Professional Development meme – The Significance of Goal Setting

podpirate — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:33:02 +0000

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:

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

Prepare, organize, submit, and begin my Google Certified Teacher Action Plan by July 25th
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.
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:

There you go. Have fun with this.

Social Networking – What’s the Big Deal?

podpirate — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 02:56:41 +0000

For that last few years I have been a quiet observer surfing the education and edtech blogosphere. Cautiously, I introduced my classroom students to the idea of communicating through blogging to enhance their writing and communication skills. In typical teacher fashion I created a closed network full of rules, regulations, and safety nets for the protection of my students, and to be honest, to cover my own posterior. I immersed myself as a learner in the online world of social networking and communication. So what is the big deal anyway? We have Myspace, Facebook, Skype, Web2.0, Student2.0, Teacher2.0, Twitter, Edublog after Edublog, the list is endless. Each day a new tool, a new source of knowledge, a new means to communicate pops up on the Internet. Where does it all begin? Where does it all end? Or Does it? The following are the observations of this fledgling blogger. The “Big Ah Ha” for me, (I really hate that overused phrase, but sometimes it just fits) communication centered on content rich knowledge. I have personally been exposed to some of the best content concerning the application of technology in education via these social networks. Individuals that share my common interests and my passion for providing the best learning opportunities for students join together in a community environment to share the best and most current information available. The members of the community act together as a networked filter to challenge the information in a collaborative effort to provide the best of the best. When the combined efforts of a community are focused on a common goal, the level of communication is heightened. The technology of social networking breaks down the barriers of communication allowing for genuine global input. The dangers of such communication involve but are not limited to the network becoming too specialized or isolated from the broader global community. The responsibility of keeping the open lines of communication fresh and current falls on the individual participants within the network. The beauty of social networking lies in the breadth of the life experience brought to the network by its participants. I feel that it is the genuine human element that each individual brings to the dialogue that authenticates the content being shared. Ideas are tested, challenged, and tweaked to create a learning environment that meets the unique needs of different classroom populations. This type of communication also provides vast learning opportunities beyond the classroom walls. The experience has rejuvenated my passion for learning.Of course there are those that participate to further their own agenda or feed their egos. My experience is that the majority of social network participants are genuine individuals that, like myself, want to improve the condition of education on a global level. Perhaps the most interesting part of this has been the real life experiences outside of education that have been shared. I toyed with the idea of linking the names of some of the contributors with their perspective blog sites, but as I have not met many of them in person I choose to respect their privacy. I will however share some of the human insight that makes this type of communication so much fun. I have been privy to the gastronomic delicacies of several contributors. The pot-roast pizza rolls intrigue me. I experienced the Rose Bowl parade via twitter right down to the description of two children having a toe-to-toe silly string fight. I discovered our school firewall blocks outgoing video conferencing as I participated in a demo of Adobe Connect. I watched in awe at one person’s display of their year in pictures, inspiring myself and countless others to participate in 366/2008. I rang in the New Year following tweets from around the globe. People from as far away as Australia have reached out to me offering advice and encouragement to continue with this journey. I wish to express my gratitude to all that have provided me with a wealth of information that will have a positive impact on the learning environment for my students. I hope that I will be able to contribute enough valuable information in the future to “pay it back”.Now for the next step. How to bring my excitement from this learning journey into my classroom in the hopes that I can awaken the passion and potential for learning that I know each student that enters my room possesses. I’m open to suggestions.

PodPirate Island - Brian Van Dyck » Social Networking

Professional Development meme – The Significance of Goal Setting

Social Networking – What’s the Big Deal?