Personal PD

Throughout my education and career thus far, I have experienced a variety of different PD opportunities, from those that were mandated through the school division, to those that I was able to attend myself based on my interests and learning goals.

Each year our school division has a two day conference which all teachers must attend. Often these sessions are held in August right before the school year begins. We have had a number of notable presenters and educational theorists, such as Sandra Herbst, Damien Cooper and Mike Mattos. I really enjoyed listening to Damien Cooper last year as he provided some great suggestions for making effective assessments and a better framework for understanding the key components of assessment. The only downside to these conferences however, is that the sessions are often very general, as the speaker must cater to teachers from pre-kindergarten to high school level. I commonly prefer PD which can be catered to teachers’ levels and subject areas so that they can provide applicable examples and direct examples which could be implemented in my own classroom. As teachers, we are constantly struggling to find time outside of teaching time to prepare and improve our materials, so if the material that is presented is not adapted to meet my subject area, I find that I often get caught up in my day to day work, and don’t have time to alter and change the presenters’ ideas to meet my needs. This reaffirms the main idea in the document entitled, What is Effective Teacher Professional Development, from the Canadian Education Association, which suggests that “teachers need to have the chance to put what they learned into practice and to reflect on how new ideas and teaching approaches work within their classrooms; and that students are more successful when teachers have meaningful, ongoing, PD opportunities.”

Our division has also started a PD program for first year teachers, where we were able to meet once every other month for a full day with fellow first year teachers and more experienced teachers and mentors in our school division. I found these days to be highly worthwhile as we were able to not only learn more about initiatives within our board, but we could also spend this time working with other first year teachers to share resources, problem solve, and ask more experienced mentors for assistance in any areas which we were struggling. These meetings were a great way for us to establish connections with other teachers and to learn from their experiences, which is one of the key indicators of effective PD as suggested by the Canadian Education Association. By giving us a choice about the direction these meetings took, we were able to cater these PD sessions to meet our individual needs and learning goals. As a first year teacher it was nice to listen to experiences of other teachers and reflect on the outcomes in our own classroom throughout the year- rather than just having one meeting. I also had the chance in my first year to attend a first year teacher conference in Saskatoon with first year teachers from across the province. This opportunity provided us with a great opportunity to network with one another and learn more about the profession and benefits through the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation (STF). By learning more about our rights and the logistics behind the profession, we were better able to maintain a safe and effective learning environment within our own classrooms.In the future I would like to continue to focus my PD opportunities around the flipped classroom and new mathematics and science initiatives (such as robotics). I am also very interested in technology (which is the reason I am taking this course), and would like to continue to take courses/attend PD sessions focused on integrating technology within the classroom as the students we are teaching today are digital natives and often are more interested in subjects such as math and science when technology can be integrated. The only challenge which I have faced as a result of these PD sessions, is trying to get new technology and programs approved by the board for classroom use. Sometimes this process can be highly lengthy, and as a result, I am not able to integrate new initiatives in a timely manner at which point there may be newer technology available to use.