A little over a week ago I was honored to be invited to Qatar Academy, workplace of the amazing Julie Lindsay, as a consultant for a 2 day 21st century literacy training.

While I’m there, not only do I get to spend some quality F2F time with Julie, but hopefully I will also spend some time with my good friends Jabiz and Mairin from my last school!

Here is my proposed outline for the two days of training:

Day 1:

Introductory session: Developing the Global Student: Practical Ways to Infuse 21st Century Literacy into Your Classroom (75 – 90 minutes, full group with Q&A)

Breakout sessions:

2 options (60 – 90 min sessions – conducted in small groups, either grade level teams or subject area groups):

  • Globally Collaborative Projects: best practice examples and how to get started.
  • Web 2.0 trainings – groups for blogging, wikis, social networking, RSS, etc – curriculum/standards based, practical and hands on in a lab setting

Closing session: The 21st Century Educator: Embracing Web 2.0 in your Professional Practice (75 – 90 minutes, full group, with Q&A)

Day 2:

Introductory session: The 21st Century School: Making the Shift Happen – an overview of what current best practice in international schools looks like, the roles of technology facilitators, curriculum coordinators, classroom teachers, and administrators. Sample facilitation structure shared from ISB, MKIS and MIS.

3 options (60 – 90 min sessions – conducted in small groups, either grade level teams or subject area groups):

  • Curriculum planning to authentically embed 21st century literacy – practical questions, successful framework, examining current standards and topics and developing ideas to embed technology (60 – 90 minutes per grade level/subject team).
  • Developing a framework for successful technology integration with tech team
  • Mobile computing – the changing classroom, facilities management, practical tips

Closing session: ???

I would love to hear your opinion! What do you think I should cover? What’s missing from this list? What would you like to see presented at your school?

Tags: julie lindsay, qatar academy, 21stcentury, consultant, professional development, training

8 thoughts on “Qatar Calling

  1. Hi Kim,

    Sounds like a really substantive two day session, may be too much push and not enough pull, but you are more experienced at this than I am and a lot depends on the audience. I took a stab at revising the agenda (http://tinyurl.com/27u2gz). Some of the themes I mention below can be woven into the two days. Others would have to be activities supported through a Wiki and community conversations that extend beyond the two days.

    I suspect you have addressed what came to my mind, but here are my thoughts on some topics to help you reflect as you prepare your presentations.

    Consider how to establish and sustain Professional Learning Communities:
    Teachers need to understand what a Professional Learning Community is and is not and then learn how to establish and sustain it. A PLC is a research-based strategy that enables meaningful reflection on and assess of the impact of any change in their practice on student learning. I wrote about this in a three-part post recently. http://tinyurl.com/2d88f5

    Consider formative assessment:
    What are examples of formative assessments teachers can use to assess the impact of their Web 2.0 practice on student learning?

    Consider the role of conversation:
    Have you left enough room for conversations to support the shift in thinking so crucial to support the use of these tools in the classroom?

    Consider pedagogy:
    Where’s the pedagogy discussion around developing self-directed learners? As you know, for a teacher to fully tap the utility of Web 2.0 tools, she has to put the student at the center of the learning process. That means the teacher has to be in the background, a role that is hard for traditional teachers to understand in a non-digital learning environment. Your assignment is to move that discussion into the digital realm.

    Consider discussing classroom organization:
    If we want students to develop 21st Century skills (see the VoiceThread of a presentation I did at EduCon 2.0 sides 4-9, http://tinyurl.com/2oto2q and a wiki page that has more 21st Century Net Literacy links http://tinyurl.com/23dldv) for the skills I’m talking about), how do we organize our classrooms so students are using these skills throughout each year?

    Consider student voice in assessment:
    How do we help students to describe in concrete, substantive ways their progress on theses skills vs. the teacher or the school doing it?

    Consider “quality” of student work:
    How do we help students to define quality work to inform their understanding of their “progress” on these skills?

  2. Hi Kim,

    Some good ideas by Dennis:

    “Others would have to be activities supported through a Wiki and community conversations that extend beyond the two days.”

    This idea is part of several reasons why I set up that wiki page for the 2 days. I hope we can continue to sustain the development after you’ve left the school via additional pages and discussion threads. We can plan how to best organize this while you are here and perhaps highlight it as part of the closing session.

    “Professional Learning Communities” I really like this topic. I’m very green in this area and would have to say that I’m the most experienced on staff. Even more exciting is that Julie just presented on the topic this past weekend in Prague! I will convince her her to lead that breakout session…

    We are an IBO school so the learner should already be the focus in the classroom. I like the idea of organising the classroom and embedding assessment. Perhaps this could be tied to the closing session with a summary of the 2 days, and Q & A.

  3. Pat,

    I hope to uStream at least some of the sessions, so you can be there without being there :)

    Dennis,

    Thanks for such a detailed response – and a whole wiki page, wow! I think I’ve covered everything that you list – except for formative assessment, that’s interesting. I’ll have to think of a way to work that into a session about curriculum planning and evaluating successful projects. Nice idea!

    I agree that discussing PLCs is really important (I like to call it P L Network). This is the focus of my The 21st Century Educator session. I believe that teachers need to experience the power of a learning network to understand it’s potential in the classroom.

    Mike,

    I like the wiki, it will be really helpful as a one-stop-shop for all resources related to this training. I also think your school-wide Ning will really help us foster conversations around these topics.

    As Dennis points out (and I will discuss at length in several of my presentations) it’s the conversations that really solidify the learning. Are all of the QA teachers part of the Ning already?

  4. Kim
    We are so looking forward to having you here with us in Qatar!
    The program is looking great and I know this is going to be a significant event for all of our teachers in the Primary school. I agree with Dennis that making the shift to looking at what a professional learning community is and how to create and sustain a personal learning network in order to develop pedagogically relevant environments is crucial. At the same time we need to lead teachers carefully down the path and not overwhelm them. Web 2.0 is very new to this school and no, only a handful of teachers are on the Ning so far.
    I think it may also be useful, as we discussed earlier today, to have a panel session where following your lead, members of the school community get to talk a bout 21st century learning and share best practice examples internationally. Maybe we can squeeze this in as it will give everyone a chance to have their say as well, air their concerns etc. I am finding teachers here very keen and supportive and essentially ready to fly!

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