You are your own PD

What makes a good learner? Learning takes critical thinking, problem-solving skills, greater effort, motivation, commitment, and task management. Pablo Picasso said, "I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it." Learning requires the commitment and motivation to acquire knowledge. As an educator, I need to be the leader of my own learning. It is my responsibility to grow in learning. Technology can feel scary to have in the classroom. There is a level of unknown. However, I need to be in charge of my learning. This is why, "You are your own PD" is the most important mindset. Being an educator isn't about knowing all, but being about finding all. 

Choose to cheat

The mindset that I haven't thought about prior to today is the choose to cheat mindset.  Everyone wants more time to do this or that but there never is enough time.  I have always tried to prioritize but I have a difficult time knowing / accepting things will be cheated.

Choose to Cheat

Using less time on grading or providing written feedback doesn't have to be a downfall.  You need to balance time between your family and your occupation.  Finding shortcuts, providing verbal praise and feedback, utilizing the advantages of technology, and borrowing ideas from your peers all help you still be effective and not lose your desire to keep learning... 

Choose to cheat

Huge issue in my life both at work and home.  Hard to keep a good balance. Blurred lines keep me guessing. Try to leave work at work.  Try to devote all efforts at work towards work. Once I leave the school building, I am no longer a teacher. I am a mom, youth leader, wife, etc. Don't focus on work at all. I am now trying to give the students time to do things in class more as well.  Giving them time to work in class gives them more time free to do other things.

You are your own best PD

As an educator, we are constantly striving to better our thinking strategies and find quicker solutions to get to the end objective. We try to find ways effective and efficient ways to problem solve and improve our classrooms and teaching methods by utilizing technology in our everyday lives.


The future is now! Choose to cheat! Always take the minimum dose and be a connected educator!

Minimum effective dose

As a dedicated mom and teacher, I want to do the best possible job at everything.  There are just aren't enough hours in the day...

You ARE your own best PD

I believe "you are your own best pd" is the best one because it all begins with you.  Your preparation, your mindset, your disposition, your desire...they all are extremely important to your success.  If you don't have a foundation of belief in what you're wanting to develop professionally, it will just be a huge waste of time.  You can cheat, do the minimum or get connected, but if YOU don't buy into it, it won't work.

You are you own best PD

I often tell students after a lesson that if they still have questions when they get home that there is nothing wrong with seeking out a video on youtube to further explain a concept. I often do the same thing when I want to seek out different ways to teach a lesson. Too many people are waiting for people to show them something when the answers are often a couple of clicks away.

Minimum effective dose

Less is more. If we hold their hands and do everything, students can not learn. Give directions and let them work through them.

Minimum effective dose

I think that is the best one for me to remember because I tend to be a perfectionist at times. In order to have a life I have to let things go.

Being the only one in my department, I think that this would be beneficial for different ideas, or projects that students could do.  It could also help with ideas on what works and what doesn't work in class, or different teaching styles you could use.

Choose to cheat

I have been an educator for over half of my life. For many of those years, I felt cheated because I sacrificed so much personal time in order to create lesson plans. Through the years, I have learned to give myself permission to back off a little. I feel this has not compromised my results, and I am much more relaxed in the classroom.

Connected Educator

I think that being a connected educator is important.  I learn so much from others.  The use of online resources allows me to continue to grow as an educator.  @kamsci

Minimum effective dose is what I need to strengthen the most so that I make the most of my time. I need to continue to work smarter not necessarily harder.

Choose to Cheat

Need to make sure to prioritize to manage life and school.  You might have to change the list day-to-day to make sure to give some time to be successful both in your life and your job.

Choose to Cheat

I like this one because I never have enough time to do all I need to do. I would like to be able to skip some things so I could feel like it is possible to do all I need to do!

Choose to cheat

I am in my 20th year of teaching. I have a tendency to reinvent the wheel every year. I operate on inspiration to run my classroom. What I find is that I get burned out or lack fire on a daily basis. My goal a few years ago I embraced project-based learning and gave learning ownership over to the students. It has not been perfect, but I was having "a-ha" moments weekly rather than 1 per semester. Recently our school shifted away from mandated PBL and split my team teaching combined class back to stand alone. I admit I was ready to move away from the integrated class, but I see that doing PBL alone is tougher than I expected. I am wrestling the content vs project battle. I want to push more content, but I feel like I am slipping back to traditional teaching. There is no accountability without a team teacher in the room. I am at a stage in my career where I need to get a fresh take on education and settle into a teaching philosophy that I can sustain. The crossroads leaves me at retire as a teacher or find a new job. I love education, but I need to find a new way.

-Harry

Minimum Dose

I choose "Minimum Dose" as the most important mindset. I use this mindset mostly when it comes to grading homework. As a physics teacher, usually the 1st set of homework after introducing a new section is not taken for a grade. That way, the students are free to make mistakes w/o a grade penalty. Also, many assignments are "completion" grades, where I may check for key words or as a gauge of understanding. Another way to minimize my work is when I do take homework for a grade - I count each answer as 2 points, 1 point for doing it and a 2nd point for getting it right. That way we can grade work as a class quickly. It doesn't matter why the student missed it; if it's wrong, it's a point off.
I also scan the solutions and then display my work for the class; the student can easily see where they went wrong.

MED

I have learned over the years to work smarter not harder. I try to get everything done at school during the day. Sometimes there isn’t enough time in the day to complete everything. I wish I would have known that it was ok not to grade everything when I started teaching 30 some years ago. I know I spent countless hours planning, grading, and re-planning lessons so that they would be perfect. I know I missed out on many hours that should have been spent with my own family. It is disappointing when you grade papers, make comments, and correct answers on a student’s paper, and all they do is look at the grade and never read the rest. The use of Edmodo, Skyward, sites like studyspanish.com and our on-line textbook simplify the art of grading.  

Finding Time

In my opinion, the most important mindset from the presentation is Choose to Cheat.  As a mother of two young boys, I need to decide how I am going to spend my time.  Some things are more important than others, and prioritization is key.  I cannot spend my whole night working on school work, so working "smarter, not harder" is key.  If I can cut some things out from my school work and still be highly effective, that's what I need to do.

Choose to cheat is critical for all educators to implement.  We are all stressed and pressed for time in balancing our school responsibilities with family, personal, social, etc lives outside the classroom.

Minimum Effective Dose

With standards, it is difficult to reach all standards to the extent that we want. Especially with history, we can't go in complete depth with all the standards, so doing just enough to get them to understand the material effectively is the way to go with some topics. Doing this allows for the bigger topics to be done more in depth, these usually being the topics most relatable to students or that have impacted history to the greatest extent.

YOU are your own best PD

I actually am in charge of creating our PDs every week and I agree with the mindset that you are your own best PD.  I know that if I need more information about something, the internet is the first place that I look.  But I do understand that not everyone has had the exposure to know good places to look for valid information.  The internet is so vast that it can definitely become overwhelming.  This is where it is important to give direction on good sources such as sites and apps such as Pinterest and Twitter handles, so teachers can scale down their search.  On the other hand, since the internet is so vast, teachers have endless resources to delve into, if given the time.

Minimum Standard Dosage

I chose to cheat, especially when my kids were little. Now that I am an empty nester, I am back into the mode of "I am free, so now I can do it all". Even though there are no more kids at home, I DO still have a husband and I would like to see him before he puts my picture on the side of a milk carton as missing.

Therefore, I am thinking that "what is the least amount I need to do in order to get the results I want" is a viable question. If I have what I think is a great idea, I want to pursue that in a lesson, when I have already almost exhausted that particular topic.  I HAVE the results, then it is now time to move on to the results I don't yet have. It is almost a matter of priority - my job, AND the Standard I am teaching.

Choose to Cheat

This is SO TRUE in ALL areas of life!  Everyone has said, "There's not enough time in the day."  The funny thing is that we all have the same amount of hours in our day, it's what we CHOOSE to do in those hours!  Figure out what is the most important and meaningful and make sure you make time for it.

Minimum effective dose...

I started this mindset in college...what is the minimum effort needed for the maximum return.  That being said, there are things that require maximum effort.  But, there are also the routine activities.  The more we teach, our efforts will continue to shift depending on the moment.  It is important to realize what is most important and focus our energies on that activities.

Someone captured it well when they said "work smarter, not harder."

Minimum Effective Dose

Minimum Effective Dose

This one is most important for me. I have regularly said,  "That isn't a big deal if I don't get it done right now or to be that precise." The kids don't care if I spent an hour coloring in the sign that goes on the wall or the bulletin board that is on the wall. They don't care if everything is put away neatly when they come in on Monday. At the young age, they make their own messes, they are part of their mess, often times it is what they are working on. 

Choose to Cheat

    For me everything revolves around time.  So, choosing to cheat will allow me to have the time to do everything else, even the other items on the option list such as being a connected educator, making time for PD and attempting to improve in many areas of my life with an MED.

Choose to Cheat

I believe that choose to cheat is the most important of the 4 items shared with us.  I cannot do everything that I "need" to do.  By choosing to cheat, such as using online grading, I can lessen some of the requirements of the job. The other 4 items are also important though!

Choose to Cheat

I never have enough time...there is always more to do.  I need to learn where I can choose to cheat so I can still have time with my family and do my job and take care of my other responsibilities well.

Minimum Effective Dose

Looking for the "less is more" mentality out of the classroom.  Getting students to complete things outside of the classroom is a major challenge.  Maximizing the time in class and reducing amount of expectations outside of class is the next best solution.

Just Choose a Few Nuggets

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