Professional Development Meme

May 29, 2008

I had this great professor in college.  He was always challenging us to try new things, to push the envelope, to be ever growing educators.  Truthfully, as a word person, his ideas about numbers and technology were pretty intimidating for me.  And his classes were hard.  They were uncomfortable and they weren’t what I was good at doing, and the content he taught– math, science, technology– I’m still not great at those things.  But I’m a better teacher because of him and he’s still challenging me to do more, to go beyond the expected, and to involve my kids in some phenomenal learning.

He’s given me the chance to write about technology on his website.  I never thought I’d do that.  Write?  Maybe.  About technology?  Not so much.  But I did write about teaching with technology and my one thing made it onto his website.  He let me write about my very first day of teaching, too.  The day I wondered what in the world I’d gotten myself into and if I’d ever make it out.  He posted that piece as well and has shared other things from this site generously and I’m grateful.

Now, he’s challenging me again.  Challenging me to set goals just like I did in college.  To set goals, to write them down and to work toward them.  Professional goals.  (Oh, wow.  Am I really a professional?  Like a grown up?)  Maybe I am.  So, here goes.  I mean, he did tag me.  On with the Professional Development Meme.

My Goals

1. Write something and submit it for publication.  (oh, gosh.  what am I saying?)
2. Improve grammatical and conversational Spanish.
3. Plan and implement guided reading groups.

Directions

Summer can be a great time for professional development. It is an opportunity to learn more about a topic, read a particular work or the works of a particular author, beef up an existing unit of instruction, advance one’s technical skills, work on that advanced degree or certification, pick up a new hobby, and finish many of the other items on our ever-growing To Do Lists. Let’s make Summer 2008 a time when we actually get to accomplish a few of those things and enjoy the thrill of marking them off our lists.

The Rules

1. Pick 3 professional development goals and commit to achieving them this summer.
2. For the purposes of this activity the end of summer will be Labor Day (09/01/08).
3. Post the above directions along with your 3 goals on your blog.
4. Title your post Professional Development Meme and link back/trackback to http://clifmims.com/blog/archives/353.
5. Use the following tag/ keyword/ category on your post: pdmeme.
6. Tag 8 others to participate in the meme.
7. Achieve your goals and “develop professionally.”
8. Commit to sharing your results on your blog during early or mid-September.

I Tag

• Southern Rumors
• Anna Polsgrove
• Lindsay in Korea
  
• Summer
• Blake Thompson
• Pat Ward
• Frandom
• Stephen and Lexie (but I don’t know how to link them)

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