Professional Development

Already after reading the first few chapters of the text and trying out a few new Internet tools, I feel that my own teaching could be completely changed if I take advantage of all these devices have to offer.  Although I absolutely hope to utilize what I learn in this course with my ninth grade students, I am also considering the benefits that this could offer in the area of professional development. 

Currently, I teach on a ninth grade team including four content area teachers and myself as the special ed. teacher.  After just finishing the first week of school with a new team and implementing a new form of instruction through co-teaching, I have already stumbled upon many obstacles.  One of the major struggles that I foresee for our team this year is communication (fortunately for me I am taking this course).  Despite carefully checking schedules and attempting to find common planning time between the five of us, there will absolutely not be enough hours in a day to allow us the collaboration opportunities that we need. 

I think for a situation like mine where you are teaching on a team, or a grade level/content area of teachers it would be extremely beneficial to utilize blogs to keep in contact regarding various topics.  For instance, one of the blogs could be specifically regarding parent contact.  It was suggested in the beginning of the year that we continuously communicate in order to eliminate several phone calls home, and instead, make one phone call addressing a student's problems in more than one of his/her classes.  By communicating through a blog we would each be able to discuss a student's misbehavior or missing work and have one teacher make the call home.

Another benefit of using blogs between team members is to share feedback.  Oftentimes, reflection gets forgotten as there is not enough time to sit down and discuss what worked or what didn't work.  Having the convenience to type something up in a specialized section where team members may view it would be extremely beneficial.  Particularly in the area of special ed,  it is crucial to identify which instructional strategies were successful or what content was learned or not learned. 

Thinking on a grander scale, it would of course be great if colleagues of an entire school could share some new ideas or new discoveries that they have found.  Although one may find an endless amount of great ideas on the Internet, it has almost become exhausting to filter through the huge amount of good and bad.  I think teachers would be much more receptive to the ideas of their own colleagues, rather than a stranger on the Internet.

I hope to implement this useful communication tool amongst my ninth grade team, however, I believe it would be a huge benefit if administration got the ball rolling at the beginning of the school year with something similar.