Time for training?

Entry #6

I have just spent several hours researching on the Internet looking for new ideas on how to add time for technology training into teachers' lives. I even went old-school and checked out the shelves on the school library. (Our administrators keep a very nice up to date section of current educational periodicals.)

So, what did I find? "Professional development can no longer be viewed as an event that occurs on a particular day of the school year; rather, it must become part of the daily work life of educators." Additionally, "Some reformers have recommended that at least 20 percent of teachers' work time should be given to professional study and collaborative work." http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/educatrs/profdevl/pd300.htm

So we need time, a lot more time than we currently have for this type of training. All of my research agrees that other countries have a great deal more time to perfect the art of teaching. "In these and other countries, (Japan, China, Taiwan, New Zealand, etc.) teachers typically spend between 15 and 20 hours per week with their classrooms of students. They spend the remaining time working with colleagues on developing and refining their practice." [Darling-Hammond, L (2005).Teaching as a Profession: Lesson in Teacher Preparation and Professional Development. Phi Delta Kappan. 239.] Next school year I will be spending 26.25 hours a week with students, this does not include after school tutoring sessions. 38 hours per week, 26.25 spent "teaching", less than 5 hours for planning periods, 2 hours for faculty/dept meetings, 3 hours for after school tutoring, leaves 1.75 hours left for parent contacts, office paperwork, grading, planning, and PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT, collaboration with peers, etc. Not a lot of time...

Ok, lets think positively. Thanks to Web 2.0, there are great sites where teachers from all over the world can get together and discuss issues and learn new ideas and skills from each other. We may not be given a great deal of time to sit in training seminars, but we can go online and find some really good information and help quickly. One site http://teachade.com/ does exactly this. It is a free place where teachers can blog, respond to other's ideas, search by content or keyword, you name it, if it's about education you can discuss it here with people of similar interests. Another site that has the same philosophy has is Classroom 2.0 found at http://classroom20.ning.com/. On this site I found many good videos describing Web 2.0 and training videos about using various technology. One video describes what Google Reader does in less than 1 minute. It is just enough information to explain what it is to someone to see if they are interested in learning more, like a news teaser. http://web2videos.blogspot.com/ (see the 21st video on the page.) Another video found on Classroom 2.0 is great for science or math classrooms shows relative size using the universe has its example. Short and very interesting. http://classroom20.ning.com/video/video/show?id=649749:Video:34084 Finally, imagine just starting to use blogs for example in your classroom. You could go to either teachade or classroom 2.0 to get ideas from other teachers and answers to your questions about blogs without having to beg the office for release time or having to try to figure it out alone. This is a new method of professional development that is a lot more accessible than the traditional workshops.

Diane Coggins wrote an article for TechLearning entitled "How To Get Teachers To Attend Tech Training. http://www.techlearning.com/story/showArticle.php?articleID=196513431 Here are a few ideas that she suggests to squeeze a little more training time out of the work day:

*Consider offering training during planning periods, but keep them short, 20-30 minutes. "If teachers know that they do not have to give up all of their planning more will come. Those that want to learn more in depth about the topic may stay longer."

*Have a place online, wiki, blog, or web page "that includes teachers' technology resources/tools as well as appropriate student Websites related to the curriculum."

The most interesting new idea I found was the 15 minute workshop. The idea is that at the end of a faculty meeting show a short video clip less than 5 minutes, like this one on Wiki's http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY , and the staff then has 10 minutes to brainstorm how this can be used by them or to practice a new skill. Teachers who are more interested can stay longer for a more in dept discussion or more time to practice the skill. Remember these are 15 minute workshops, don't expect to teach a complicated software program here, but you can generate interest in a topic and offer more in dept training later. Or perhaps many teachers know the software and it is just a way to share ideas among staff members about how the technology is used in different parts of the school building. More information about this type of training can be found at the TLT Group's website. (Teaching, Learning, and Technology a non-profit organization) http://www.tltgroup.org/TLT5.htm They also have many of these short video available online FREE for the using.

Current issue: finding time for technology training
Possible solutions: wikis for collaboration among staff members, 15 minute workshops, visiting teacher networking website to take advantage of the collective knowledge available online