Thing 23

How will I use Web 2.0 in my teaching? I don't know yet. I am going to have a somewhat different teaching assignment next year. As this school year winds down, I have started to think about next year. I am exicted to use and share what I've learned but I don't know how specifically I will use it. I'll save that for my summer work. I will have time to thoughtfully and creatively incorporate podcasts, wikkis, Google Docs, and blogs into my teaching.

Thing 22

I would be very happy to select a professional development course that I think would help me with my teaching. I am tired of hearing motivational speakers, especially the first day of school when all I can think of is "Come on, get on with it. I've got 100 things I need to do before kids show up." And I've been through my share of in-services that may be appropriate for most of the teaching staff in my school but doesn't relate to what I am teaching.

The best professional development I ever attended was at MCISD. I was co-teaching world cultures and thought I should know more about the curriculum so I attended an after-school session. I learned about the writing component on the social studies MEAP. We adminster that in 9th grade and none of the high school social studies teachers were aware that students had to take a stand, support their position with prior knowledge of history, economics,etc., had to include data from a graph that was shown 2 pages before the writing prompt in the test booklet, and had to defend their position with a core democratic value, which they had to explain. I was so glad I had attended that session. I learned so much.

I think the opportunities are there to have similar rewarding experiences with the many offerings of professional development that are available at Michigan LearnPort.