more people to follow.  If you are looking for content specific people, ask it on Twitter, someone will help you.:
Jerry Blumengarten                                             edweb.net
ISTE                                                                 Kimberly Munoz
Edtechtalk                                                         Sara Hunter
Angela Maiers                                                   Larry Ferlazzo
Matt Miller                                                     
Michelle Green
George Couros
INeLearning
Chris Casal
Connected Educators Project
Shelly Terrell
Edudemic
Will Richardson
Kathy Schrock
Adam Bellow
Pam Moran
Richard Byrne
Erin Klein
SimpleK12
Vicki Davis

Implementing Tech Tuesdays

I decided my annual Professional Development goal was to start implementing a voluntary tech training for teachers each week to show them tools that can benefit their classrooms.  We are a 1:1 school, but often our teachers are leery about using the technology beyond just typing papers because they aren't well trained to utilize more.

I started my blog hoping they would read from time to time and find interest in something I talk about.  I also started some different bookmarks for them and an edtech edmodo page just for our staff.  I still hear from kids, however, that not all of their teachers use the computers.  This is a reason for concern.  I thought that perhaps doing  Tech Tuesday and sharing a simple tool at their own accord would be a better way to get some PD out there and also let them realize how simple it is to use technology in their classroom.  Every single teacher in a 1:1 school can find at least one tool to use that benefits kids. That is my goal with the Tech Tuesdays.

Here is what I decided to do.  We are a multi device school.  Lower grades use iPads and the upper grades use computers.  I needed to find tools to share that potentially could be used for both devices. I spent time looking at my pocket, my scoop.it and my Diigo and started checking out the different tweets I have favorited from some of the connected educators in my PLN.  I considered for a bit the tools that would best suit people from the beginning of the year and things that could be tossed in midway.  

I chose Edmodo as my premier training.  It's easy, crosses both devices and can be used by everyone.  I moved through my list and got the entire first semester planned.  I even cleared it with my superintendent to offer 1 PGP point for every three trainings. (I anticipate them only lasting 15-20 minutes because people aren't going to want to spend their entire prep period.  They are more than likely going to want to take the training and then spend a little time familiarizing themselves with it.

I am hoping that this attempt to train teachers to use tools will be a positive experience for everyone involved.  I am excited to see how many people take note and try new things! 

Why twitter is a good form of PD

For the last few years, I have heard numerous colleagues mention that twitter is the new PD.  It got me thinking about the reality of this and much fact can be found in the statement.  Twitter is the best form of Professional Development in so many ways.

I have quickly become a twitter-a-holic checking the stream several times a day, finding articles of interest, adding them to pocket or flipboard and referring to them for my blog posts, my staff trainings as well as my personal training.  I have learned so much from the PLN and others who are out there joining in the chats.  The professional development I have gained exceeds what I have paid for.  I attend a lot of conferences and PD.  Our school has a weekly PD where we cover various topics necessary for our classrooms.  While it is a good way to learn from our co-workers, I think learning from others in other places is also a great help. It shows us we are not alone.  I am the only French teacher in my school. Often, I don't have someone with whom I can collaborate and share ideas.  My French PLN is like PD everyday.  I am also the only librarian in my school and while I have a lot of local librarian colleagues, chatting via twitter with others is a great learning experience.  I have met so many wonderful people dealing with similar situations as me.  

Twitter as a PD is a tool everyone in education should try.  I recommended to some of my colleagues to join twitter just to learn from others.  I told them they don't have to tweet, they can just follow. A few have started and have reported back the cool things they are learning.   I have managed to learn about content, commom core, web 2.0 tools, authors, books, library science, my library software, screencasting, flipping a class, just to name a few.  It doesn't take much time.  Just a few minutes a day can provide anyone with a plethora of information that can benefit the educational environment. 

 I LOVE twitter and if we could convince every educator, administrator and school board member to take a peek, I think our educational world would be a very different place.

From the Archives: PD, Webinars and Web 2.0 tools

Let's face it, there are thousands of tools out there that can be used in the classroom, with kids or without, to make education better or worse, but, how on earth do we know what we should use and how to decide when to use it?  I have spent so many hours learning about things on my own until this past summer when I decided to embark on the free webinar.  I attended a lot of them and left with a huge amount of knowledge I wasn't expecting.  I decided my best bet is to share these fantastic sites with other educators so they might hop on board and try to dabble in the webinar method of professional development.
 So, let's look at some places that offer free and quality webinars.

SimpleK12.  First and foremost, SimpleK12 is a fantastic place to visit to learn about everything web 2.0.  The company has two methods to their use, first of all, everyone creates an account.  To access live webinars, you simply sign up using a free or paid version.  To access archived webinars, you must be a member.  Membership has a lot of perks, however.  You can get certificates for your attendance and access to thousands of free ebooks to assist you in the edtech journey.  I attended about 12 webinars through this site and folks, they get great people to do them.  I learned a lot about google, about polling sites, just to name a few.   They had a program called "A Day of Learning" that ran almost every Tuesday during the summer.  There were scads of free webinars those days. All of them are 30 minutes, you can usually join a few minutes before and stick around a little after to ask questions. I tried to attend as many as I could.  I am still registered for some upcoming ones, as the programs don't stop when school is in session.  This is a great site to check out.  It's worth the time because their webinars are great.

edweb.  Follett software company has donated to this organization.  It's set up a little like simplek12 with free webinars, etc.  But here, you join communities and find your lessons based on the communities you want to learn about.  Being a librarian, I have taken a lot of library webinars. The webinars are archived and you can access them after the fact. They run several series for educators that offer a lot of great services. Their speakers are often some that do simplek12 webinars as well.  I can honestly tell you, I have had nothing bad come from one of their webinars.  I have learned something in every one.

ASCD I can't lie, I have never taken one of their webinars but they have such an extensive collection that there has to be something for everyone. Most of them are geared toward administrators, but, as a teacher, it can't hurt to know policy and what's coming down the pipeline. They also have a massive archive of past webinars.

PBS Yes, the television station has webinars.  They offer an archive of classroom 2.0 techniques.  There are some good ideas here.

Eschoolnews I get a lot of email from eschoolnews but, sometimes a webinar pops up in the email.  I haven't tried one, but they exist and they are often free. Most of them are technology related.

Google Google has a training to be a google certified trainer.  You take the webinars at your own pace.  This is a great place to start if your district is adopting google for education as the platform.  There are hundreds of tools via google to use.  I am doing just the docs webinar.  It's six hours long but divided. Some are shorter.

Edmodo Last but not least, Edmodocon.  In August of each year, Edmodo has an online conference that teaches about edmodo.  If you can't make it, the conference is supposed to be archived.  It's a lot like a webinar.

This article just names a few places to attend free webinars.  There are a lot of other sites out there that offer similar opportunities. (Free online conferences, tutorials, web training, etc.)  A few suggestions: some send a lot of email.  You might set up a free account just for these sites.  Also, don't be afraid to ask questions.  Some places have archives and will send you links to see if you are interested in their site.  You might get a free webinar or two on a trial basis.

Attending a Conference, without Attending a Conference

I adore conferences.  I live for them, but often, I can't find the time or the money to attend.  Sometimes, it's hard to leave my kids.  Sometimes it's hard to do the sub plans for two days.  (Face it, as teachers we know it's easier to come to work sick than to do the planning and followup-  the same thing goes with a planned day or two off.)   Still, conferences are my passion.  I love to attend, I love to learn, I love finding new things and bringing them back.  I may have solved some of my conference woes via twitter.

Last week, the Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning (MACUL) hosted their annual conference in Detroit.   I'll be honest, I didn't know about it, but, the timing wouldn't lend for me to attend, either.  I came across the hashtag on several PLN tweets on twitter and started following it.  I had a blast following the conference.  I learned so many things interactively.   I saved about twenty sites (I didn't know before) to my pocket site, I retweeted some, I favorited a little and I even joined in some of the conversation.  It was fabulous.

The best approach to following a conference on twitter is use an app such as tweetdeck or hootsuite.  I prefer tweetdeck, myself.   It can be downloaded directly to your device or you can use it in a browser.  Chrome even has an app.   Pop it open, add a column for the hashtag and voilà, you are in business.   I also suggest you create an account at pocket. This is the new and improved version of read it later which was an innovative way to save links to refer to at a later time.   I do just that, I follow along, read the tweets, add the links of interest to my pocket.  I go back later and read them over, learn the site, check out the tool.

One of the gentlemen I follow on twitter named Tom Whitby (@tomwhitby) reminded me that one of the advantages of being a connected educator is virtual attendance at all the conferences.  Who said it has to be physical attendance?   I have attended conferences before the same way.  Sometimes I learn a lot, sometimes I learn very little.  It's defintely worth a shot, regardless.

What conferences are coming up that could be showing up on twitter?  There are a ton more if you visit the conference calendar website.

#ISTE2013
#NSTA2013
#ALA2013

Free Webinars and where to do them

As an LMS, I feel it is my duty to provide my students and staff with as much information as possible, and in order to do that, I realize that I am going to have to give a little time to learn as much as I can about a topic. I am finding the best way to explore things and learn more is via webinars.  There are a lot of organizations offering free webinars these days and I have come across a few where I get a lot of good information.  Some of them even provide archives for free where I can go anytime and refresh, or catch up if I miss out.

First of all, edweb.net.   Not sure if many are familiar with this site, but edweb was established through support from Follett for librarians.  It has grown into a much more intense site.  You can see live webinars and access the archives for free.  The content isn't just for librarians either.  I have seen everything from teaching with games to mobile devices and iPads.  There is a slew of information and it's all free.  I have seen some excellent webinars and I have learned a lot of valuable information.




Secondly, simplek12.   Simplek12 can be joined for free, but to access archives, you often have to have a membership.   I spent about five days last summer watching some of their live webinars.  The organization offers special programs, for example: there was a google day where the entire day focused on webinars about google, google docs, google chrome, google apps, etc.   I have seen days about web 2.0 tools and days about iPads for the classroom.  There are so many wonderful things on their site.  It's loaded with ideas and content.  The annual subscription payment allows you to access webinars in the archives.  Some of them even have eBooks that relate.   It's worth looking into the site, do some of the webinars, browse what is available and you will probably find justification for the site's fee.

These two sites are my go to places for webinars, but I have come across some other freebies as well:  School Library Journal and Library Journal do free ones from time to time.  Demco, the library supplier has a webinar series now. Even many DOE websites offer beneficial webinars that focus on our common core standards.

PD, Webinars and Web 2.0 Mastery

Let's face it, there are thousands of tools out there that can be used in the classroom, with kids or without, to make education better or worse, but, how on earth do we know what we should use and how to decide when to use it?  I have spent so many hours learning about things on my own until this past summer when I decided to embark on the free webinar.  I attended a lot of them and left with a huge amount of knowledge I wasn't expecting.  I decided my best bet is to share these fantastic sites with other educators so they might hop on board and try to dabble in the webinar method of professional development.
 So, let's look at some places that offer free and quality webinars.

SimpleK12.  First and foremost, SimpleK12 is a fantastic place to visit to learn about everything web 2.0.  The company has two methods to their use, first of all, everyone creates an account.  To access live webinars, you simply sign up using a free or paid version.  To access archived webinars, you must be a member.  Membership has a lot of perks, however.  You can get certificates for your attendance and access to thousands of free ebooks to assist you in the edtech journey.  I attended about 12 webinars through this site and folks, they get great people to do them.  I learned a lot about google, about polling sites, just to name a few.   They had a program called "A Day of Learning" that ran almost every Tuesday during the summer.  There were scads of free webinars those days. All of them are 30 minutes, you can usually join a few minutes before and stick around a little after to ask questions. I tried to attend as many as I could.  I am still registered for some upcoming ones, as the programs don't stop when school is in session.  This is a great site to check out.  It's worth the time because their webinars are great. 

edweb.  Follett software company has donated to this organization.  It's set up a little like simplek12 with free webinars, etc.  But here, you join communities and find your lessons based on the communities you want to learn about.  Being a librarian, I have taken a lot of library webinars. The webinars are archived and you can access them after the fact. They run several series for educators that offer a lot of great services. Their speakers are often some that do simplek12 webinars as well.  I can honestly tell you, I have had nothing bad come from one of their webinars.  I have learned something in every one.

ASCD I can't lie, I have never taken one of their webinars but they have such an extensive collection that there has to be something for everyone. Most of them are geared toward administrators, but, as a teacher, it can't hurt to know policy and what's coming down the pipeline. They also have a massive archive of past webinars.

PBS Yes, the television station has webinars.  They offer an archive of classroom 2.0 techniques.  There are some good ideas here.

Eschoolnews I get a lot of email from eschoolnews but, sometimes a webinar pops up in the email.  I haven't tried one, but they exist and they are often free. Most of them are technology related.

Google Google has a training to be a google certified trainer.  You take the webinars at your own pace.  This is a great place to start if your district is adopting google for education as the platform.  There are hundreds of tools via google to use.  I am doing just the docs webinar.  It's six hours long but divided. Some are shorter.

Edmodo Last but not least, Edmodocon.  In August of each year, Edmodo has an online conference that teaches about edmodo.  If you can't make it, the conference is supposed to be archived.  It's a lot like a webinar.

This article just names a few places to attend free webinars.  There are a lot of other sites out there that offer similar opportunities. (Free online conferences, tutorials, web training, etc.)  A few suggestions: some send a lot of email.  You might set up a free account just for these sites.  Also, don't be afraid to ask questions.  Some places have archives and will send you links to see if you are interested in their site.  You might get a free webinar or two on a trial basis.