I left the March session with George feeling inspired and refreshed, two things all teachers need this time of year. Here are three reasons why I felt so inspired and refreshed, and why this was a PD day that I’ll never forget.

Literacy. George reaffirmed to me that literacy isn’t just reading and writing. It is communicating! We all have students who struggle to read and write, and sometimes it feels like we’re trying the same things and expecting growth, expecting a different result. The student created videos that George shared with us, along with the story he shared about his father learning to read and write English using Facebook, showed me another more powerful way to help me teach literacy to my struggling students.

Cursive writing. George’s commentary on how cursive writing is important to some parents but just not as important in today’s age really resonated with me. This is the idea that education is changing in such a profound way, and that change is coming soon! As educators we don’t teach certain things because they aren’t important to us. This can not be an excuse any more. We owe it to our students to be the “guinea pigs” in learning about how to utilize social media for greater purposes, in order to truly help our students become innovators. We must constantly be learning, and finding ways to teach skills to kids that will be important to them in their future. You don’t have to grow up with something to be confident in teaching it!

Practical. The most influential PDs are those that give teachers strategies and ideas to implement into their teaching the very next day. The ideas George shared with us about how to engage students, and facilitate and celebrate their learning were very useful and as I mentioned earlier, inspiring. From Twitter to Google Forums to videos, to social media safety, there were dozens of ideas where a teacher could “jump in” with the very next day of school.

I went back to work the next day with some different ideas of what it means to engage students, and what it is going to take for teachers to prepare them for their future. I am excited that I will also be joining them on this journey, and for what I will learn next.

 

Dan Bohemier

Norquay School

Cluster 1965