Professional Development Meme Summer 2009 – I’m Not Wasting This One!

I am a huge fan of summer vacation. Lots of time for me to read what I want, enjoy the peace a quiet of home, bother the son and the husband…. well, you get the ideas. I always begin the summer with all sorts of ideas of what I want to get done. This usually includes one or more home improvement projects and a desire to actually exercise and lose some weight. Along with these personal desires, I always want to plan ahead for the next school year. Ahhh…June is so filled with possibilities.

Come Labor Day, I look back and realize that while I started out with enthusiasm, I gave in to my ADHD and only accomplished what had my attention at the moment. I ignored most of what I had set out to do. This summer, I once again vowed that the summer of 2009 would be different, but I had no real plan of action; I just had determination. Then one of the members of my Twitter PLN came (albeit unknowingly) to my rescue.

Clif Mims (@clifmims) developed the following meme and posted it to his blog. I decided to participate and tag a few lucky folks to join me. Clif notes that you don’t have to be tagged to participate, so I encourage you to do so.

Professional Development Meme 2009

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 2009 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

NOTE: You do NOT have to wait to be tagged to participate in this meme.

Pick 1-3 professional development goals and commit to achieving them this summer.
For the purposes of this activity the end of summer will be Labor Day (09/07/09).
Post the above directions along with your 1-3 goals on your blog.
Title your post Professional Development Meme 2009 and link back/trackback to http://clifmims.com/blog/archives/2447.
Use the following tag/ keyword/ category on your post: pdmeme09.
Tag 5-8 others to participate in the meme.
Achieve your goals and “develop professionally.”
Commit to sharing your results on your blog during early or mid-September.

My Goals

1. Become a PBworks Certified Educator by attending PBworks Summer Camp. (FYI -PBworks used to know as PBwiki.)

Cover of Classroom Instruction that Works from Amazon 2. Read, study and implement the strategies discussed in Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works by Harold Pitler, et al.

3. Rework my 9th, 10th and 11th grade English classes (using the Michigan Merit Curriculum/Macomb Units) to include technology so that this college prep curriculum is accessible and meaningful to my resource room students.

4. Develop the following tech skills: screencasting, using my digital video recorder, and podcasting.