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"Please, No More Professional Development! By Peter DeWitt on April 17, 2015 8:10 AM Today's guest blog is written by Kristine Fox (Ed.D), Senior Field Specialist/Research Associate at Quaglia Institute for Student Aspirations (QISA). She is a former teacher and administrator who has passion for teacher learning and student voice. Kris works directly with teachers and leaders across the country to help all learners reach their fullest potential. Peter DeWitt recently outlined why "faculty meetings are a waste of time." Furthering on his idea, most professional development opportunities don't offer optimal learning experiences and the rare teacher is sitting in her classroom thinking "I can't wait until my district's next PD day." When I inform a fellow educator that I am a PD provider, I can read her thoughts - boring, painful, waste of time, useless, irrelevant - one would think my job is equal to going to the dentist (sorry to my dentist friends). According to the Quaglia Institute and Teacher Voice and Aspirations International Center's National Teacher Voice Report only 54% percent of teachers agree "Meaningful staff development exists in my school." I can't imagine any other profession being satisfied with that number when it comes to employee learning and growth. What sense does it make for the science teacher to spend a day learning about upcoming English assessments? Or, for the veteran teacher to learn for the hundredth time how to use conceptual conflict as a hook. Why does education insist everyone attend the same type of training regardless of specialization, experience, or need? As a nod to the upcoming political campaigns and the inevitable introduction of plans with lots of points, here is my 5 Point Plan for revamping professional development. 5 Point Plan Point I - Change the Term: Semantics Matter We cannot reclaim the term Professional Development for teachers. It has a long, baggage-laden history of conformity that does not

"A year and a half ago I decided to implement a job-embedded growth model at the suggestion of some of my teacher leaders. They desperately sought time during the school day to engage in professional growth opportunities, learn how to integrate Web 2.0 tools, and develop their own Personal Learning Networks (PLN's). After some thinking and looking at various options inherent in the current schedule, I decided to cut all non-instructional duties in half to create a Professional Growth Period (PGP). The inspiration for this idea came from Google's 80/20 Innovation Model where engineers are encouraged to take 20 percent of their time to work on something company-related that interests them personally. Duties that we cut are now assumed by me and my administrative team."

"Some time ago, the school I was working in decided to move to longer lessons in order to allow more time for in-depth learning, and to solve some practical problems related to rooming and movement around the school. Initially, these lessons became doubles - two hours - and eventually, the school moved to a three lesson day of 1hr 50 mins per lesson. Many schools are doing the same thing. The problem, though, is that you can't just roll two lessons into one. You have to start rethinking the way you conceptualise a lesson from start to finish."

What should our goal for student thinking be? How do we scaffold student thinking in ways that are meaningful while developing autonomy and encouraging students to think effectively when we are not there? What would success with thinking strategies look like? These were the challenging questions that Mark Church presented to teachers at the most recent 'Cultures of Thinking Teach Meet' hosted by Masada College.

"Computer coding is becoming an increasingly popular activity for today's technology oriented kids. Even kids who do not plan to grow up and become computer programmers are enjoying the control and autonomy that coding delivers. Coding encourages kids to be creative, think logically and develop critical thinking skills that they will need throughout their lives. The skills young students develop through these early coding experiences can also help them to succeed in their education. With coding, kids get to try out new solutions to problems and tinker around with what can happen in various situations. The following seven visually oriented and child-friendly apps can help to teach even the youngest children how to code."

Incredible cache of research projects and activity centered around technology applications to enhance learner autonomy , communication, and furthering education via the raffordances of technology.

"At Albemarle County Public Schools, maker education fosters student autonomy, ignites student interest, and empowers students to embrace their own learning."

" It is a myth that we operate under a set of oppressive bureaucratic constraints. In reality, teachers have a great deal of autonomy in the work they chose to do in their classrooms. In most cases it is our culture that provides the constraints. For individual teachers, trying out new practices and pedagogy is risky business and both our culture, and our reliance on hierarchy, provide the ideal barriers for change not to occur. As Pogo pointed out long ago, "we have met the enemy and it is us." http://www.cea-ace.ca/blog/brian-harrison/2013/09/5/stop-asking-permission-change "

"Albemarle County Public Schools, Maker education fosters student autonomy, ignites student interest, and empowers students to embrace their own learning."

From: The networked student model for construction of personal learning environments: Balancing teacher control and student autonomy by Wendy Drexler University of Florida http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet26/drexler.html

" Pete Jones"

"In 1962, Princeton psychologist Sam Glucksberg performed an experiment based on the classic candle problem test. He presented two groups with the same task, but with different rewards: One would receive monetary rewards based on speed, while the other was told only to complete the task as quickly as possible. The results were counterintuitive. The latter group performed the task on average three and a half times faster than the first. Why? As career analyst Dan Pink (Watch: The puzzle of motivation) has learned, traditional motivators like money can be far less effective than intrinsic motivators like autonomy, mastery and purpose. Indeed, productivity itself is a mystery we still struggle to unravel. Below, find seven must-reads (and a playlist) that look closely at how work works, provided by Pink for his TED Talk."

"Erica is 23. She has a beautiful, neutral face and speaks with a synthesised voice. She has a degree of autonomy - but can't move her hands yet. Hiroshi Ishiguro is her 'father' and the bad boy of Japanese robotics. Together they will redefine what it means to be human and reveal that the future is closer than we might think."

"In recent years, there has been a push to introduce coding and computational thinking in early childhood education, and robotics is an excellent tool to achieve this. However, the integration of these fundamental skills into formal and official curriculums is still a challenge and educators needs pedagogical perspectives to properly integrate robotics, coding and computational thinking concepts into their classrooms. Thus, this study evaluates a "coding as a playground" experience in keeping with the Positive Technological Development (PTD) framework with the KIBO robotics kit, specially designed for young children. The research was conducted with preschool children aged 3-5 years old (N = 172) from three Spanish early childhood centers with different socio-economic characteristics and teachers of 16 classes. Results confirm that it is possible to start teaching this new literacy very early (at 3 years old). Furthermore, the results show that the strategies used promoted communication, collaboration and creativity in the classroom settings. The teachers also exhibited autonomy and confidence to integrate coding and computational thinking into their formal curricular activities, connecting concepts with art, music and social studies. Through the evidence found in this study, this research contributes with examples of effective strategies to introduce robotics, coding and computational thinking into early childhood classrooms."

"As parents, we all want to raise kids who are smart and focused, especially in a world where digital distraction seems to be inescapable. (Even tech titans like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates have strategies for limiting their children's screen time.) Why? Because in the future, there will be two kinds of people in the world: Those who let their attention and lives be controlled and coerced by others and those who proudly call themselves "indistractable." Becoming indistractable is the most important skill for the 21st century - and it's one that many parents fail to teach their kids. After years of studying the intersection of psychology, technology and how we engage with it, one of the biggest mistakes I see parents making is not empowering their kids with the autonomy to control their own time. Allowing them to do so is a tremendous gift; even if they fail from time to time, failure is part of the learning process. Parents need to understand that it's okay to put their kids in charge, because it's only when they learn to practice monitoring their own behavior that they learn how to manage their own time and attention. Teach them at a young age"

"Building the independence of learners through thoughtful uses of technology"