#RuralEdChat Archive
#RuralEdChat is a chat that focuses on the needs of the rural educator. This chat has been revised by Tammy Neil (@MathNeil), John Martin (@edventures) and Natalee Stotz (@nataleestotz).
Tuesday February 16, 2016
Welcome to tonight's as we talk about how we track our learning journey through personalized PD. https://t.co/DlZSKWX92M
On behalf of , & , I welcome you to tonight's !
Theresa Carter, joining from northern panhandle of . Blended Learning Specialist for
. Thanks for swinging by . Can you tell us more about your role?
I'm John from Sandwich, NH where we've gone from an icy snow day to 53F, pouring rain & 50mph winds! Hoping the power holds!
Yay for ! I’m excited to be here and to talking about personalized PD! Natalee from Maine; HS English, Curriculum, & PD
Wind seems to have died down a bit here. At least I can’t hear it as consistently anymore!
Tiffany from Indiana. Elearning Coach. Excited to chat about PD.
. It is getting quieter outside here as well. But earlier, yikes!
You bet. We have statewide blended learning consortium. Coach role, support, pedagogy. Intrsted in other PD models
. Hi there Tiffany, glad you're here!
Hi, ! I'm skipping the Y tonight to catch up on schoolwork - happy to be able to join in with y'all tonight as I do!
Thank you! Nice to be here
Great to see you again Bill!
Tonight we'll talk about what you experience now, how we might change it, & how we track & sell it to our admins.
Happy to see you, too! With Rock Band going until 7:00, it's hard to fit in both exercise *and* time after. :-(
Hi, all! Kelly, biology in northwestern NC
Dropping in late, I'm Irene from NJ
Come warm up for your chat at right now as we’re talking about tracking !
Q1: How do your districts handle and/or acknowledge personalized PD?
Alright, the crew grows some more! Welcome !
A1 My district is open to the conversation on personalized PD. My school is already doing, thanks to
A1: My school encourages it, but that’s about it. We have access to some great resources through
A1 We have a pool of PD$; teachers can make individual requests to the school to cover costs of conferences etc.
A1 We're also happy to hear reports about what individual teachers are learning (and require it if school $ is used).
That’s great! Our school got a grant this year so we have more $$. Definitely helps!
Generally tracked via college credits, transcripts. I'd love to explore . Use of growing
Is time provided in faculty meetings for Ts to share their learning?
A1 Finally, in a formal evaluation year, teachers can set personal goals and develop individual plans to ensure/check progress.
A1. Myself & a team of Ts work together to provide after school sessions. I have very few Ts who reach out to find their own PD
Grant funding covers some teacher PD in our area as well. Great community support
Yup; most recently, a teacher showed her lesson planning and analysis procedure as part of a course she's taking.
A.1: Tracked via credit hours. Needs to be more personalized, competency-based. I want to explore
Why do you think that is? I see a similar things at my school.
A1 As far as renewal credit goes, principals can make personalized PD "official" by creating a session in the tracking system
In my schools, we allow Ts flexibility in what they choose as long as they can align it to district goals.
We need to teach pre-service teachers to access PD this way. Do you think it's intuitive for in-service teachers?
I believe Ts already feel they have too much on their plate.If they dont get paid then they will not seek it out
What system do you use? I think an LMS would be a great platform
PD w/ teacher choice | Variety | Avoid one size fits all | Not top-down decision made on topic.
There are options offered
I do think so. We need Ts to understand the importance of continuing their education.
. Perhaps not intuitive but trainable! In-service, pre-service Ts need scaffolding here.
What do you use for badging platform? has one I'd love to check out
currently moving from google slides to a personal weebly. looking for a larger platform. Need someone to work with
True. Everyone is very busy! https://t.co/0LyVMdrSg2
I believe Ts already feel they have too much on their plate.If they dont get paid then they will not seek it out
Although, learning and getting better at what I do is very important to me; I make the time.
we use CATS Credit Accrual Tracking System through IBM Lotus -
in district now.. Wanting to take it to a larger scale..
A1 Come to think of it, I just did a school-supported PD Day today! A superb Multicultural Educators Forum at . :-)
. Any thoughts on what you'd like to use?
T's need to see that these changes need to take the place of--no rest of top of--other tasks
Not exactly.. I would like it to offer school corps to sign up and the site would be accesible to all teachers.
I am in the beginning process wanting to develop something bigger than me right now.. :)
And many times new learning helps make current tasks obsolete or more efficient! https://t.co/lber1Rxjv2
T's need to see that these changes need to take the place of--no rest of top of--other tasks
We are in the process of developing a platform where are teachers can create badges for others. That defines personalized PD
Wow--I should have proofed that! ha. I meant "not rest on top of" other tasks. Sorry
. Indeed! Plus it develops a cadre of local pros you can fall back on.
Is anyone using Google Classroom for organizing or tracking PD?
. That would be an interesting connection! I wonder if we could embed a badging platform into Classroom for PD?
Absolutely. Good webinar through this week on badging. I will look for archive
. No worries, I’m used to reading what someone means and not what they wrote!
. I know is using it to teach some PD sessions.
Do you have a framework for what constitutes a badge? A set of competencies?
. Yes please! And thank you!
Did you track or organize?
Interesting idea! We don't - yet. We offer faculty a variety of methods. I chose an online e-portfolio.
. There are platforms for doing that with students, for example uses badges. Why not with teachers for PD.
. Portfolios combined with reflective practice are powerful learning tools!
EPortfolios, yet another thing I’m still trying to learn about to use effectively! https://t.co/cWQRINI7UY
Interesting idea! We don't - yet. We offer faculty a variety of methods. I chose an online e-portfolio.
used badges at Summer Institute. Big hit! Badging is embedded into the platform for Ss and Ts
. Definitely looks promising!
has badges in Buzz, their mobile platform. Possibly used for T's?
Anyone have suggestions for scaffolding & getting teachers out of the sit-and-get mindset? Recharging is good sometimes, but..
Some of it is empowerment, but approaches to PD can be a stepping stone to self-direction.
is the next idea I am gong to visit with my staff. I have some Ts that would really appriciate it..
As folks realize that the power is back in their hands, they may choose better options.
Compliance hasn't stopped w/ Ss. Ts have been taught to be compliant too over the past few years.
. For the first time out, it might be good to seed the idea ahead of time so you have some traction.
I work with one of the co-founders of Idaho so we are headed there, too
Q2: What do your districts/states require for recertification, in many cases the lead driver for PD?
Tonight I messaged my principal about getting Ts involved in Twitter chatting. (We don't tweet.) Much to learn from others!
That is a good idea. I was going to send out a video explaining the idea of an
Hey Joining in late but really appreciate all the conversation here.
Yes--it's a mindset change for both sets of learners. I want to be part of the change :)
I wish mine would more also.
Hey friends, would you take a moment to support a great roaming resource for this school community? https://t.co/X5QFfm4A5y
. Hi Robin! How was the book fair?
Hi , how was the bookfair?
Leading a book study on "What Connected Educators Do Differently" and we had our first last week. Was fun!
A2 Well... independent schools don't require certification, and most of us who arrive with it don't pay to keep it updated.
A2: We’re required to have a certain number of contact hours or CEUs for decertification.
This may have been covered already but developed a cool team-based gamefied PD challenge.
Um, that should be RE-certifications! https://t.co/0zB2TB9ZvK
A2: We’re required to have a certain number of contact hours or CEUs for decertification.
A2: NH requires 75 CEUs for 1st cert, 30 additional for each cert beyond.
A2 The upside of that is, beyond inservice days (which we do pretty well), teachers only do the PD they want. :-)
New to Twitter chat. Now 5-6 on my calendar each wk. Don't make them all, but I'm recharging almost daily now!
A2. My teachers get paid $500 to complete 12 hours of PD a semester. It is not required.
hey Natalee! It was busy tonight! Lots of traffic from p-t conferences. Many happy book purchases!
. It is amazing what I learn from so many different minds.
I am just trying to get started in more also.. It really can take over your life. haha
. While not required, it’s encouraged by our school. Especially for accreditation. https://t.co/cbeJeRFsTr
A2 Well... independent schools don't require certification, and most of us who arrive with it don't pay to keep it updated.
. Yes it can! I co-mod this and mod . But it is so worthwhile!
I knew he'd answer if we knocked politely! Thanks, Josh. Are u using a badge system at all w/this?
A.2: ID requires a number of credit hours for recert. We just passed mastery-learning legislation, so our PD should match.
Q3: Beyond the district requirements, how do YOU track your PD & learning?
I am not. We have the top 3 rewards for teams & individuals...wish we had a reward threshold though
A3. Every night doing Twitter Chats.
Interesting! Our accreditation is done by NEASC, and I don't think certification affects it much if at all.
A3: I haven’t really thought about tracking beyond what I need to report for re-cert. Probably should be more reflective!
A3: I used to blog. A lot. But for some reason I stopped. I miss it. Should probably start again.
badges might be for version 2.0; could honor achievements over time? Or cumulative PD?
A.3: Oddly enough, immersed in digital learning, I track mine w/ paper, pencil ha
A3 Track my personal PD? Hmm. I suppose my contributions to the school blog are some sort of public record/reflection.
A2: K-8 req 8 CEUs: 3 Content, 3 Literacy, 2 General. All Other Educators req 8 CEUs: 3 Content, 5 General.
. We don’t have any accred. yet, hoping to move toward joint ACSI/NEASC. Think we need certain % of certified teachers.
Already thinking about it. I do think after this month ends though I might take March off
. I have blog with a cool name that I like. It gets quite dusty. I need to blog more, too! https://t.co/m042V4cVcK
A3: I used to blog. A lot. But for some reason I stopped. I miss it. Should probably start again.
A3: I create PDP goals that revolve around what I'm doing or want to do more of (Tchats).
. Yes, breathing is good for the soul!
A.3 Part 2: Informally, I'm pretty connected, and I use , to keep track of things I learn, want to learn
Ah. That probably comes from ACSI, not NEASC. Good luck meeting that goal! It's a useful process if done well.
. That does sound familiar. It’ll be hard, but will be very good for us!
A3: I used to add confs/trainings/ other PD to my vita, but when it went from 6 to 10 pages, had to give it up.
Nothing like a school requirement to blog in your job description to keep productivity up! ;-)
is getting ready to wrap up in just a few minutes; did discover tonight there is a chat going on right now!
. Ha! My PD would be longest part! I love to learn!
Thanks for the connecting and ideas :) I enjoyed participating
. Glad you could join us!
Thank you all for swinging by tonight for ! I hope you learned something, I know that I did!
Great discussion tonight, !
If I included Twitter chats, I'd spend all my time updating my PD and wear out my fingers!
