Professional Development Meme 2009

This meme is circulating around the edublogosphere and I thought it was very motivating. I first heard about it on Twitter, and then again from LoonyHiker at Successful Teaching and Clif Mims at ClifNotes. I wasn't tagged -- but they say anyone can participate! I invite all my readers to do so. (Are there any readers? LOL)

FishEyeLearningDirections

Summer can be a great time for professional development. It is an opportunity to learn more about a topic, read a particular work or the works of a particular author, beef up an existing unit of instruction, advance one’s technical skills, work on that advanced degree or certification, and finish many of the other items on our ever-growing To Do Lists. Let’s make Summer 2009 a time when we actually get to accomplish a few of those things and enjoy the thrill of marking them off our lists. Although this meme is somewhat US-centric because we have our long break in June and July, those overseas could still set some goals to reach before the next milestone, i.e. end of term, prior to next school year, before the next break, etc.

The Rules

* Pick 1-3 professional development goals and commit to achieving them this summer.
* For the purposes of this activity the end of summer will be Labor Day (09/07/09).
* Post the above directions along with your 1-3 goals on your blog.
* Title your post Professional Development Meme 2009 and link back/trackback to http://clifmims.com/blog/archives/2447.
* Use the following tag/ keyword/ category on your post: pdmeme09.
* Tag 5-8 others to participate in the meme.
* Achieve your goals and “develop professionally.”
* Commit to sharing your results on your blog during early or mid-September.

My Goals

* Rework my personal and teaching sites into either blog or wiki formats. Having a static site has been a problem for a year or two; I can do better.
* Present and share generously with other educators in my field as often as possible, especially in association with the Oracle Education Foundation. So far I have 1 lined up for Project-Based Learning and another on Digital Storytelling.
* Move forward with a PLN/EdTech Learning cohort I started way back in March, along with participating in a new 21st Century Learning PLC just beginning in my school district.
* Attend as many virtual National Educational Computing Conference and TIE Colorado sessions as possible since I can't go to either one this year.
* Finish (at the very least) Brain Rules (John Medina), Classroom Habitudes (Angela Meiers), and Transforming Classroom Practice (Borthwick and Pierson).
* Learn some basic HMTL and CSS so I can get better at WordPress and web design.
* Learn from Twitter and my edtech blog reading lists but balance my screen time with life offline. This might be the most important goal of all.

I Tag…

(UNLESS you are already tagged or you are trying to unplug this summer)

1. Anyone setting goals to reach before school starts again next fall.
2. Anyone overseas setting goals to reach before end of term or next break.
3. Kate Olson of Kate Says
4. Marianne Stabile of A Teacher in Abu Dhabi
5. Julia Fallon
6. Scott Elias
7. Chris Clementi at Kidsnetsoft

Image credit: Trussville City Schools Curriculum and Instruction Department
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