Professional Development

Standards

  1. Ability to identify and evaluate technology resources and technical assistance (i.e., those available on-line and on-site within a school and district setting).
  2. Ability to assess advantages and limitations of current and emerging technologies, on-line resources and software to facilitate teaching and student learning.
  3. Ability to engage in professional growth and leadership activities, including modeling lifelong learning by participating in face to face and online learning communities to continuously improve professional practice using existing and emerging digital tools, resources, and current research that focuses on improved student learning, as well as promotes professional development of other educators.

Twitter

Twitter is another great way to keep students and parents informed. A teacher can create their own account for classroom use. A teacher can utilize Twitter by posting school news, classroom news, classroom assignments, updated information, extra study materials, and so much more! Twitter is a great way to connect with other educators to collaborate and find new strategies to use in their classroom. By using Twitter, parents can also view and connect to get involved with their child's education. Pros of using Twitter: connect to students instantly, students can connect with each other, parents can connect, teachers can post assignments or any kind of aid to help students learn at home. Cons of using Twitter: not all students and parents use Twitter(so they may be resentful to start an account), teachers would have to monitor what the students are posting on the classroom page, if teachers use Google Classroom then they would not need Twitter. I can be found on Twitter @mollykmartin31 .

ED 505 Professional Development Paper

MollyMartin_PDPlan_Assignment.docx

Reflection

Ability to identify and evaluate technology resources and technical assistance (i.e., those available on-line and on-site within a school and district setting). In ED 505, we were required to follow other educators and/or educational organizations. One organization I follow is the @NCTM (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics). This is a great organization for all math teachers to follow. They do live chats and webinars on Twitter and so much more. The NCTM provides numerous resources for mathematics teachers. They do a great job utilizing Twitter by tweeting information on new strategies and events they create.

Ability to assess advantages and limitations of current and emerging technologies, on-line resources and software to facilitate teaching and student learning. Twitter is a great resource for schools to send out information for school events, extra-curricular activities and so much more. I follow several schools who do a great job keeping their parents, students, and communities informed. Another assignment in ED 505 was to tweet other classmates about what we found online and use the correct hashtags. We used weekly hashtags and hashtags relating to our posts. One hashtag I enjoy following is #mathchat. Educators are tweeting about different circumstances in their daily routines. The are several posts that I can make connections with and relate to the educator. It makes me feel good knowing that their are other educators out there who have the same struggles as myself.

Ability to engage in professional growth and leadership activities, including modeling lifelong learning by participating in face to face and online learning communities to continuously improve professional practice using existing and emerging digital tools, resources, and current research that focuses on improved student learning, as well as promotes professional development of other educators. By using having to create a Twitter account for this class opened up my eyes to the educational value of this type of social media. Numerous organizations and educators conduct chats and webinars, and inform other educators on new strategies. I now use this great professional development tool on a daily basis. The education world is evolving, and Twitter one of the best ways to keep up.