The certification process for the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards is a long, involved one, as any teacher knows who has submitted taped lessons and other portfolio items for consideration.
But those videotaped lessons gave one second-grade teacher in Virginia an idea: Why not have all the teachers videotape their lessons, and then other teachers could review them and provide feedback?
What a great idea, I thought when I read the post on Education Week’s Teacher Leaders Network blog!
Michelle Repass established a little “video club” at her school so teachers could use this technique for professional development. It took off to such a great extent that all the teachers at her Virginia elementary school joined in. Furthermore, she presented the idea to officials in her district, and they made it creditable as continuing education and professional development.
Here’s how it worked: Teachers who were in the club were asked to record two lessons of their own (Ms Repass went first). Their colleagues watched the videotaped lessons and shared their feedback.
It’s that simple. Really.
We learned a great deal from each other through rich conversations throughout the year. I now realize that if I need advice about math stations, I can ask Christie, who is a master at managing stations. Or I can get tips about writing workshops from Kerian, whose students publish completed pieces at least twice a month. I’m much more aware of my colleagues as resources.
And it is the pleasure of Voxitatis to provide the Answer Maryland system as an online place where you can conduct these conversations and share professional ideas, not just with colleagues at your own school but with colleagues (and parents) everywhere. Think of the entire teacher universe as a co-collaborator, a co-conversationalist.
Some concerns and how Answer Maryland can help overcome them
Teachers would not want to share their thoughts. The strongest benefit of a system like Answer Maryland is that even if a few teachers don’t feel comfortable providing feedback, especially in the beginning, there are other teachers on the system who will. And once people see that conversations focus on positive, constructive criticism for professional development, it will be easier to break the ice even with the most stubborn or shy colleague.
Teachers would take it personally when their videos were critiqued. One of the benefits of a completely public forum like Answer Maryland is that professionals tend to be professional. Furthermore, many people who see your lessons won’t even know you personally and so can’t really address anything personally toward you.
Technology becomes obsolete. YouTube isn’t going away—at least not without a superior replacement technology. Besides, on Answer Maryland, you’re not restricted to YouTube. As for your computer or camera, there’s not much we can to help you there.
And great benefits
You will become more aware of your colleagues as resources. As you and your colleagues converse on Answer Maryland, you will notice that this person has expertise about using one type of manipulative, another has skill with developing certain types of worksheets, and so on. You will come to appreciate your colleagues for their different skill sets and incorporate them into your own teaching as you all share.
You will wish you had more time. Answer Maryland makes time whenever you’re available. You don’t have to restrict your comments to a single sitting, and you can edit your remarks as often as you’d like. Answer Maryland never shuts down, so if 3 a.m. is the only time you have to provide feedback on your colleagues’ videos, that’ll be just fine.
Develop skills of collaboration with colleagues. There are very few 21st-century skills more important than collaborating. Answer Maryland provides the server space for documents, conversations, public-domain texts, and so on, but you should also feel free to use Google docs or any cloud you have available to you.
Share best practices, and get tips on how to improve lessons that might not have been very successful. It’s a good bet some teacher, somewhere, is teaching exactly the same lessons you are. See what works in different classrooms or with different groups of kids. In fact, a useful project on Answer Maryland will let you see how different teachers (and students) are learning about a specific range of lines in a Shakespeare play. It’s that advanced.
We look forward to seeing you on the Answer Maryland system, where friends converse about school.
