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Self-Directed Professional Development

Self-Directed Professional Development

"Learning effort should not stop due to the ever developing challenges especially in the educationl field. The continuous and rapid development of technology also contibutes to the challenges. Tecahers should know how to keep on upgrading their knowledge and seek for sustainable education for them. In this session some possible channels for teachers sustainble professional development are introduced"

A. Technology and TPD

Once you are graduated from the teacher training center, The question is "will you stop learning?" If you go to shool and you meet your students, would you think that your knowledge you learn today will be sufficient enough to answer all their questions or equip them with enough knowledge and skills for their future? I believe you know the answer already. And I believe you agree with the idea that what you learn today will not be enough for equipping you for the future teaching challenges. Therefore, you will keep on learning and you will keep your self up dated with the lates technology in education.

Why teachers need to keep up with technology? Why don't we just let the students work with technology themselves and just give them assignments to do? Aren't they familiar with technology already? But how will we ask students do something with technology if we do not know what technology is available and the potential of it? Even worse if we do not know what might be the potential danger that can possibly brought about by the technology. So, learning technology continuously is a never ending effort that should be performed by teachers. It is part of their professional development (PD) as well since learning technology and how to use it will eventually enrich their knowledge, hone skills, and deepen their understanding of how actually students who have been immersed with technology learning today. It is important to always remember that without sufficient knowledge on how technology can be used in the classroom which very often offered via professional development activities teachers will never be optimally implement technology into their daily instructions (Skogerbo, 2013). 

Professional Development does not always mean attending standardized and official TPD hosted by government, or teacher training institutions etc. It does not also mean a site-based one that includes many teachers and scheduled rigorously to meet the expectation of the teachers on site.Yet, it can mean just a self-directed teacher profesional development (TPD)(Gaible & Burns, 2005), initiated and conducted by the teacher themselves. The last type of TPD probably the most feasible one for us. since it requires only our will and itention to be better teacher. Through the use of technology self-directed TPD nowadays is just a click away. But how we can start our TPD? and what tools available on the Internet that assit self-directed TPD?

Check the followings:

1. Electronic Mailing List (E-Mail List) 

is a special use of email for delivering electronic mails to a number of email recipients that belong to a group. For example, if we are a member of an e-mail list, then we can easily send an email to members (that can be hundred or thousands in number) of the e-mail list with one single click. in returns, we can also receive email from all members that is sent to the e-mail list. This email list comes in very handy especially when we want to have a special group on the internet and we want the group members to discuss things over the interenet. what we can do then is just set up the group in an e-mail list provider, invite people to join the e-mail list, and we can start doing discussion online by sending emails.

Two examples of e-mail list provider that is well-known are Yahoo Groups and Google Groups.  In Yahoo Groups you can either start your own group or find an e-groups that most interest to you. You can start you class groups, works groups, or may be your clubs' group. See the video introduction about yahoo groups here:

Yahoo Groups (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5H0zFcY7EZY)

Now, you can try by clicking here Yahoo Groups , and search for topics/groups of your interests e.g: search for 'ESLGroup' or "ELTIndonesia'. Once you can find the links to the groups join the groups by clicking the join buttons. You will notice there that the ESLGroup is Public and therefore, needs no approval by the group owner to join. However, the ELTIndonesia is a restricted group and that's why when you click the join button you will need to be approved by the owner in order to be the member of the group. Once you become the member of the groups you can then start receiving emails from the members and you can also send emails to them as well. 

You may try other topics/groups that are interesting to you, you may try scholarship, technology or if you cannot find one you can start making your own group and inviting people to you group. What about Google Groups? It is just the same as the Yahoo Groups. If you wan to try Google groups, all you have to do is just follow the on screen instructions and you should be ok.

2. Online Forum (Message Board)

In addition to the e-mail list, online forum is basically similar with it. It is also a place where people can discuss things online either directly over the web or via email. An example of online forum can be found here:

• One Stop English Discussions
• ELT Community
• EFL Classroom
• VOXoPOP  ( A voice based discussion board). To use this you need to sing up and then log in. Once you are logged in you can start searching for a discussion topic of your interest, for example you may try English Language Teaching.

3. Social Media

Almost every internet users nowadays probably is familiar with that term social media and have account in one of the social media sites. Social media is a place where people share and exchange infomation. It is built on the idea of web 2.0 that promotes the creation and exchange of user-generated contents (Kaplan & Haenlien, 2012). The social media is gaining more and more popularity today as a a kind of medium for social interaction and communication. It has been proved effective to attract internet users because of the features that social media offers. Some features are content sharing ( e.g instagram and youtube), micro blogging (e.g. twitter), social networking (e.g. facebook), professional networking (e.g. Linkedin) and also feature like mobile device friendly. 

With those features people in social media do many things like shopping, marketing, discussing, chatting , conferencing and still many other real life businesses. Using social media in education is not an exception. check this video:

Social media for education

 If we can use it for education that it means we can also use it for teachers education as well. Teachers can share and exchange information with other teachers in other schools through social media. They can do through egroups that can be found in social media like in Facebook, Twitter, Path, Pinterest etc. All you have to do is login to those social media and start searching the intended group for example TEFL, ESL, TESOL etc and join the group. An example of how Twitter can be used for Professional development can be check here:

Professional Development Through Twitter

Or you may also create your own group there, see how to do it here:

Creating Groups in Facebook

 In short, through social media groups, teachers can share their knowledges and exchange informations. Thus they can alwasy be updtaed with new information about education and teaching knoledge. People can share lesson plans, discuss ideas to solve specific problems etc. So, through online discussion in the social media groups, there will be no longer lonely teachers who have no one to talk to when having problem in the class. Eventually, there will be no theacher that will be left behind.

Another social media that are very useful for teacher professional development is video sharing sites like YouTube, TeacherTube, Vimeo, Schooltube, WatchKnowLearn, Edutube etc. Teachers can just subscribe to those video sharing sites and they will be updated with resourceful and useful videos for their teaching activities.

4. Open Online Course

Another alternative for TPD is open online courses where teachers can expect to get updated knowledge about education. They can also share knowledge, discuss on current ideas, and even get certification upon completion of the online courses. The followings are some open online courses that can be a good place for teachers for exploring about teaching knowledge. There, teacher can register  and join the online courses for free:

1. MOOC-Ed (Massive Open Online Courses for Educators)
2. Microsoft Educator Network 
3. Coursera 

5. Online Seminar (Web-based Seminar)

 Online webinar is also another alternative for teacher self-directed professional development. Check the following sites for available webinars. In those sites teachers can join the upcoming webinars, or just watch the recorded ones. If you join the webinar you can get more incentives since you can post questions or share your knowledge with others as well:

1. ASCD Webinars
2. British Council Webinars
3. EdWEB

Assignment 14.2: 

THis assigment will be the last assignment for this course. You will individually need to find a TEFL/TESOL groups in yahoo groups, google groups, or in social media like facebook, twitter, path etc. The, join the group, and post a question or comment on one of the discussion forum there. Take the screen shot and upload through the assignment folder.

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References:

1. Gaible, E. & Burns, M.. (2005). Section 3: Models and best practices in teacher professional development. Using technology to train teachers: Appropriate uses of ICT for teacher professional development in developing countries (pp. 15-24). Retrieved from http://www.infodev.org/en/Publication.13.html
2. Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M. (2012). The Britney Spears universe: Social media and viral marketing at its best. Business Horizons, 55(1), 27-31.
3. Skogerbo, C. 2013. Professional Development. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/groups/technology-tools/417116

Class Management

Class Management

"One of the key success in delivering classroom instruction is the class management. Using technology today, classroom management can be very much assisted. Some resources and online tools for managing the class are introduced here"

Today technology has become a major driving force in our life. we rely most of our life's business on the use of technology. Ranging from making phone call, traveling distance places, making daily food, and handling various works. we use technology at home, in the office, at schools, and everywhere. In terms of schools, Technology today has contribute so much leap that make education today develop faster and faster. But unfortunately technology may never be able to replace human teacher to educate (Wright, 2013). It is only tool that may help teachers to ease them in educating people.

For teachers and students, today there are many tools available, that may help in teaching and learning process. We have been discussing and trying some of them during this course. Yet, it will be much more useful if we can specifically learn and try the tools that will help us to better prepare to be teachers and manage the class. Managing the class is very important because a better classroom management is an important component in creating an effective classroom environment (Jones, 1996: Manning & Bucher, 2012). In this session we will look at some tools that are available on the Internet that can help us store students learning prgress information, communicate with students and parents, distribute quizzes, making wikis, sharing files, buidling class web, scheduling etc.


A. Gradebook

• Engrade (http://www.engrade.com)
• Learnboost (https://www.learnboost.com/)
• Thinkwave (http://www.thinkwave.com/)

B. Lesson Planning

• The Lesson Builder (http://thelessonbuilder.org)
• Lesson Pro (www.lessonpro.net/) for creating an online learning activties
• Lesson Plan Maker  (http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/lesson_plan/)

B. Scheduling

• Doodle (http://doodle.com/en/)
• Scheduleonce (http://www.scheduleonce.com/)
• Bookfresh (http://www.bookfresh.com/)

c. Quiz Creator

• Quizstar (http://quizstar.4teachers.org/)
• Classmarker (http://www.classmarker.com/)

D. Behaviour Management

• Class Dojo (http://www.classdojo.com/)
• Warning Sign (http://www.warningsigngenerator.com/)
• Timer (http://e.ggtimer.com/)
• Class grouping (http://www.aschool.us/random/random-pair.php)

E. Miscellaneous

• Worksheet generator (http://www.tefl.net/worksheet-generator/)
• Worksheet creator(http://www.havefunteaching.com/worksheets/create-your-own-worksheets)
• Online tools for language teaching (http://www.tesl-ej.org/wordpress/issues/volume15/ej57/ej57int/)
• Essay marking tool (http://www.paperrater.com/)

Assignment 13.2 :

choose three of the tools above that interest you. Then, write down 2 paragraphs of detailed plan of how you will use the tools in the classroom!

Lesson Planing

Lesson Planing

"In this session you will learn how to make a lesson plan especially the one integrating all the technology you have learned through out the semester. Some lesson plan samples as wells lesson plan authoring tools are also introduced here"

Now that you have been introduced to various activities and tools available on the internet for language teaching and learning, you may have had a better picture by now about how the available technology can be used for your language teaching activity later in the future. In order to practice planning a future language lesson which is technology based try to look at this lesson plan samples: CAREFULLY LOOK at The samples because you will make one like those at the end of the session.

1. Lesson Plan Sample 1 http://alex.state.al.us/lesson_view.php?id=4247
2. Lesson Plan Sample 2 https://sites.google.com/a/nssd112.org/tech-for-teachers/home/example-lesson-plan-using-technology-resources
3. Lesson Plan Sample 3 http://l-www.voki.com/open_pdf.php?file=Conjugation%20and%20Sentence%20Practice%20-%20Many%20Grades.pdf
4. Lesson Plan Sample 4http://studentweb.usq.edu.au/home/w0055334/Teaching-IM.htm
5. Lesson Plan Sample 5https://sites.google.com/site/1english1/teachingusinginternetbasedlanguageinstru

Having read the example of lesson plans above,  Now  consider yourself as a teacher who will use technology in your language class. Therefore, you will need to make a lesson plan. The following links provide information about Lesson Plannings. Read carefully to find out what should you be aware of when designing a lesson plan, for example

1. what do you expect your students to learn (lesson objectives)
2. what is the best way for your students to demonstrate their achievement ( this will inform you about what assignment will you give to know the evidence of learning in students)
3. what are the materials required (links, webistes, videos, or software)
4. what is the sequence of material presentation or activities

Check this link for information on lesson planning:

1. Leson Planning Slides
2. Principles of Lesson Planning
3. Planning Lessons by Linda Jensen

Tools for creating Lesson Plans:

• The Lesson Builder (http://thelessonbuilder.org)
• Lesson Pro (www.lessonpro.net/) for creating an online learning activties
• Lesson Plan Maker  (http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/lesson_plan/)