Am Fenster, 1922 by Hans Kammerer
In keeping with a limited budget for professional development, the question about relevant choices came up. The conversation that arose centred on proven relevance for my role as teacher librarian, and in terms of being in line with we’re doing at school. I wanted to go to Gary Stager’s part in a leadership seminar series. Here is an extract about the seminar –
For school leaders, the immediate challenge is to create productive contexts for learning where there are greater opportunities for inquiry, project-based learning and student leadership, regardless of gender, ethnicity or socio-economic status.
The relevance of professional development is an interesting topic for conversation especially for me as a teacher librarian. My role is not subject centred, and I find that I usually have to explain the types of things that I do, and the types of PD which might be useful. I understand that a limited budget forces the question of relevance, and might lead to the opinion that Gary’s talk is not specifically targeted to my role or even what we are doing at our school. It might be reasonable to expect that the chosen professional development session should be specifically targeted at what we do in the library.
Why does this not sit right with me?
As much as I appreciate and enjoy professional development opportunities related to my profession (teacher librarian) – and there is so much variety here since this role has an impressive array of hats – what I love most is an opportunity to be stretched, challenged and even surprised; to be reminded about the basic core of our jobs at school – LEARNING! – and to interact with people from different walks of life.
People who attend Teachmeets will know what I’m talking about. We hear from educators in different roles – primary, secondary, tertiary, from principals, heads of elearning, IT, program coordinators at museums, non-school libraries, and the such. You get what I’m trying to say. There is so much to learn from each and every speaker, regardless of their role, and that’s precisely because of the diversity of experiences. Sometimes a primary teacher will have a unique approach to teaching which a secondary teacher will not have thought of. I know that I have so many connections and ideas while I’m listening to these people. And the conversation following is just as valuable. How sad, how 2-dimensional, to receive professional development which is carefully measured, predictable and safe.
What would I be like if I stayed in my library, if I stayed in my school, my staff room, my neighbourhood?
Thinking about evaluation
Contributed by Darren Kuropatwa in Flickr Group Great quotes about learning and change (pool).
I’ve been collaborating with Marie Coleman (Florida) and Sinikka Laakio-Whybrow (Finland) through Flickr to bring our students together in a photo-journal project. Yesterday I interviewed some of the students for feedback and, once I figure out how to edit these avi files, I’ll be sharing these very interesting interviews here.
This has been cross-posted from Through global lenses.
Our Flickr project has come to an end, and I haven’t even been able to keep up with what’s been happening.
Nevertheless!
I’m not going to let the opportunity for reflection, evaluation and showcasing escape. It will be done – eventually.
This week I hope to start asking students and teachers for feedback. This will take the form of questioning on the ning, as well as recording interviews which I hope to start today.
Here are some questions for student evaluation:
1. What did you enjoy the most about the Flickr project?
2. What, in your opinion, didn’t work for you?
3. How could this project have been improved or done differently?
4. What sorts of things have you learned?
5. What was the most valuable thing you learned?
6. What do you enjoy about connecting with students from other countries?
7. How important is the photo in the writing assignment?
8. What did you enjoy about other people’s photos?
9. What did you learn about taking photos?
10. What was your favourite/What were your favourite weekly theme(s)?
11. What was the most interesting thing you learned from another student?
12. What have you learned about other cultures?
13. What sorts of things do you have in common with students of other cultures?
14. What do you think are the main differences between you and students of other cultures?
15. Would you like to visit/live in the USA or Finland? How has the project influenced your answer?
Some questions to ask teachers:
1. Did you enjoy the project? What were the highlights?
2. What did you expect from the project at the outset?
3. Did the project meet/exceed your expectations? In what ways?
4. How did you find the collaboration? online/global aspect; time differences; school term differences, etc.
5. What difficulties did you experience during the project? What worked and what didn’t?
6. How would you do the project differently if you did it again?
7. What do you think students gained from the project?
8. In your opinion, how important a role did the photo play in the writing?
9. Was this project an enhancement for students? Which ones in particular (were there any surprises)?
I’ll be responding to these questions myself because I think that an evaluation is the only way to truly learn from something. Some of these things are only half-formulated in my mind, so this exercise should help me think more deeply and define what I think.
So what does the quote – If all your kids do is learn to read and write, they won’t be literate – mean to me?
There’s a bigger answer to this, but for now I’ll give the smaller answer, the answer relevant to the objectives and outcomes of this project.
The learning that has taken place here has been learning with and from other people – students who share interests and passions with each other regardless of their geographical location.
Instead of learning from a book, a fact sheet or article provided by the teacher, our students have learned from each other.
Their learning has been sparked by curiosity, a desire to connect with peers, natural dialogue, and an opportunity to share and be creative within a stuctured but relaxed framework.
They have learned by asking, by reading each others’ contributions – within an online community.
They have done this with respect for each other and through positive comments. This is much more than just ‘reading and writing’.
More about this later….
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