The opportunities for teacher professional development are endless. To enhance and enrich my knowledge as a future educator, I have attended various professional development workshops. The insight and understanding that was presented at these workshops helped to provide me with a better foundation of different teaching practices, strategies and theories. These workshops also have helped to guide me and impact my own teaching philosophy. I feel that it is very important for me to engage in such life long learning to help deepen my knowledge as an educator and to keep myself updated on the current programs that are being used in various schools. It is important to me that I continue to grow in gaining a wealth of knowledge.
Rationale #1: Professional Development: Chilliwack SmartLearning
Date: August 25-26, 2008
Location: Kipp Centre, Chilliwack
One of the professional development workshop that I attended was on August 27-28, 2008 called the Chilliwack SmartLearning Program. It is filed under standard 7 because it is a program t
hat has advanced my learning on the district programs. The SmartLearning Program is based on reading enrichment but could essentially be used for any subject in the classroom. It has been adapted by the Chilliwack School district from New Westminster's Susan Close's model. The workshop provided all attendants with a toolbox of strategies and steps to use to help students learn to develop inference when reading any type of material. The program is done on a nine step sequence starting with setting a goal, accessing prior knowledge, predicting, questioning, reading in chunks, responding, synthesizing and interpreting, generating new ideas, noticing and then setting new goals. It is a great program that can be modified and adapted to suit all grade levels and can really provide the growth of students' reading comprehension abilities.The skills that I have gained from the workshop will help me with my future literacy teachings in that I will have a greater understanding on how to encourage the students to use critical thinking and make connections to the material. I used many of the strategies from SmartLearning in my long practicum for various subjects. It is a tool that will help me prompt the students to engage in deeper thinking rather than just surface analysis. This will help me teach the students to think about their own thinking(metacognition) and the nine steps can be utilized throughout all subject areas.
Rationale #2: Professional Development: Talking Tables
Date: October 24, 2008
Location: Kipp Centre, Chilliwack
On October 24,2008, I attended another professional development workshop on a Kindergarten oral language program called Talking Tables. This artifact is filed under Standard 7 because it facilitates to learning about new programs and teaching tools that can be used in the classroom. The workshop was presented by Susan Crowley from Prince Rupert. Susan was one of the creators of this program that has been introduced into the districts in the Fraser Valley. The program's goal is to "Show recognition that talk is central to learning and that through talking and listening, the capacity to gain literacy skills is enhanced"(Susan Crowley). This program is essentially designed for Kindergarten children but can be adapted for classrooms up to grade three. The program is a great communication tool to help students improve their oral language. Oral language accounts for 40-60% of the type of learning that takes place in Kindergarten and this program address all but one of the PLO's concerning oral language development.
I went to this workshop because I had heard about it in the Chilliwack schools. I wanted to keep my knowledge base growing and my options open as I am still unaware of the grade level I will teach in the future. Although, through my experiences with various grade levels, I have seen that many students lack the communication skills. This is a great program that will help me enrich the students' means of oral communication, will help encourage them to take part in the classroom learning and will be easily adaptable. I actually had the opportunity to use the Talking Tables program during my school visits and long practicum and really liked how receptive the students were when using it. The program seems to help the ESL children to learn the words that are used everyday in the classroom. I think it is a great model for teaching oral language and I would definitely modify the lessons to suit the needs of my own students'.
Rationale #3: Additional Professional Development
Restitution in the Classroom, April 2009
- Speaker Nancy Murray
- West Heights Elementary
Teaching Physical Education Workshop, February 2009
- Presented by Chilliwack Primary Teacher's Association
- Speaker Carla Thompson
Formative Assessment, December 2008
- Presented by Chilliwack School District at Chilliwack Kipp Centre
Talking Tables, October 2008
- Presented by Susan Crowley
- Chilliwack School District Pro-D Day
- Chilliwack Kipp Centre
Behaviours and Expectations, October 2008
- Presented by Chilliwack Primary Teacher・s Association
- Speakers Carmen Hartman and Stacey Johnston
Words Their Way, September 2008
- Presented by Chilliwack District school teachers
- Chilliwack Kipp Centre
Journalling and All That Jazz, September 2008
- Presented by Diane Cruchley
- How to utilize journalling and picture books
TOC: Starting up your class successfully, August 2008
- Presented by Ray Myrtle
- Abbotsford Teacher Association Office
Smart Learning(reading), August 2008
- Chilliwack Kipp Centre
- Smart Reading program modified by Chilliwack School District