Sunday, July 19, 2009

Putting the PD Before the IT

As I do all too often I checked up on the Tweets of the day for a little PD (professional development). I'm still working on that thing called balance. I think I still fit into all of Jeff Utecht's stages of PLN adoption. Working on getting to stage 5, but I'm not there yet.
A colleague of mine "tweeted" something that hit home with me and I couldn't help share it with the Bolton staff. I wanted to share it here as well because the point was to put the "PD" before the "IT."
Paul Bogush, an eighth grade teacher in CT, posted Dear Administrator on his Blog called Blogush as a response to Scott McLeod's challenge to “blog about whatever you like related to effective school technology leadership: successes, challenges, reflections, needs, wants, etc.” The challenge was issued for LeadershipDay09, an event in its 3rd year that has been created to help education leaders (adminstrators, etc.) get and handle on
  • what it means to prepare students for the 21st century;
  • how to recognize, evaluate, and facilitate effective technology usage by students and teachers;
  • what appropriate technology support structures (budget, staffing, infrastructure) look like or how to implement them;
  • how to utilize modern technologies to facilitate communication with internal and external stakeholders;
  • the ways in which learning technologies can improve student learning outcomes;
  • how to utilize technology systems to make their organizations more efficient and effective;
and so on…
Click here for more on Leadership Day 2009. It's an interesting concept!

As 2Teach21 went through their three-day kickoff training last week I thought about them often, and I knew they were putting the PD before the IT, so that when the IT is there, installed in their classrooms, they know what to do with it, and why to do it. I don't think we should underestimate the importance of that step. That's also what has been foremost on my mind as I begin anew at Kimmel Farm Elementary. If educators aren't lifelong learners, how can we expect our students to strive to be?