LIBE 477: Inquiry Blog 3: Supporting Teachers' Professional Development

 Supporting Teachers' Professional Development of ICT Skills and Pedagogy

    As I discussed in last weeks post The Importance of Professional Development and Networking as an Educator, engaging in professional development (PD) is a vital part of any teacher or teacher-librarians role. As teacher-librarians however, our role is not only to engage in our own professional development, but to support our teaching colleagues in their professional development as well. With the influx of technology in the 21st-century, it is becoming increasingly important that educators maintain and advance their knowledge and skills in terms of information and communication technologies (ICT). As result, we as teacher-librarians must find ways to support our teaching colleagues in the development of their ICT skills. 

The following video explores strategies for making professional development effective for technology integration:

    As explained in the video, in order for PD to be truly effective, it must be provided in a way that is relevant and meaningful, informative and challenging, instills trust and promotes collaboration. For teacher-librarians to achieve this, they must first establish trusting relationships with their teaching colleagues. Teacher-librarians should actively take the lead in initiating relationships and collaborations with other staff members as they are equipped with the skillset to do so. As Toor and Weisburg (2015) state in New on the Job, “starting on day one, you have to be proactive, seeking ... [teachers] out and establishing a collegial bond" (p. 5). Once this relationship has been established, teacher-librarians will be better equipped to seek out and identify the areas in which their teaching colleagues require PD. This will help to ensure the PD support from the teacher-librarian is relevant, meaningful and challenging. Teacher-librarians should also ensure that there is opportunity to engage in collaboration with their colleagues, so they can further support their teaching partners in their professional development. 

Tools and Strategies for Providing Meaningful PD:

Below I have developed a list of strategies and suggestions for supporting the professional development of our teaching partners:

Identify Areas of Need: Reach out to staff members to identify their ICT professional needs. The world of ICT is vast and it is important to identify the specific areas which staff feel they need the most support in developing. 

Figure 1. 10 Things Teachers Want for Professional Development (Duckworth,  2015).

 As Jeff Marshall (2016) suggests in Needs   Assessment: What Do You Need Most? "just as we need to differentiate instruction to accommodate varying student needs, we need to personalize professional development to address varying teacher needs" (para. 1). Teachers may be looking for support and ideas on how to teach their students digital and media literacy skills, or how to stay current on technologies used in daily lessons and activities. Perhaps some teachers are looking for training on how to use a new technology, website, program or tool or want suggestions for new resources. Educational networking games are becoming increasingly popular, and teachers may want to learn about the pros and cons of these games, as well as how to incorporate them into their teaching. Some teachers may want to learn about digital accessibility features and tools such as text-to-speech, word prediction, speech recognition and visual thinking tools which are designed to support diverse learner needs. Others may be looking to improve their ICT knowledge and skills through creating a classroom website or blog, or perhaps they require support in creating a social media presence and developing a professional learning network. Due to Covid-19, some teachers may now be required to use new technologies to support online and remote learning, but they may lack the knowledge and skills to effectively utilize these technologies. 

Figure 2. Survey. (Krieg, u.d.).

    As the list of potential ICT topics to explore and  develop is virtually endless, it is important that we  narrow down and identify the key topics of interest and  necessary skills required of our colleagues to ensure the  PD we provide is relevant and meaningful. One way of  collecting the necessary data to determine what areas of  ICT to focus PD initiatives on is through conducting a  needs assessment. A needs assessment can either be  informal, such as through conversations with  colleagues,  or they can be formal, such as through a  survey or poll. Google Forms is a great tool for  surveying teachers needs and interests. 

Host Workshops and PD Sessions: As teacher-librarians, we are educational leaders within our school community. As leaders it often expected that we provide staff with formal professional development through hosting workshops and PD sessions. Depending on the needs of the school, on scheduled inservice programming designated by the district and on the advisement of your administrators, you might host these workshops during a scheduled PD day at your school or you might host them during a staff meeting or after school hours. There are many resources for school leaders to assist in providing PD sessions and workshops, such as the Instructions for Conducting a Workshop from MediaSmarts which supports workshop facilitators in utilizing MediaSmarts resources to teach educators about digital literacy. Just as with planning a lesson for students, be sure to have a clear objective when planning PD and be sure that this objective is relevant to your audience. Most importantly, be sure to design your workshops to be interactive, collaborative and learner centred. Teachers need the opportunity to relate what you are teaching them to their own practice in a practical way. As Katya Rucker (2018) suggests in her article The Six Flaws of "Traditional" Professional Development, rather than treat teachers as passive learners, "the majority of workshop time should be reserved for teacher collaboration, feedback and reflection as participants analyze student work and model new strategies in real time with each other" (para. 4). 

Lunch and Learn: 

Figure 3. Lunch and Learn. (Clinic Sense, 2020). 

One of the obstacles teachers face in regards to professional development is time. Hosting a mini PD session in the school library or in the staff room during lunch hours is a great way to provide additional support to your colleagues, without cutting into their personal time. Once you have established some ICT topics to focus on, schedule a few lunch and learn workshops. These can build upon topics you've covered in formal workshops and sessions, they can be a one time focus, or they can be part of a series you develop. Be sure to promote these opportunities to staff, highlighting the benefits of their participation. Some may be reluctant to give up their only break during the day, so it is important that staff are aware of how your sessions can support their practice and professional development. You could even offer to provide refreshments to encourage their attendance! 

Figure 4. EdTech. (EdTech, 2019).

Update and Promote the Professional Collection: Most school libraries house a collection of professional materials for teachers and staff. Evaluate the current collection and weed as necessary. Request feedback from staff on which materials they found useful and which were unhelpful or irrelevant.
You can also ask for teachers to present suggestions or requests for materials they believe would be helpful in developing their ICT knowledge and skills. Consult with other teacher-librarians to find out which resources they have been contributing to their collections and how they have benefited their staff members. Go online and find up-to-date reviews on the most current books and resources available to find quality, suitable resources for your collection. Magazine subscriptions to educational technology magazines such as EdTech or online digital magazine subscriptions are another way to help keep your teaching colleagues up-to-date on ICT in education. 

Create a Platform to Share Resources and Upcoming Events: As leaders within the school community, teacher-librarians should have a platform for sharing new and relevant information and PD opportunities with staff. Create a blog or social media account that your teaching colleagues can subscribe to or follow. Use your platform to not only share about PD you will be providing, but also to share about other PD opportunities that teachers may be interested in. These could be sessions or workshops held by an organization or institution or they could be online virtual conferences, webinars, or self-directed courses. For example, you may want to share with them about the upcoming ISTE20 LIVE conference, which offers a multitude of learning opportunities related to ICT which teachers can browse through according to grade level or topic. You could also share self-directed courses which teachers could complete on their own time, such as the MediaSmarts self-directed tutorial on digital literacy for educators, or the Building a PLN course from Teacher Challenge. Webinars and podcasts can also beneficial in supporting the development of your colleagues ICT skills and pedagogy, such as the webinar on enhancing teaching with technology from Common Sense Education and The Google Teacher Podcast which "is designed to give K-12 educators practical ideas for using G Suite and other Google tools in classrooms and schools"  (Miller & Bell, 2020). 

Figure 5. Google Teacher Podcast. (Miller & Bell, 2020). 

Connect and Collaborate: Once you have established your own professional social media presence as a teacher-librarian, encourage your teaching colleagues to do the same and to establish a professional learning network. For those who are new to online networking, you could suggest they begin with completing the Building a PLN self-paced online course which provides teachers with guidance through process of building a PLN, with a focus on using Twitter. This is a great resource for those who are just beginning to create an online presence and to network. For a more detailed description of what the course offers, see my previous post The Importance of Professional Development and Networking as an Educator. Be sure to connect with your teaching colleagues through these platforms and model how to use them effectively by regularly sharing your own learning, work, collaborations, achievements and anything else you feel is relevant to supporting their professional journey. 

Figure 6. Learning with a PLN. (edublogs, 2018).

References:

Clinic Sense. (2020). Lunch & Learn [Image]. Retrieved 23 October 2020, from https://clinicsense.com/blog/2020/04/21/clinicsense-community-idea-lunch-learn/.

Duckworth, S. (2015). 10 Things Teachers Want for Professional Development [Image]. Retrieved 23 October 2020, from https://plpnetwork.com/2015/08/28/10-teachers-professional-development/.

EdTech Magazine. (2019). EdTech [Image]. Retrieved 23 October 2020, from https://edtechmagazine.com/k12/magazine/issue/2019/1/winter-2019.

edublogs. (2018). Learning with a PLN [Image]. Retrieved 20 October 2020, from https://teacherchallenge.edublogs.org/pln-making-connections/

Hyndman, B. (2018). 10 Reasons Teachers Can Struggle To Use Technology In The Classroom. The Conversation. Retrieved 22 October 2020, from https://theconversation.com/ten-reasons-teachers-can-struggle-to-use-technology-in-the-classroom-101114.

K-12 Digital Literacy Training Workshop. Mediasmarts.ca. (2020). Retrieved 16 October 2020, from https://mediasmarts.ca/sites/mediasmarts/files/tutorials/digital-literacy-training/k-6/.

Krieg. (2020). Survey [Image]. Retrieved 23 October 2020, from https://sharpencx.com/blog/encourage-customer-satisfaction-surveys/.

Marshall, J. (2016). Needs Assessment: What Do You Need Most?. Retrieved 23 October 2020, from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/117001/chapters/Needs-Assessment@-What-Do-You-Need-Most%C2%A2.aspx.

Miller, M., & Bell, K. (2020). Google Teacher Podcast [Image]. Retrieved 23 October 2020, from.

Miller, M., & Bell, K. (2020). Subscribe - Google Teacher Podcast. Google Teacher Podcast. Retrieved 23 October 2020, from https://googleteacherpodcast.com/subscribe.

Robison, W. (2016). Professional Development- Technology Integration [Video]. Retrieved 20 October 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMhokHM8YAg&feature=youtu.be.

Rucker, K. (2018). The Six Flaws of “Traditional” Professional Development [Blog]. Retrieved 23 October 2020, from https://www.gettingsmart.com/2018/02/the-six-flaws-of-traditional-professional-development/.

Toor, R. & Weisburg, H.K. (2015). New on the Job: a School Librarians Guide to Success, Second Edition. Chicago: ALA Editions.