Why Connect and Reflect

As in any other professional field, it is critical for teachers to be involved in continuing education in order to maintain current knowledge of the best and most effective teaching practices. This has become an overwhelming and seemingly never-ending challenge. As educational research methods have continued to evolve, our knowledge of how children learn has also continued to grow. In addition, the children we are teaching are quite different in their needs at this time due to the many changes in our society. As defined in President Bush's No Child Left Behind act, these factors combine to create a critical need for quality professional development and "highly qualified teachers". With our rapidly changing society in this age of knowledge and information, the need for quality instruction is essential to our future and the future of our children.

School administrators frequently cite providing effective, engaging professional development as one of the most challenging aspects of their management responsibilities. Moreover, there is increased accountability and demand for higher testing results across the nation resulting in increased need for quality instruction and more effective teaching methods. Traditionally, professional development has been provided to educators by qualified individuals in a face to face, short-term format. Research shows this to be an ineffective model. Longer-term models with ongoing support result in greater changes in teaching practices. However, these models are difficult to implement due to lack of qualified consultants and coaches, time and school budgets.

According to the National Staff Development Council, for professional development to be effective in helping teachers in attaining professional growth, several characteristics have been determined to be important:

1. the professional development experience must be contextualized in the sense that the teacher has a strong sense of how the approach would be implemented in authentic classroom settings
2. the professional development must also be contextualized in the sense that it is part of a vision for both teacher and student learning and collaboration
3. the professional development must have a sound research base that provides a rationale for the topic being studied
4. the professional development must prompt the teacher to reflect on the topic being studied and connect that reflection to her own classroom through a variety of exercises
5. there must be opportunities to apply the new learning to the teacher's own classroom practice

Through innovative use of state of the art technology, ongoing professional development having the characteristics described above can be provided to large numbers of teachers in an effective and efficient way - in a way that provides access to quality professional development anytime, anywhere. Advances in hardware and software, access to the internet, increases in bandwidth and the advent of wireless technology are driving this evolution. This exciting and effective method of providing teachers and administrators with current knowledge about best teaching practices is the foundation of Connect and Reflect. Connect and Reflect will provide educators the means to stay current in the field through both online professional development and on-site support – a model that will help you define a vision and school culture that will meet the challenges of your district and result in lasting school change.

The web-based instructional modules will provide instruction on the most current research-based teaching practices through incorporation of functions such as

• video-clips featuring master teachers teaching and analyzing instruction,
• interactive activities designed to deepen understanding of instructional strategies,
• opportunities to interact with other teachers and experts in the field,
• guiding questions to stimulate discussion in learning groups,
• and administrative reports to track use of the modules.

Our interactive, multimedia courses provide flexible access to professional development without sacrificing meaningful content and dialogue. Each course includes activities, extensive reading materials and access to an online learner forum. "Online courses represent one of the most exciting new developments in teacher professional development. Online staff development can help build teaching expertise anywhere using inexpensive technologies that are easy to use and convenient. As a result, staff development can be less expensive, easier to schedule and more effective." (Tinker, B., 2000)

Connect and Reflect can offer you quality professional development supported by competent consultants who can help you develop your vision for the effective way to make change happen within your district or school. Connect and Reflect... e-learning for committed educators. Call us today!

For further thinking about school change and online professional development, see these websites.

http://www.sedl.org/change/leadership/

http://www.sedl.org/change/school/

http://www.nsdc.org/standards/learningcommunities.cfm

http://www.nsdc.org/library/publications/jsd/killion213.cfm