Personal responsibility for learning

Within the next 5 years ... all librarians will be expected to take personal responsibility for their own professional development; each of us will evolve or die. Budget pressures will force administrators to confront the "psychological shadow" cast by tenure and pseudo-tenure that has inhibited them from performing meaningful evaluations and taking necessary personnel actions. Librarians who do not produce will be reassigned or fired. - from Taiga 4 Provacative Statements 2009.

Teachers are learners. If they’re not, they shouldn’t be teachers. In a world where we can engage in our passions through the affordances of connective technologies online, we need to be thinking about how to personalize the learning of the adults in the room as well as the kids. This is not the easy route, by any stretch, but it’s the best route if we’re serious about moving the education of our kids to a different place. Will Richardson, Personalizing Education for Teachers Too.

I have long advocated for an IEP for every teacher. (Now That You Know the Basics, Leading & Learning, 2001.) An idea, I'm afraid, ahead of its time. It worked for us for a couple years, then faded...

Is this a likely staff development scenario in your district?

Mike’s Plan for Improving His Students’ Writing Abilities (Rubric II*)
One of the goals of the middle school where Mike taught Language Arts was to improve student writing. Working with his language arts curriculum chair and building staff development committee, Mike’s professional growth plan included:

• Reviewing current literature and interviewing one of the state’s “best practices” experts on process writing and the use of technology.
• Attending the state’s technology conference to attend sessions and see demonstrations of writing software.
• Taking a class in and experimenting with prewriting software (Inspiration) on two student writing assignments.
• Using individual portable computers (AlphaSmarts) on two writing assignments.
• Comparing the results of the technology-enhanced writing products with those using standard writing practices.

Mike’s portfolio included:

• Printouts of three articles summarizing current uses of technology.
• Sample “concept maps” generated by students in his classes as a part of prewriting assignments.
• Writing samples of individual students evidencing differences between handwritten work and word-processed work.
• A brief summary of his observations on using technology as a part of the writing process. (Prewriting software led some students to better organization and more depth in their writing; spelling, readability, and enthusiasm improved when students used the portable computers; a lack of keyboarding skills prevented many students from writing with the portable computers successfully.)
• Mike found that his experiences supported what research and best practices were saying about technology and writing, and he plans to keep using both the prewriting software and portable computers next year.

* II. Using technology to improve student writing

Level 1 I am not familiar with any technologies that would allow me to help my students improve their writing skills.
Level 2 I ask that the final draft of some student writing assignments be word processed. I do not expect or encourage my students to compose or edit using the computer.
Level 3 I help students use the computer in all phases of the writing process from brainstorming to concept mapping to editing. This includes the use of idea generators, portable writing computers, outlining tools, spelling and grammar checkers, and desktop publishing tools. I use technology to help students share their work for a wide reading audience.
Level 4 I store portfolios of my students’ work electronically. I share successful units with others through print and electronic publishing and through conference presentations and workshops. I look for specific technology tools to help my students improve their writing skills.

For such a means of organizing staff development to get a foothold, it will be individual teachers, not staff development coordinators or technology departments, taking the lead by saying, "Here is an alternate plan I believe would be of more use to me than what the district is offering. Can I substitute?"

Comments

[Tim Staal]

We too tried to do this for a few years - in a slightly modified way - the expectations was that each teacher would include a technology related growth goal in their goals each year. Some principals stressed it more than others - It was not "mandatory" because of union concerns ;-)
I think it may be time to bring it back - we've moved to implementing the use of Google Apps for education for lots of things, and the collaborative nature of google apps may allow us to easily track everybody's goals and find better ways to help them. We could even start creating delicious bookmarks sets for them etc. (or have them share them with each other)
Hmmm - the wheels are turning

[Emily]

I like the quote about teachers being learners. I think this really brings to light the point that people need to be in the mindset of being life-long learners. Education and culture are ever-evolving and show that we really never do (or never should) stop learning. Therefore, it is also important to take advantage of the educational opportunities that we are presented with. EducationDynamics has a new video that encourages people to go back to school and continue their learning process. This video can be found at <A HREF=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDfew0YcDTo> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDfew0YcDTo</A>.

Thanks!

Emily (EducationDynamics)

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Tim,

You nailed the single factor in whether a plan like this will work – how willing is the principal to view IEP’s completion as a priority and hold the teacher accountable.

Thanks,

Doug

Emily,

Your post runs very close to violating my endorsement policy:

http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/endorsement-policy/

Thanks for considering this if you leave other comments.

All the best,

Doug

[Sharon DiLeo]

Hello Doug,

I think that your plan here towards advancing the concept of "Personal Responsibility for Learning" is excellent. To implement this requires those rare individuals who truly care about learning and how best to make learning exciting. The mark of a real leader is one who can successfully use one's knowledge about technology to inspire, promote, and foster learning in everyone; from students, to parents, to administrators.

There will always be those who say that they have tried; they have not tried with conviction and passion.

Sharon DiLeo