Professional Development Potpourri

     There are so many ways to get professional development, and I make use of as many of them as possible.  For the very literal, there is the popular conference.  Conferences can be found all over the globe and on myriad topics from The University of Hertfordshire's Open Graves, Open Minds: "The Company of Wolves': Sociality, Animality, and Subjectivity in Literary and Cultural Narratives--Werewolves, Shapeshifters, and Feral Humans to "WIRED & INSPIRED: The Intelligent Use of Technology in Higher Education" to the University of Roehampton's single day "Daughter of Fangdom: A Conference of Women and the Television Vampire."  I just finished attending the second one in my list, and my brain is overflowing with ideas. I sat in structured sessions, took notes, and brainstormed ideas.  I will take back my learning and slowly begin to implement some of the ideas.
     I also enjoy the professional development that takes place between colleagues who work on studying/learning something together.  For example, I once participated in a year long book group where we read books about the Millennials because we wanted to understand our students better. Books we read and discussed included Nurture Shock and Generation Me.  Our discussions included ways our lessons may/may not be working for this generation's students.  This professional development was small group, and we created the focus based on what our interests were and where our struggles existed.  The conversations were thoughtful and paced to our needs.  My attitudes toward my students changed, and I adapted my lessons to my audience.
     Then, for me, there is another valuable method of gaining professional development: independent reading and studying.  This can range from really good short articles to books on both pedagogy and content.  I find a lot of these readings from Twitter where I follow people/organizations who tweet about education, composition, or literature.  The best education ones I follow include Higher Ed Chat, Mark Barnes, Diane Ravitch, and Edudemic.  For research and citation, I follow Easybib.  For my literature interests, particularly gothic literature, I follow Bernice Murphy, Linnie Blake, Gothic MMU, Xavier Aldana Reyes, and Irish Gothic Journal.  These readings happen at times when I have a spare few minutes--enough time to read a linked article.  I try to immediately make a connection to something I'm doing in class.  Many times Twitter provides a breathtaking synchronicity with what I'm working on or a quick idea for new ways to start class.
     I have a lot I could say about planned or spontaneous conversations with colleagues.  I find myself listening to their words long after we've parted and reflecting on my practice in light of a single tidbit or two they have generously shared with me.
     I believe professional development is learning, and learning can take place in many ways.

Tapping in to Social Media

     I remember when I first started using Twitter.  I was hesitant.  I was still unsure what the hashtags were for.  I had a hard time reading tweets that seemed filled with random bits of information and came across as disjointed.  Okay, I still have problems with those.  But I started using it primarily as a classroom tool and as a way to get my students interested in all things Englishy and to see that there are many ways to use Twitter and ethical ways to behave on Twitter.  So when I mentioned using the OED in the classroom, I also shared that the OED tweets a Word of the Day. When I taught colons, I challenged my students to tweet a sentence with a colon in it and tag me.

@MsEyres I only like to read books that involve the muder of my favorite characters: Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, and The Book Thief.
— Inquisitor Nicole 

@MsEyres gosh darn it, I knew I mispelled something!! I meant to type "murder". Whoops...
— Inquisitor Nicole  

What I love about that one besides her reading list is that she goes back to correct an error unrelated to the colon, prompting discussions about editing and not hitting "post" quite so rapidly and maybe also learning how to forgive ourselves for making silly errors.

     Now that I'm at GCC, I'm testing the waters with how I can continue to use Twitter for both research possibilities and engagement.  I started simply by having them tweet on paper one thing they had learned in class that day and include any hashtags they wanted. Here is one I got from a student who doesn't even have a Twitter account:

"'OMG' Dude, proper summarizing has never been simpler. Equation for summaries: Context + Introduce sources/give credentials + main points = BA summary. #Propersummary"

I love this one because he applied the learning to another subject, and now I have a math equation I can use to show how to properly integrate a summary into student writing.  Here's what I think happens when using Twitter (or maybe any other social media) with students: We speak a common language, and that creates connections and engagement.

The Inverse Power of Praise

     I decided to share this concept with some of my students because I remember how powerfully it struck me.  Praising kids can have a negative effect on their intellectual performance and motivation as they grow older.  Why did this strike such a reaction in me?  As a teacher I thought of all the times I had simply said "good job" or something similar on a task as if the task were over, and there was no more learning to be gained.  I wondered if I had inadvertently fed into what my students already believed about themselves--that they were either smart or dumb, and that was it.  I started reflecting on what I thought about learning.  I started changing how I responded to my students, mostly honors classes at the time.  These were students who had most likely had been told they were really smart for most of their lives.  I started praising their efforts, the small victories they made, particularly in their writing instead of making general comments of praise that weren't really helpful and did not refer to the process of learning.  I tried to shift the focus in my classroom to the process instead of just the outcome.  I can't really know what sort of difference it might have made.  I can only hope that it helped in a small way.  I am grateful to have read Po Bronson's book, Nurture Shock: New Thinking About Children, in which "The Inverse Power of Praise" is a chapter.  At the very least it got me thinking, and at its best, it made me a better teacher.
   For my students I was hoping they would reflect on their own upbringings or consider how they speak to their own children or younger siblings or other relatives.  And reading the article did cause a lot of reflection.  A side benefit was that many of them realized how important their words can be, a definite win in an English class.