Professional Learning Plan

This exercise of visualizing my Professional Learning Plan has been beneficial to me.  I think the process of working through some of the suggested questions in the Portfolio rubric and also reflecting back on my Personal Growth Plan from CEP 810, was a thoughtful endeavor that I'm not sure I would have carried out without direction to do so.  I'm glad I had the opportunity to indulge in this process because it forced me to acknowledge the progress I have made, which is so much more than I could have ever imagined prior to enrolling in the CEP program.  And, I have purposely mapped out a plan for myself to continue learning, that I'm sure I will follow because it is an actual plan, not just an intention.

The transcript of my presentation is below.  I have created a my Professional Learning Plan in a Prezi presentation using a technology that I have never used before.  Thanks to my group mate, Suzanne, I was inspired to use Screencast-o-matic to record the narration and capture my Personal Learning Plan Prezi presentation.  It was great fun using a technology I haven't used before with one that I have.

What makes sense to me, as I consider my Professional Learning Plan, is to create a visual representation so that I can lay out all the aspects of my professional and personal learning goals.  A visual representation illustrates for me the various branches that stem from the knowledge I’ve gained since enrolling in the CEP program at MSU.  I tend to think in metaphors, and trees are wonderful metaphors of learning.  We start of with just a seed of knowledge.  We get water from the guidance we are given by others who have gone before us.  We get nutrients from the ground, which is the knowledge we choose to absorb from the world.  If we get the right amounts of water and nutrients, we become a tree of knowledge whose branches grow thick and spread, as our knowledge grows thick and spreads.  Finally, our leaves bloom so that our knowledge can be witnessed and bestowed upon others.

As we learned in the last weeks of CEP 812, it is just as important to reflect on personal learning as it is to develop professional skills.  As I begin this process, I consider three categories of previous professional learning.  One iss my work at Henry Ford Community College in creating four online classes.  Another element is conferences that I have attended, one of which was the recent EduTech Conference at MSU.  

Finally, I reflect on my courses in the MSU CEP program.  I revisited my Personal Growth Plan, which was one of the first assignments I completed all the way back in CEP 810.  What I’ve discovered through this revisitation is “I’ve come a long way, baby!”  

I stated in that Plan that I’d wanted to expand my general knowledge of technologies so that I could instruct students on selecting technologies that would develop their 21st century skills.  I feel I have certainly accomplished that!  In my Personal Growth Plan, I also stated that I wanted to be fluent in RSS feeds and blogs, which really makes me laugh given my extensive use of blogs in all three CEP courses.  I never would have fathomed I would be so comfortable with blogging before I started this program.  And, I indicated that I would like to become more fluent in social networking.  I can check that off the list having used Twitter and Google + for all kinds of assignments in this program.

As I progress in reviewing my Personal Growth Plan, I notice I mentioned I envision being able to provide students with a seamless educational experience wherein their learning in the classroom can be meshed with their learning in life.  This is an ongoing project that I must address as I continue to sprout new branches and continue to grow into a tree of knowledge.

I visualize growing and blooming leaves in several areas.  

Firstly, I’d like to enhance my Social Networking with students.  I’d like to use Twitter and other social networking tools to allow students to connect with each other, me, or our course material outside of class time.  My thought is that I’d like them to have a forum in where they can “deposit” information as a way to bring others into their learning moments outside of class.  My first experiments will be with Twitter and then maybe Facebook.  I plan on starting a Twitter feed for my three online sections next semester that will serve as a place where students can tweet about conversations or experiences they have, people they meet, places they visit, symbols they notice, and the like, that is related to our course material, which is world religions.  I feel like these learning moments are probably more significant than the ones that happen in class.  We now have the technology for networking at any place and time, so I’d like to seize those learning moments.  I’d like students to share those learning moments with our whole class.  I think this will enhance overall learning, make the learning process more enjoyable as well as reinforce 21st century skills.

There is another area that I wish to grow.  I want to increase my Personal Learning Network and spend real, quality time engaging in learning communities in order to keep up with emerging educational technology.  I want to build Personal Learning time into my days as part of my work schedule.  This is such valuable time well spent that will only make all the other hours of work so much more productive.  I want to have a Personal Learning hour each day so that I can continue to grow, giving me the knowledge to lead my students in their growth.  I’m thinking this will be my “coffee hour” in the morning.  I can read through my RSS Reader feeds to get just the information I’d like to absorb to strengthen my knowledge overall.  

I will also begin using what I have learned in the CEP courses in order to grow in practice, not just theory.  Next semester, I will not be taking any classes at MSU, which will free me up to integrate a whole, very large, list of educational technologies that I have learned about through the CEP courses, into the courses that I teach, which will all be online.  I’m going to require students to work through my WPP, which is a website on plagiarism.  I’m actually going to require this of all 90 students during the first week of our semester.  I will then assign them a writing assignment, in which they will be required to discuss copyright law, while employing proper citation methods.  Plagiarism is a wicked problem right now, so I feel this will be very beneficial to students and to me.  I’m also going to use the technology I learned through our Group Leadership Project, which is Google Hangout and hold weekly Hangouts with students on particular topics, record them and post them on YouTube.  I hoping this will broaden their understanding of our topics as well as identify specific problems students may be having as they read through the class material.  And, I’m going to create some really good instructor introduction pieces for each new unit using technologies like Voki, GoAnimate, and even Mindomo concept mapping, which will map out our tasks for the week.  I’m going to use all these technologies to teach students and I’m also going to create some assignments in which students have the opportunity to express what they have learned using these technologies as well.

Another way I can grow is to keep learning more.  I plan on applying to the MSU MAET program, which I will do as soon as I am finished with CEP 812.  I loved every minute of the Certificate Program and I want more.  I’m hoping that I am accepted into the program so that I can discover what else I don’t know and learn that.  

I plan on attending more conferences, possibly the MACUL conference this year, continue to develop my PLN, and be sure to build in Professional Learning Time each and every day.

21st century skills are not a focus in many of our schools in the United States, and I’d like to help change that.  Maybe I can make small changes in the lives of some students now, that will help them to make bigger and better changes in our world in the future.

The future is bright, I can grow, and the possibilities are endless.