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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

At the start of each year we arrive back from our break hopefully rested and energised. The new year brings many new opportunities including new students, new team members and new teaching programmes. We begin again the climb up the hill with a fresh group of learners arriving at our doors full of excitement who will rely on us to meet their learning needs in the year ahead. All of this means we are at risk of starting the year with a certain level of panic. There is so much to do, our students are not accustomed to our routines, we don't know each other well, there are parents to meet, assessments to be done and before we know it we are back to being busy. 

Destinationitis is the tendency to focus more on where you are going than where you are. You will frequently see groups of trekkers suffering from destinationitis. So focused are they on making it to the end of the trek or the next rest stop that they storm through the wilderness oblivious to the beauty that surrounds them. Destinationitis similarly afflicts educators but here the consequences are borne by the students.

"When it comes to the first day of school, what you want is a rock solid activity you can enjoy from the background. Or is that just me? There's enough stress around that first day already, no need to stand in the spotlight trying to hold everyone's attention for forty-five minutes. So today I have a quick and fun activity for you (apologies for the lack of a podcast this week, I've been really sick all week, so we're going short and sweet today!). Why not try hexagonal identity one-pagers? While I still love the name tent one-pagers I've always pushed for on day one, you can do a fun version of them by having kids share about themselves on a hexagon shaped one-pager instead. The extension here is that they can then connect their work to the work of the rest of the class in an epic web up on the wall."

"Laurie Santos wants to help teenagers, and the rest of the world, feel happier. Santos, the psychology professor behind Yale University's most popular course, recently launched a free six-week version of the class aimed at teenagers, called "The Science of Well-Being for Teens." It was developed to address rising rates of anxiety, depression and suicide rates for kids between ninth and 12th grade, Santos says. Lesson No. 1, she preaches in one of the course's pre-recorded lectures: Our brains lie to us about what makes us happy."

"Everyone is a filmmaker. Learn how to be one here!"

"Makerspaces have made headlines recently. Several weeks ago New York City hosted the World Maker Faire. The White House had its first Maker Faire this summer, and schools and libraries across the country are installing these spaces. It is certainly tempting to start thinking about all the amazing tools you could put into your makerspace. If you know anything about Makers, you are probably thinking that you need a CNC machine, a 3-D printer, Dremels for everyone and a laser cutter since they are the gateway tool for making things. But buying a bunch of tools without first stopping to think about how they will be integrated into the culture and curriculum of your school is a recipe for a dusty and underused workshop. From my experience installing makerspaces in several dozen schools, I've developed a process that helps you think through your makerspace and how it fits into the culture and curriculum of your school. Skipping this process, or one like it, will almost certainly result in tension, missed teaching opportunities, and overspending."

Online classes may be a relatively young instructional practice for K-12 schools, but experts already generally agree on one point: Research shows that virtual schooling can be as good as, or better than, classes taught in person in brick-and-mortar schools.

"We are a mobile & web platform that effortlessly allows you to record and upload audio for your friends, family or the rest of the world to hear."

"FacebookTwitter26 If you're about to head off to holiday break, congratulations! You've made it! You deserve to kick back, play with friends and family, and recover from the hectic start of the school year. But after you've had your hot cocoa, opened up all your presents, and realize school is resuming soon … what then? Don't let that wave of panic hit you like it did last year. Get prepared for the new year by enrolling in half a dozen edtech courses from Skills Genius. It's an online learning platform the editors of Daily Genius are developing. We want you to help us kick the tires of some of our early courses and are making all 6 edtech courses totally FREE for the month of December."

"When I was a new teacher, I believed I had to give 110% in everything I did. I thought that the best teachers were the ones who arrived first and left last. I was a busy teacher, taking on all kinds of committee work and saying yes to every project. But then I had a moment when I decided to "break up with busy.""

"Perceptive adults and savvy students know that saying something doesn't make it a fact, and neither does publishing information on the internet. But how to know which websites are sharing accurate information? As middle and high school students conduct research or access the internet on their own time, they need to be able to determine the accuracy of what they're reading by reviewing websites with a critical eye."

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