Gail's Future Digital Learning Hub

When I reflect upon my role as Project Site Director responsible for the professional development of over 50 full and part time teachers, I often find myself wondering if there is a better way to mentor and coach teachers who are in different buildings.  We have only 5 PD days per year allotted on the school calendar. This limited time is inadequate to coach and mentor Early Childhood Professionals in the regular demands of the curriculum, PCF/PAF, NAEYC Accreditation requirements, plus guide them each in professional development and continuing education to meet the new State requirements for EC teachers. Having a well planned and maintained learning hub would help me reach each teacher more often, provide one-on-one scaffolding and support to meet their needs better.  This HUB would help me to work smarter not harder.

My first goal is to create a website for my staff to utilize as a resource for professional development guidance, training opportunities, timely news, articles and research in ECE; as well as, a place to meet and share ideas.

The tools I would embed on the website would be:

• Links to trainings for Teaching Strategies Gold Assessment webinars.
• videos of master teachers/best practice/DAP (SchoolTube)
• Calendar with Department PD and assessment dates
• Face to Face Meeting place (Google Hangout)
• Padlet:
•  A space for teachers to share ideas/activities/lesson plans
• For teachers to post pictures of "brilliant ideas"
• To post videos of what teachers are doing well to share
• Post articles of interest for teachers to read and reflect on each week
• Post relevant trainings offered off site
• Blogger.com
• I would initiate a blog for teachers to post to and encourage them to begin starting their own blog

All of this would require an initial face to face PD 1/2 day, coupled with coaching to scaffold for teachers individually based on their technology comfort level.

I am very excited by the early planning stages of this component of my own professional goals, to be a more present director, even though I am offsite.  I believe most of my teachers will be enthusiastic to use newer technology tools to enhance their own teaching, share their ideas and feel supported in their roles.

In our readings last semester about Digital natives and the Net Generation, I have come to understand that teachers who work with even the youngest students must become digitally literate, in order to lay the groundwork for digital citizenship, and to model for and teach basic technology skills for those children who do not have access to technology in their daily lives.