Sharing Good Practice
ONE TEACHER’S JOURNEY TO PERSONALISED
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ONLINE.
By Kate Jones
I
n recent years I have undertaken
a lot of my own personalised
professional
development.
A
significant part of this has been
through my reading in various guises.
Whether it's been reading blogs,
reading books, educational magazines
or through engaging in sharing my
own findings, through my own practice
online via social media such as Twitter. I
have developed my career to a position
which is almost unrecognisable, to
where I was in my career six years ago.
It was two years ago, after a suggestion
from my Deputy Headteacher, at the
time, I joined Twitter, setting up a
professional account. Initially, I thought
this idea was odd and I couldn’t
understand the link between social
media and professional development.
However, quickly after signing up,
I found there were lots of teachers
online to follow that were tweeting
about teaching and blogging about
their
classroom,
differentiation,
growth mindset, leadership - if it was
connected to education someone,
somewhere was writing about it!
This was a revelation to me. At first, I
was a reluctant tweeter, instead, just
absorbing all the advice, words of
wisdom and experience, that teachers
were sharing so freely and openly.
Every time I logged into Twitter, I
learnt something new and found a new
educator to connect with. I continually
learn from others and gain inspiration
from the teaching community online.
Eventually, I started sharing some of
the ideas and resources that I had
been using in my classroom with
my pupils. Teachers would like and
retweet and provide feedback. Then
teachers would get in touch to say they
had used or adapted my resource, to
use with their pupils. This was amazing
and filled me with pride, knowing I
was having a small influence inside a
classroom in a different part of the
world, with teachers and pupils I had
never even met! This sharing online
then led to being asked to share my
ideas at events such as TeachMeet
and conferences. Last year, I decided
that 140 characters was not enough
to be able to fully explain the concept
and context behind the resources I
was sharing, so I then set up my own
teaching blog; lovetoteach87.com.
Blogging is wonderful. It allows me to
share what happens in my classroom
with the rest of the world. Blogging is
also great for reflecting and I think that
is key to getting better and continually
improving - being a reflective teacher.
I reflect about what worked well, how
the lesson or parts of the lesson could
be improved, I carry out research and
I feel I am continuing to grow and
progress as a teacher as a result.
Finally, my main advice for getting
better at getting better, is to take
control of your own personalised
professional
development.
Get
connected online as it provides
professional development at your
fingertips. Read as much as you can
from blogs, magazines and books
- dedicate the time to reading and
reflecting. Build your professional
learning network, this can be online or
through face to face interaction. Also,
getting better at what we do, is part
of the ongoing learning process, it is
never ending so it is for us to decide
which career path we take and we can
take more control of that.
I am Head of History and qualified Lead Practitioner at Brighton College Al Ain.
In August 2016, after six years teaching in the UK, I relocated to the UAE to teach
and live in the region. I am blogging and sharing teaching and learning ideas
for every classroom via my website Lovetoteach87.com and you can follow my
Twitter account @87History
Class Time
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Sep - Oct 2017
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