Wellknowlogy 3 General Information - Things Teachers are Going To Want To Know

Dates:

Monday, February 2, 2009 (K-8 teaching/admin. staff, K-12 E.A.s, and voluntary participation by SVRSS Staff)

Tuesday, February 3, 2009, (K-12 teaching/admin. staff, K-12 E.A.s)

Location: Mostly at SVRSS....Satellite sessions TBA

Soliciting Feedback (Again...)

Hey Everyone....

Since tomorrow our committee is scheduled to meet to discuss various items for the next academic year, I thought that I'd create another quick post and send an email reminder again about using this blog if you care to share with colleagues re: Professional Development experiences.

We're still very interested in direction from the SVSD Staff membership in planning activities, specifically in these areas:

1. Any/all personal reflections re: This year's February 2-day event?

2. Your ideas / discussion prompts about implications regarding changes to mileage, hotel, meals rates for PD?

3. Specific ideas/names for speakers / themes / ideas for next year's Divisional PD line-up?

Thanks in advance for commenting on this or any other post on the blog...

RM

image reference: http://image48.webshots.com/49/2/93/57/300129357sZrMEK_fs.jpg

Recent PD Survey

This post was indeed posted by me, but all due credit and admiration for the survey should be immediately directed to Statistician Extrodinaire, Fran Argue, for all the leg-work and creative analysis that went on prior to you reading what's contained below...

Thanks, Fran, on behalf of your fellow committee members...

RM

Our PD survey was a great success, with 85% return rate (not including MMY, sorry!) Here are your results:

#1 71% of you said "yes, I took PD"

19% of you said "no, I did not take PD"

10% of you said "unsure"

#2 Distances you travelled can be summarized as follows:

0-200 km 13

200-500 km 22

500-1000 km 27

Over 1000 km 9

No travel required 4

#3 Factors given in not participating in PD can be summarized as follows:

Cost – 11; family – 4; time – 12; lack of info – 4; other – 7

In the "other" category – reasons were given as follows: distance to travel in one day, relevancy to their teaching, winter travel concerns, time spent on school Extra-curricular activities.

From our last question regarding any other concerns, we had remarks from 59 surveys (out of 96 returns). Out of those responses, 27 of you, most of whom are already going to PD sessions, expressed concerns over cost factors – be it mileage, meals, hotel, or rules regarding use of our school division van. Other concerns included time issues because of our proximity to Winnipeg, mid-week sessions and an expectancy to get back to work the following day, and our ongoing lack of substitute teachers and their availability.

As a committee, we are interested in your feedback on the survey. Feel free to make a comment on these results and support us in our efforts to support you.

Your Thoughts and Opinions in One Convenient Location

Hey everyone,

Your local Professional Development Committee continues to meet, to plan, to discuss, and think through professional development needs for the future. The purpose of this post (and possibly this blog) is to solicit advice, opinions, and 'direction' needs for planning future events according the mission statement / mandate of this committee.

Please feel free to comment below this post as a way of getting your needs and thoughts circulating throughout the division, and specifically to the PD committee itself. I've left some discussion topics at the bottom of this post in a little larger font to possibly help initiate some of those discussions. I understand that everyone is 'time-crunched', but I also understand that during the months of September to the end of June, that's not going to change any time soon.

If you have kudos, by all means leave a few, and if your criticisms are helpful for planning our way in the future, we would welcome those as well....

Since this is a blog, I'm just going to remind everyone that anonymous comments will disappear from the post, (obviously).

POINTS OF DISCUSSION:

1. Your thoughts/opinions about the 2 PD days we had in February?

2. Interest/ideas for planning PD events for next year?

3. Ideas about amendments to current SVSD remuneration rates (i.e. mileage, hotels, meals, etc.)?

4. Specific ideas/names/contacts for out of SVSD PD speakers/facilitators?

5. Anything else you'd like to discuss...

Thanks....

image host: http://www.acoustix.com/images/Acoustix/AX%20Joel/we%20want%20YOU.jpg

...But October is coming soon!!!

...via the convenors of the conference, several of whose blogs I read...K12 Online Conference is a 'go' again this year, and as someone who participated on the periphery of the 'get-together', I'm going to have to highly recommend attendance if you're interested in this whole education connectedness via the web idea. Dates for this year are "October 15-19 and October 22-26 of 2007, and will include a preconference keynote during the week of October 8. This year’s conference theme is “Playing with Boundaries.” " (copied from the conference blog)

Here's some reasons to think about attending this year's conference...

Call them the top 5 reasons (I couldn't think of 10 quickly)....

5. You can wear your pajamas to the keynote presentations.

4. ...or better yet, do what I did last year and download them to your PC or your mp3 or video player to view/listen whenever you like.

3. No mileage to incur, nor wear and tear on your vehicle.

2. You can participate in the chats (or just listen); you can leave (and read) comments about the conference; you can network with other teachers and education-types from across the globe, literally.

and the number one reason (since teachers sometimes have a reputation involving frugality?)...

1. It's free!!!

Here's the link again, and the call for proposals is currently on now, so maybe some interested folks from the Valley will be presenting, who knows?

RM

November is a Long Time From Now...

But, as Lorne Henkelman recently pointed out, via ManACE (Manitoba's Special Area Group 'Association of Computing Educators' ), I think the acronym stands for...there will be some local opportunities here in the Swan River Valley for those teachers/administrators interested in some technology sessions.

Here's the lineup, in no particular order:

1. Make 'n Take Digital Story with Janet Martin and Rob McDonald

2. Web 2.0 Collaboration; An ‘Un’-Presentation with Tracy Maksymchuk and Ryan Maksymchuk

3. 3D Modeling Made Easy with Google Sketch-up with George van der Walt

4. Creating Your Personal Learning Environment with Derek Henkelman and Lorne Henkelman

Date for SAG is set at November 23, 2007, and details from ManACE about registration will be forthcoming in the fall publication as always. If anyone knows about any other sessions being offered, please forward them to me or to your school's PD committee rep. for uploading to this blog. Thanks, Lorne!

[photo credit: http://www.ethelbertmb.com/rec.html]