Day 11: Summer Plans for Professional Development
My summer PD plans are multi step.
1. Take time off. Like, almost a full month.
Check!
We went on a trip to California for a week, and I left my computer at home. Before the trip I focused on preparing for the vacation, and for at least a week after I spent it organizing photos and doing laundry and just lounging around the house after a very busy itinerary in California. This resulted in 3 weeks of PD geared towards relaxation. I don't do that enough, so I will consider it PD.
2. Blog with Students
Every Monday I have logged in and added a new post for our bloggers to respond to, and I am approving the blog posts as they come in. I am doing this with our principal, +Karen Marino, two of our teachers ( +Lucy Carrera and +Virginia Burdett), and 4th and 5th grade students. We read Esperanza Rising in June, and currently we are reading Chomp. El Deafo will be our book for August. I consider this PD because I am reading more books and practicing blogging with kids to better utilize the tool in the fall. Here is a link to our blog if you are interested:
http://kidblog.org/HiawathaSummerReadingBlog/
3. Conferences and Workshops
So far, I have only technically gone to 1 conference, but it was a 3 day one on Dual Language. I signed up for a bunch of ones that my district in hosting this summer during our iLearn Summer 2015 calendar (https://ilearnsummer2015.sched.org). I signed up for a bunch and am teaching a few sessions on mentoring and book clubs. We are pretty lucky to have to PD opportunities that we have in D100, with a huge thanks to +Marilyn McManus for organizing the PD Committee in our efforts to create a well balanced offering of options.
4. Twitter
Oh Twitter, how I missed you for a few weeks. Like I said, I took almost a month off of school related things. The first thing I re-engaged in was Twitter. Right now, I am just doing some of my favorite Twitter chats and checking it when I get a notification. I'll call that summer Twitter PD. My favorite Twitter chat is #g2great on Thursday nights. Check it out!
5. Blogging Challenge
I will consider participating in this blogging challenge professional development, because Michelle has me writing {almost} everyday and reflecting on my teaching. PD at its finest! Thanks, +Michelle Brezek.
6. Enjoy my Time Off with my Family
OK, so this might not be Professional Development, but it is Personal Development. So, it counts as PD in my opinion.
I love your post, from the "in progress" to the completed items. I love, love, love that you are blogging and reading with students. I think that there's a reading specialist trapped inside of me and that one day soon she will come out!
ReplyDeleteLeah, you mention so many important things, like taking time for yourself! I'm behind in my reading of books and I think I'm going to unplug when I go to FLorida. I love tech so much, but we do need to step back sometimes!
ReplyDeleteBlogging with kids and for yourself, totally PD! I wish I would have known you wanted to do the IWP - Jennie and I got in on scholarship and it's only $50 for us! Next year, you should get some friends and do it - pretty sure they hold it every summer!
Checking out your Hiawatha blog next! :-)
I love that time off is PD!!! The rest looks good also!
ReplyDeleteAlyce