After soaking in a few weeks of sun, I find myself burning for learning once again. Refueling the metaphorical tank with a little more sleep and a day that is not dictated by bells, leaves my mind thirsting for knowledge. This summer, my bedroom floor and the passenger side of my car look as though I am attempting to stockpile books that have been salvaged from futuristic firefighters determined to destroy their contents. Hoarding books that may have been temporarily stolen from my school's media center, and devouring their pages as the dawn breaks has been my summer morning routine. As a result, I find myself rejuvenated - the flames fanned and are smoldering once again.
This past year, I attended countless conferences and professional development experiences. ISTE was in Chicago, and as a first-year instructional coach (a new position in my district), I had much to learn. Instead of trekking to Pennsylvania this summer, I am spending a quieter one seeking opportunities to enhance and further my skills. With blended and online learning transforming the educational landscape, my summer goal is to pursue asynchronous learning experiences that will allow me to share best practices and resources to the teachers at my school and district. Experiencing courses and PD experiences in this format will also foster a richer perspective on best practices for this mode of learning, a format that 60 courses will be experimenting with this coming school year throughout my district.
Where to begin? Naturally, I took to Google to find the "Best FREE PD" available and came up with a few promising leads. Free online resources are the best places to explore and experiment. Without the financial pressure and the openness of the resources have allowed me to browse and evaluate the overall experience before committing to a course.
Google Certifications
If your school is a Google for Education school and you have not looked into Google Certifications, that is the first place I would recommend any teacher begin. Google has several training courses, including a fundamentals course, perfect for teachers of all tech levels looking to develop or refine their skills. Once the fundamentals course is complete, teachers can pursue a Level 1 certification, which is a three-hour test that unlike standard multiple choice tests is skills-based. The assessment is hands-on learning in itself, and is one of the most informative and practical tests I have ever experienced; I learned a great deal from the test itself. For more advanced users of Google Suites, I recommend pursuing the Level 2 certification or even the Trainer certification. Not only do people who earn the certifications get fun badges to add to email signatures, but the certifications stretch one's understanding of Google Suites and how to best use these tools to enhance student learning.
Recently, Google for Education has added two courses that I am interested in working through this summer that include Tools for Diverse Learners (perfect for my SPED friends) and Teach Applied Digital Skills. Also, I am excited to check out the apps that work with Google and other Google for Education resources that support digital literacy and learning. Google Suites, as any tech product, is continually changing and evolving, and staying up-to-date is critical.
EdPuzzle
EdPuzzle is an incredible tool for flipped and blended learning. EdPuzzle allows teachers to use online videos or import personal videos and add voice notes, annotations, and multiple choice/free response questions for students to answer. Creating interactive lessons that can be completed asynchronous allows students to work at their own pace while holding them accountable for critically thinking and engaging with the material (For more on EdPuzzle, check out this post). EdPuzzle is also intuitive to use and design, and the product has a great bank of resources that teachers can access and copy to use with their students. EdPuzzle continues to develop and create asynchronous, free courses for teachers to take to enhance their understanding of 21st-century learning, the flipped classroom, and digital citizenship. With over a dozen courses, these free resources are informative and engaging. I have enjoyed browsing these courses and have completed the EdPuzzle Coach certification. Currently, I am completing the 21st-Century Learning course and will then begin the Personalized Learning course. These courses can be completed at one's own pace, and I have found make a great and quick addition to my morning routine. Each video is only a few minutes long, and the courses are chunked in a manner that can fit into any plan or prep period without being too demanding. Being an EdPuzzle student has also helped me reflect on how I use this tool with my students and how I might continue to improve my practices.
ASCD Webinars
The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) offers free professional development webinars that teachers can view at any time. These webinars come with supplemental material, resources, and have transcripts from live chats that occurred when the webinars were first aired. From trauma-informed schools, fostering resilience, quality instruction, and content-specific topics, these webinars are thorough, informative, and are the length of a podcast episode. I've listened to "Reading, Writing, and Rigor: Helping Students Achieve Greater Depth of Knowledge in Literacy" and "Students at the Center: Personalized Learning with Habits of Mind;" both of these webinars were engaging and came with several resources to explore. For anyone looking for new research-based strategies, books to read, or practices to explore, this list of resources is one worth checking out.
Open Educational Resources
Looking for content-specific content and resources? Utilizing open educational resources is a discussion that my department at the College of Lake County continues to explore. As a community college, our goal is to make education accessible to students by reducing the cost, and using free online books and resources instead of costly college textbooks will allow us to achieve this goal. I stumbled upon HarvardX as I was seeking potential texts and supplemental resources for my students. The more I scour their catalog, the more impressed I am with potential content-specific texts that may allow teachers to update their courses or expand upon a subtopic in a fresh manner. Courses range from material that can be reviewed in a few short hours to several weeks. Auditing these courses is free, there are additional paid options if a person wanted to earn a certification or in some cases, college credit. I started with "Communicating Effectively: How to Inspire and Convince," which had great resources on teaching persuasion. As I explored further, MIT has a great course selection, too. Personalized learning and online learning has allowed individuals to share their knowledge in exponential ways.
Books
In my first year as an instructional coach, I turned to Twitter to find highly recommended educational books to help hone my craft. Elena Aguilar's writing, an educational coach and author, came highly recommended. I started with Onward: Cultivating Emotional Resilience Educators and then read The Art Coaching: Effective Strategies Transformation. The Dave Burgess book series is also full of many interesting and meaningful topics that appeal to a wide level of instructional levels and content areas. I just ordered Talk to Me: Find the Right Words to Inspire, Encourage, and Get Things Done. This book is the next book on my ever-growing list of must-reads. In spite of an overflowing nightstand, I am always searching for quality texts to read.
Twitter is my favorite way in which to connect with other teachers. Teachers are always willing to collaborate, share ideas, and connect with others. My personal learning network has expanded greatly because of my experience through Twitter. Finding Twitter chats and following hashtags has allowed me to form strong relationships with people who have provided me with inspiring ideas and encouraging words over the years. I co-moderate #engsschat, which is a combined social science and English chat that occurs once a month. I am so grateful for the experiences I have had sharing and gaining knowledge from others. The best way to learn is to foster relationships and glean understanding from others.
Not attending ISTE this year means more time to explore a variety of resources at my own pace. I'm glad to say that my car has been cleaned out; I drove my grandma to her local library so I transported my books to my nightstand. I have been on a reading tear this summer and am slowly regaining space to be filled with my next literary stash. Since I was out of district, I could not be tempted to check-out additional texts. Here's to a summer full of burning the midnight oil and learning to expand my curricular horizons.
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