Personal Learning Plan
Why am I here?
It was about nine years ago when I began to feel old. I was teaching with a couple of women who were 12 years younger than I. I thought I was pretty good on a computer. I had email. I could “surf”. I used the word processor. (Spell check became a life savor.) Then I met Ange and Olivia. Oh sure, I had years on them in the classroom, but they ran rings around me on the computer. I was constantly amazed at what they could do and learned what I could when they had the patience to work with me. (I only crashed the school’s reporting system once.)
Time marched on, I bought better computers and more toys. When I started working at JIS I team taught with Mike Hughes. He had just finished his second (?) year of the MAET program. He started working on the kids day one, explaining to parents that not having a laptop in his class wouldn’t mean that their kids wouldn’t learn, but having one would certainly enhance what they were learning. He made me play along as well. I set up my reading blog, responded to the kids, tried out voice thread, you name it, if Mike said do it, I did. I learned just enough to know that I had a boatload to learn! Mike started hounding me, “You should do this Dana. I’ll send your name to Leigh.” Then he got Bindu on board to harass me as well. My wheels were turning. Other factors were added to the mix:
I took all this,dropped in a little professional reading and decided I needed to do something if I wanted to stay in the education biz
Technology is not going away. I use it daily. It has made the world a much smaller place, especially if one has access to it. I accept that I am not a digital native, however, I believe I can still help facilitate digital learning. I compare it to second language leaners. They are too often viewed in terms of what they cannot do instead of in terms of all the knowledge they bring with them, in their first language. I have been around a while, seen and experienced a few things (had some 8 track tapes). That knowledge is useful in my digital journey.
I am here because I like learning. I like my job. I believe that I am doing my students a disservice if I don’t teach them how to use all the resources available to them. If I want to prepare them for the world they are living in, I need to be facilitating their use of technology. I’d also like to last a little longer before the zombies get me.
What do I hope to learn?
I want to be able to go back to my school with a handful of tech tools that I know well enough to teach them to my co-workers. The list has begun with Glogster, Jing, iMovies, Weebly, Picsa, Wordle and wikispaces. I hope, through the creations of my various projects this summer, I will learn enough about using these tools to be effective at sharing them and supporting their use with students.
Specifically, I plan to create a series of “presentations” to be used to inform and educate the administration, teachers, and parents about the importance of Mother Tongue development and maintenance.
I plan to achieve this goal through the creation of the mulitigenre project. I can clearly see various digital texts being very effective for my goal. I have identified a repetend to tie the texts together. I need to research some to identify the most effective genres overall.
What specific goals do I have for the integration of technology in my teaching/professional role? How will I achieve them?
My goal is to use TPACK in my planning. I have one class that is “mine”, I team teach for the rest of my timetable.
For my class, I mostly plan alone, but may be doing some planning with the new teachers in my department. I am teaching academic English, for grade 6 and maybe with some grade 7 students. For the EAP (English for Academic Purposes) class we focus on academic reading and writing. With what I have learned about “new literacies”, I think that I need to be planning for literacy instruction in a broader manner.
I have been mulling over the thinking strategies for reading that are explicitly taught by our team, and how to apply them to new literacies. I want to use more on-line material when working on reading and writing. We have a variety of options for writing on-line. The students will all have a google email so the whole google suite is open to us. We also use Moodle quite a bit at each grade level. I want to experiment a bit more with wikis and will have the students create their own online space where they can write. I want them to use it as a space to create a digital portfolio of their work.
For the team teaching, I will share the website that I developed for this class. I think the team will be interested in it. I am also able to plan with each of the teachers and can bring ideas for tech integration to the table. I am lucky to be working with people who are very open to technology and new ways to use it. We have already talked about ways that we will integrate technology into our teaching, but I am sure they are not familiar with TPACK. That is one idea I can share with them and demonstrate my thinking for them. I hope to get my team teachers on board with the TPACK thinking.
How will my professional practice be different in five years, after I’ve completed my Master’s in Educational Technology? What long-range changes do I expect/hope to see in myself as a technology integrator and leader?
I really hope to see myself using tech seamlessly in my planning and teaching. I would like to be an advocate for using tech effectively in school and for understanding and teaching new literacies. I think I will need to always keep myself current on new technologies as they come up in order to understand what literacies will be needed to access the technology. This will be a challenge, but one I believe I need to take on. Making a point of keeping up with the technology leaders who I am following now will be important.
I hope to be a co-worker who others feel they can go to for support in planning their lessons to integrate technology. I generally have a good rapport with my co-workers and hope that I will be able to, little by little, help them grow in their comfort levels in terms of using and integrating technology. I can see myself leading PD for staff, both informally and formally.
How will I use the Internet to create and sustain a personal learning network that informs my pedagogical practice in long term?
I have already joined a variety of different social networks, (Twitter, Linkn, Facebook), and through them have found others who I want to follow or connect with to enhance my understanding and knowledge of educational technology.
I am a part of a couple different Diggo groups and Wikis devoted to learning, and technology. I will also continue to be a member of the 1 to 1 committee in my current school and will be expected to participate in PD for staff. This will also afford me the opportunity to collaborate with others in my school and region in terms of technology use.
In five years, how will my career have grown? What do I want to be doing? What steps will I be taking this summer to put myself on the path to achieving these goals?
I have been teaching ESL more or less for 20 years. There have been occasional forays into mainstream classrooms, but I have mainly been a support teacher. I have been the head of department in three schools and the PYP coordinator in two schools. I am not interested in any administration position higher than middle management and therefore do not see myself there. However, I am very interested in moving into a middle school humanities classroom where I can continue to use all of my ESL knowledge, but also have more access to the students throughout the day. It is in this environment where I feel I can directly apply my learning with students in terms of technology.
I could also see myself in a position of some kind of technology leadership, perhaps as an integrator in a middle school or elementary school. I like the idea of being able to work with others on how to best use technology in their teaching. It would afford me the opportunity to work with a variety of people, adults and students, which I enjoy, as well as challenge me intellectually through work across subjects and grade levels.
Some steps I plan on taking this year include being actively involved in our 1 to 1 committee in terms of providing informal and formal PD for staff. There is already an expectation that I do this, however, after this summer I feel more able to do it.
I also would like to begin to develop an on line course for our staff. Currently we are running one through the EAL department. I was involved in the development of this course, but only marginally. I would like to work on creating my own, keeping in mind what I have learned about new literacies needed, as well as what I know about language acquisition. I plan on taking the 820 course in order to help me develop this plan.
I could possibly see myself doing more study. I have been playing with the idea of a Doctorate for a few years, but am not sure if I want to commit to it yet. I hope that the studies I do for this Master’s will help me focus my thoughts on this. I am grappling with my interests. I am constantly drawn to linguistic information, language development, development in terms of reading and writing, but am also very interested in how technology can fit in with all this. I will need to have some conversations with people who might be able to help me focus my thoughts on this.
It was about nine years ago when I began to feel old. I was teaching with a couple of women who were 12 years younger than I. I thought I was pretty good on a computer. I had email. I could “surf”. I used the word processor. (Spell check became a life savor.) Then I met Ange and Olivia. Oh sure, I had years on them in the classroom, but they ran rings around me on the computer. I was constantly amazed at what they could do and learned what I could when they had the patience to work with me. (I only crashed the school’s reporting system once.)
Time marched on, I bought better computers and more toys. When I started working at JIS I team taught with Mike Hughes. He had just finished his second (?) year of the MAET program. He started working on the kids day one, explaining to parents that not having a laptop in his class wouldn’t mean that their kids wouldn’t learn, but having one would certainly enhance what they were learning. He made me play along as well. I set up my reading blog, responded to the kids, tried out voice thread, you name it, if Mike said do it, I did. I learned just enough to know that I had a boatload to learn! Mike started hounding me, “You should do this Dana. I’ll send your name to Leigh.” Then he got Bindu on board to harass me as well. My wheels were turning. Other factors were added to the mix:
- JIS decided that they were going 1 to 1
- I got eaten by zombies while playing Left4dead with my cousin’s kids, a lot
- I bought an iphone
- I watched kids playing on their devices
- My co-workers kept getting younger
I took all this,dropped in a little professional reading and decided I needed to do something if I wanted to stay in the education biz
Technology is not going away. I use it daily. It has made the world a much smaller place, especially if one has access to it. I accept that I am not a digital native, however, I believe I can still help facilitate digital learning. I compare it to second language leaners. They are too often viewed in terms of what they cannot do instead of in terms of all the knowledge they bring with them, in their first language. I have been around a while, seen and experienced a few things (had some 8 track tapes). That knowledge is useful in my digital journey.
I am here because I like learning. I like my job. I believe that I am doing my students a disservice if I don’t teach them how to use all the resources available to them. If I want to prepare them for the world they are living in, I need to be facilitating their use of technology. I’d also like to last a little longer before the zombies get me.
What do I hope to learn?
I want to be able to go back to my school with a handful of tech tools that I know well enough to teach them to my co-workers. The list has begun with Glogster, Jing, iMovies, Weebly, Picsa, Wordle and wikispaces. I hope, through the creations of my various projects this summer, I will learn enough about using these tools to be effective at sharing them and supporting their use with students.
Specifically, I plan to create a series of “presentations” to be used to inform and educate the administration, teachers, and parents about the importance of Mother Tongue development and maintenance.
I plan to achieve this goal through the creation of the mulitigenre project. I can clearly see various digital texts being very effective for my goal. I have identified a repetend to tie the texts together. I need to research some to identify the most effective genres overall.
What specific goals do I have for the integration of technology in my teaching/professional role? How will I achieve them?
My goal is to use TPACK in my planning. I have one class that is “mine”, I team teach for the rest of my timetable.
For my class, I mostly plan alone, but may be doing some planning with the new teachers in my department. I am teaching academic English, for grade 6 and maybe with some grade 7 students. For the EAP (English for Academic Purposes) class we focus on academic reading and writing. With what I have learned about “new literacies”, I think that I need to be planning for literacy instruction in a broader manner.
I have been mulling over the thinking strategies for reading that are explicitly taught by our team, and how to apply them to new literacies. I want to use more on-line material when working on reading and writing. We have a variety of options for writing on-line. The students will all have a google email so the whole google suite is open to us. We also use Moodle quite a bit at each grade level. I want to experiment a bit more with wikis and will have the students create their own online space where they can write. I want them to use it as a space to create a digital portfolio of their work.
For the team teaching, I will share the website that I developed for this class. I think the team will be interested in it. I am also able to plan with each of the teachers and can bring ideas for tech integration to the table. I am lucky to be working with people who are very open to technology and new ways to use it. We have already talked about ways that we will integrate technology into our teaching, but I am sure they are not familiar with TPACK. That is one idea I can share with them and demonstrate my thinking for them. I hope to get my team teachers on board with the TPACK thinking.
How will my professional practice be different in five years, after I’ve completed my Master’s in Educational Technology? What long-range changes do I expect/hope to see in myself as a technology integrator and leader?
I really hope to see myself using tech seamlessly in my planning and teaching. I would like to be an advocate for using tech effectively in school and for understanding and teaching new literacies. I think I will need to always keep myself current on new technologies as they come up in order to understand what literacies will be needed to access the technology. This will be a challenge, but one I believe I need to take on. Making a point of keeping up with the technology leaders who I am following now will be important.
I hope to be a co-worker who others feel they can go to for support in planning their lessons to integrate technology. I generally have a good rapport with my co-workers and hope that I will be able to, little by little, help them grow in their comfort levels in terms of using and integrating technology. I can see myself leading PD for staff, both informally and formally.
How will I use the Internet to create and sustain a personal learning network that informs my pedagogical practice in long term?
I have already joined a variety of different social networks, (Twitter, Linkn, Facebook), and through them have found others who I want to follow or connect with to enhance my understanding and knowledge of educational technology.
I am a part of a couple different Diggo groups and Wikis devoted to learning, and technology. I will also continue to be a member of the 1 to 1 committee in my current school and will be expected to participate in PD for staff. This will also afford me the opportunity to collaborate with others in my school and region in terms of technology use.
In five years, how will my career have grown? What do I want to be doing? What steps will I be taking this summer to put myself on the path to achieving these goals?
I have been teaching ESL more or less for 20 years. There have been occasional forays into mainstream classrooms, but I have mainly been a support teacher. I have been the head of department in three schools and the PYP coordinator in two schools. I am not interested in any administration position higher than middle management and therefore do not see myself there. However, I am very interested in moving into a middle school humanities classroom where I can continue to use all of my ESL knowledge, but also have more access to the students throughout the day. It is in this environment where I feel I can directly apply my learning with students in terms of technology.
I could also see myself in a position of some kind of technology leadership, perhaps as an integrator in a middle school or elementary school. I like the idea of being able to work with others on how to best use technology in their teaching. It would afford me the opportunity to work with a variety of people, adults and students, which I enjoy, as well as challenge me intellectually through work across subjects and grade levels.
Some steps I plan on taking this year include being actively involved in our 1 to 1 committee in terms of providing informal and formal PD for staff. There is already an expectation that I do this, however, after this summer I feel more able to do it.
I also would like to begin to develop an on line course for our staff. Currently we are running one through the EAL department. I was involved in the development of this course, but only marginally. I would like to work on creating my own, keeping in mind what I have learned about new literacies needed, as well as what I know about language acquisition. I plan on taking the 820 course in order to help me develop this plan.
I could possibly see myself doing more study. I have been playing with the idea of a Doctorate for a few years, but am not sure if I want to commit to it yet. I hope that the studies I do for this Master’s will help me focus my thoughts on this. I am grappling with my interests. I am constantly drawn to linguistic information, language development, development in terms of reading and writing, but am also very interested in how technology can fit in with all this. I will need to have some conversations with people who might be able to help me focus my thoughts on this.