PodPirate Island - Brian Van Dyck

What a Summer it has been, and I find myself in early July with plenty of Summer reflection time left. I began my Summer in a week long Math Institute headed by the Silicon Valley Math Project in conjunction with the Noyce Foundation and the San Jose State University Math Department. After a few days of rest it was off to the Google Teacher Academy for an exhausting day of “Even More” Google. The night prior to the GTA while out having dinner with several of the GTA attendees, I received a phone call from our District’s Assistant Superintendent of Education Services offering me a 2 year Teacher on Special Assignment job as a Middle School Math Coach. All this and I am in the middle of my MA program in Instructional Technology. Talk about an interesting start to a Summer. With my GTA action plan, packing up a classroom of 14 years, and preparing myself for uncharted territory as a Middle School Math Coach, I feel that a little professional goal setting may be in order. The Significance of Goal Setting ~ One never knows just what life will throw at you, be prepared, set your goals. I was tagged on this professional development meme at just the right time. See, even when life throws a lot at you, in this case it was all awesome good stuff, life has a funny way of providing you with all the support and direction needed to survive. Life is good.

Here is the challenge as set forth in the meme.

Directions

Summer can be a great time for professional development. It is an opportunity to learn more about a topic, read a particular work or the works of a particular author, beef up an existing unit of instruction, advance one’s technical skills, work on that advanced degree or certification, pick up a new hobby, and finish many of the other items on our ever-growing To Do Lists. Let’s make Summer 2008 a time when we actually get to accomplish a few of those things and enjoy the thrill of marking them off our lists.

The Rules:

1. Pick 3 professional development goals and commit to achieving them this summer.
2. For the purposes of this activity the end of summer will be Labor Day (09/01/08).
3. Post the above directions along with your 3 goals on your blog.
4. Title your post Professional Development Meme and link back/trackback to http://clifmims.com/blog/archives/353.
5. Use the following tag/ keyword/ category on your post: pdmeme.
6. Tag 8 others to participate in the meme.
7. Achieve your goals and “develop professionally.”
8. Commit to sharing your results on your blog during early or mid-September.

OK so here they are:

Goals for Brian Van Dyck aka: The PodPirate

1. Prepare, organize, submit, and begin my Google Certified Teacher Action Plan by July 25th
2. Create a Website with the purpose of pulling all my loose Web strings together into one place in order to organize my “Web-Life” and create a streamlined communication tool to aid me in my own course of professional development.
3. Develop myself as an improved educational blogger by sticking to a consistent schedule of blog posts on raising the bar when using technology for classroom purposes, expanding my educational social network, and seeking out professional speaking/presenting opportunities.

Now for tagging 8 people:

• Kelly Dumont
• Janice Stearns
• Derrall Garrison
• Elizabeth Davis
• Sylvia Martinez
• Youssef Elias
• Erica Hartman
• Darren Murph

There you go. Have fun with this.

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