5a-done

5. Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership
Teachers:
 * a. participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning.**

[[image:ACTEM2.png]]
[|Facing History and Ourselves]


 * Description**

During the spring of 2009, the MLTI program held an online workshop for teacher leaders. As a member of a cohort, I was asked to participate in online discussions, read and respond on various material to think about technology use in the classroom, and learn some new “tricks” along the way. One tool I learned about was highlighting and annotating a pdf file (which I shared with other teachers). I have included two emails from the facilitator (with permission) to show my successful participation in this workshop.

A continuing online community I belong to is the ACTEM listserv. This list has provided me with technical information to help students problem solve, information about classes offered at UMaine in the IT program that I share with my colleagues, information about new software or "gadgets", and project ideas for my students. Though more often I'm gaining information from this resource, I also participate in the discussions.

While teaching European History during the 2005-2006 school year, I participated in an eight week online seminar on teaching the Holocaust offered by Facing History and Ourselves. I've included the link to the description of their next Holocaust and Human Behavior webinar that will be offered beginning in March 2010.


 * Analysis**

I chose these artifacts, because they I believe they are a good representation of meeting the ISTE standard listed above. They show I have participated in various workshops and belong to a listserv where many new teaching ideas and software are shared.

Though I do not have a copy of it, here is an example of my participation on the listserv. There was a teacher who posted a question about song lyrics and how they can quickly assess whether or not a song is appropriate for a student project. I responded to the listserv with a response guiding them to the website [|songfacts] website. The music teachers and I use this for various projects our students complete and thought it would be helpful. Many other ideas filtered in as well, but the person who originated the conversation, liked the one I suggested, because of its easy-to-use nature and variety of songs found.

The discussions in the webinar included people from all over the world who were interested in appropriately teaching the Holocaust. Middle and high school teachers as well as college professors were participants in the discussions led by our facilitator and Holocaust survivors. The Internet, videos, and other tools were used during this course, since it was an online course.


 * Appraise**

There are very few careers I can think of that are not enforced by having networks of people from whom one may gain knowlege, ask for assistance or ask for support. The artifacts above are the online versions of networks. One may never know what another person looks like, but the networks built from participating in them are tremendous. What has become interesting to me is imagining what someone looks like after "hearing" from them on either the discussion boards or in the workshops, then meeting them in person, only to find my imagination wasn't even close to the reality.

Global communities also provide the opportunity for me to model tolerance. As a person who is accepting of others, regardless of differences, I feel strongly about this. My students, living in non-diverse, rural northern Maine (and as we fondly refer to it, the Bible belt of Maine), need to have chances to interact with people from other religions and ethnicities to support their learning and help shape their view of people, realizing that with as many differences various cultural groups may have, there are many similarities as well. These realizations can transform their tunnel vision of what the people in different cultures are truly like and help stamp out discrimination.


 * Transform**

My participation in the Holocaust webinar was a first for me..I had never participated in anything online before. This was a wonderful learning experience (and part of the reason I entered the Master's in IT program). I became familiar with online asynchronous discussion, as well as a variety of resources available to me to teach such a sensitive subject.

Online colleagues have become a source of affirmation and challenge for me. My philosophy of education has changed to some degree by the pieces I have picked up from these teachers (regardless of profession). Other parts of my philosophy have not been altered at all, but rather, strengthened by others I respect for their vision, insight, and ability to question me, making me a better teacher. Without these online communities, most I would never have had the opportunity to meet, so I'm thankful for having these tools available.