CPD Team

The “On Our Doorstep” event on the 17 March at Stirling Management Centre provided an opportunity for 37 colleagues to reflect on the potential of partners  in providing CPD for all teachers from sources which may previously have not been  seen as relevant unless working in specialist services.
The presentation from the independent sector outlined their model of CPD and partnership working ; the school library service was profiled as a  source of collaborative working in addressing , for example , literacy across the curriculum; psychological services was presented as another viable resource for all teachers , particularly highlighting the source of reference materials available on line ; a CD Rom produced by Social Work  Services for We Can & Must Do Better for Looked After Children is full of information and suggestions on how to deal with a range of issues which are not unique to children who are looked after; guidance being finalised by the Allied Health Professionals in partnership with Education rehearses examples of collaborative working in schools which has relevance for all staff.

The information and approaches suggested by the contributors has relevance to all the key agendas impacting on the profession – CfE : GIRFEC & ASL. We would encourage colleagues to explore these avenues which provides teachers with independent access to CPD as well as providing focus for collegiate discussion.

Thanks to a wee prompt from Fearghal Kelly (CfE support officer in East Lothian), I picked up on this research study of one Science department in a school in Australia.

“Our analysis reveals three important findings:

• the negligible impact of school policy on the work of the teachers
• the willingness of teachers to utilize appropriate expertise, regardless of the source of that expertise
• and the manner in which these teachers have developed a community in which teaching practices, both individual and corporate, can be discussed and critiqued.

The clear implication of these findings is that it is teachers, working within the department and wider science education community, who were making the conceptual change from professional development to professional learning.”

This research is also featured in the most recent research round-up from LTScotland, which this month also includes CPD-related research into CPD in ICT for educators in England and an evaluation of the Chartered Teacher Pilot in Wales.

As a result of a discussion in a Dumfries and Galloway Glow group about teacher self-evaluation, I had the pleasure of an invite from Elspeth Penny (CPD manager) to a wee twilight session in Dumfries on the subject of CPD Tools for CfE yesterday.

Colleagues, 25 in total, were based across 2 sites, Lochside Educational Centre and Langholm Academy. The link was made using a videoconferencing  technology (PolyCom I think) which is currently being rolled out across many local schools. It seemed to cope remarkably well with a fast-moving Prezi and my singing!

The focus of the CPD sessions was largely on CPDReflect as a Swiss army-knife for PRD but we managed to maraude through CPDFind, Twitter, Teachmeets, CPDShorts and discussion on the types and sources of CPD. Dumfries and Galloway use an online CPD catalogue (CPD Solutions)

It was heartening to arrive and find that all of the colleagues had Glow user IDs which allowed me to eschew my usual “here’s the link to the CPDLinks blogpost”. Instead we were able to build, on the fly, a Glow page which hosts our follow-up activities. The event started with Glow and will continue on Glow as I hope to be able to keep in touch with the impact of the session and offer ongoing support through the Glow site we built.

There has been some recent discussion about the usability of Glow. You may have noticed the recent changes in Glow’s interface at national level (see the National Site) or may have been following Andrew Brown’s initiated ‘Glowbetter’ work. While navigation through Glow might be a bit daunting, one of its saving graces for me has always been its ‘hyperlinkability’. It means if you put a resource on Glow, you can copy the shortcut and publish that shortcut anywhere you like, ie add a bit of Glow, or +glow it!

What does this mean? For CPD, +glow usually means ‘now with added collegiality!’. For example, I might recommend a CPD thought-piece (eg Temple Grandin’s TED TV talk – The World needs all kinds of minds). The problem with this approach is it’s an open loop – there is no feedback. I have no idea who follows the link, or what they think about it, or what one thing might they change in their practice as a result of watching and reflecting on the video. But more importantly, numerous colleagues from all over Scotland may be accessing the same video and not realising they have something in common, or know of better examples, or have CPD resources to support teachers of autistic students and so on.

I like the analogy of building escalators not just stairs. By putting that same video onto Glow and asking colleagues to ‘sign up’ you turn a stair into an escalator. Participants get to see the video and also get an instant snapshot of interested colleagues from around Scotland. They can start (or contribute to) a discussion and share practice collegiately.

Try the Temple Grandin +glow version by following the link from CPDFind. Of course, you will need a Glow password for this version.

We have been developing these +glow CPDShort thought-pieces since the turn of the year. A thought-piece doesn’t need to be a video. It could be a discussion paper, an example of student work, a vox pop, results of a survey, etc.

Furthermore, +glow doesn’t just stop at thought-pieces. In future posts I will look at how colleagues +glow lots of different types of CPD; newsletters, face to face events, skills training and more.

Go on, if you are on Glow, start building escalators instead of stairs. You rarely see an escalator marked ‘Out of Order’.  The worst that can happen when you build an escalator is that folk use it as a stair.

So, +glow those thought-pieces and send me a link!

image courtesy of victoriapeckham on Flickr

At the end of a busy week, I attended the ADES-led CfE Implementation Partnership in Edinburgh where representatives LAs and other partners got together as part of their monthly schedule of events.

All of this week I have been struck by how Glow has enhanced the various CPD events; Co-create, Building Champions and East Ayrshire workshop.  Each of the events had its own Glow group where all sorts of things happen before, during and after the event; agenda, introductions, sharing of links and resources, picture records, discussions, treasure hunts, challenges and pledges to improve practice.

This month, I hope to write a series of blog posts about ‘+glowing’ CPD opportunities. It would be great to showcase examples from your CPD. If Glow has featured in your CPD event, please let me know!

On Wednesday, I was at a Web Champions shindig in South Ayrshire Council, an event based around the format the CPD Team pioneered at the Building Windmills event last year. I followed Katie Barrowman of the Glow team who was running a Glow Treasure Hunt, great fun! I used the subject of CPD tools for CfE to introduce a series of CPD-based challenges. You can see my Prezis below and  the challenges are in (or under development ) in the CPDChallenge Glow group.

On Tuesday, I was invited by Julia Fenby to talk about CPDFind to the participants in the Co-Create project. This project is a collaboration between Scottish Arts and LTScotland’s Glow team. I was there to persuade them of the value of sharing on CPDFind the rich CPD that will no doubt ensue. One of the organisations, TAG Theatre Company, is already a registered provider and I look forward to a few more joining!

Apart from a couple of creative diversions to play CPD Fortunes and sing the CPDFind song, “Just Google CPDFind” you can see much of my contribution on my Prezi site.

This is part of the CPDChallenge series from the National CPD Team

Andrew Brown challenges you to tell the world immediately about your work and to start (and contribute to) educational discussions

What does it involve?

1. visit the Scotedublogs website
2. If you are a Scottish educator, feel free to start your own blog by following the add a blog link
3. write your 1st post (see challenge 2)

Supporting CPD opportunities

Blogs in Plain English Educational Blogs Writing effective blog posts

Visit the CPDChallenge Glow group for more…

PARTNERSHIP WORKING – CPD ON OUR DOORSTEP !

Curriculum for Excellence places great emphasis and value on partnership working – the CPD Network reflects that in practice. The seminar on the 17 March will profile the contribution from a range of partners who may not have always been recognised as having an impact on the professional development of teachers and support staff, or whose traditional role may have been focussed on colleagues with particular remits : eg pastoral care, additional support needs, behaviour support.

Colleagues from the school library service, social work services, psychological services, the independent and voluntary sector, health  and SQA will outline resources and experiences which are relevant to the professional development of all staff in 7 minute presentations which will set the scene for “Open Space” follow up activity of discussion and sharing.

We realise that our sample range is not exhaustive and hope that pre, during and post the seminar colleagues will be able to share similar or different examples from their own authorities.   If you have partnership working on your doorstep please share it with us on the CPD blog.

February 2010 and I am reflecting on another TeachMeet, this one at Perth and organised by Neil Winton of Perth Academy. TeachMeets are educator-led, informal CPD events. The organisation of a TeachMeet works like this:

• someone starts a page on the TeachMeet web site with a location and date.
• people sign up on the wiki page as 7-minute presenters, 2-minute presenters or ‘lurkers’ (not presenting but taking part in learning conversations)
• people can also sign up to take part virtually using webcam technology

There is no charge for a TeachMeet and organisers usually seek limited sponsorship to cover venue, refreshment and Internet costs. The National CPD Team has sponsored several of these events and hopes to do more in the future.

On the night, it works like this:

• the organiser comperes the event
• someone ‘curates’ the webmeet to make sure the online colleagues are included. David Noble of Hillside School does a grand job with this task at the ones I have attended
• presenters’ names are drawn at random and jump up to share practice when their name is drawn
• the 7 minute or 2 minute time limits are strictly enforced by launching of stuffed toy missiles!

Why do I like the Teachmeet format?

• It’s democratic. Anyone can go and present. If your name is not called, you don’t get up! Margaret Alcorn (National CPD coordinator) attended one in East Lothian recently and was the only one not to be called! No preference was expected or given
• It’s edgy. You don’t know when or if you are going to be called. If the organisers throw in some random activities you might just find yourself building a leader in Lego or up at the front singing the CfE Blues (as happened at LeadMeet 09)
• It leaves a legacy. Most of them are recorded and can be revisited (TMPerth10 is here). You make contacts and see practice that you are unlikely to come across in conventional channels
• It’s empowering. Many who apprehensively attend for the first time, put their name on the hat for the second time
• It’s fun. Even though they typically take place from 6 to 9 in the evening, I have yet to doze off during a TeachMeet!

Elements of the TeachMeet format (particularly the idea of randomly selected, short presentations) can be embedded in more conventional CPD events. I recently attended an event for CPD leaders in the Central Authorities Forum. ‘Volunteers’ were randomly selected to share for 2 minutes and no more or they faced the CPD Team stuffed Galloway Coo!

You can find out more about the history of TeachMeet on Margaret Vass’ blog. If you fancy starting one in your area, just give me a shout. I’ll be happy to help if I can as will many others in the educational community in Scotland and beyond.