In developing a teacher professional development program, I will present a proposal for enhancing practicing teachers’ learning by adding a social media component. The social media components that I will address in the professional development program will be (1) Teachers pay teachers and (2) Pinterest. Professional development programs are designed to enhance teachers’ pedagogies and growth as practicing educators in the field. As social media has become widespread across the globe, teachers often rely on social media for learning, sharing resources, and community building with other educators (Greenhow et al., 2019; Greenhalgh and Koehler, 2017; Macia and Garcia, 2016). This professional development program is aimed at helping teachers make sense of and vetting resources to use in their practice when it comes to those available on Pinterest and teachers pay teachers. This is important because teachers are increasingly using these social media sites in order to share resources and implement ideas into their classrooms. As such, this professional development program will aim at helping teachers learn the digital literacies necessary to distinguish high quality, standards-aligned resources from those that might not be productive for the learning environment. Further, it can enhance collaboration and community building amongst teachers as they share resources, ideas, and reflections with one another as they work to build standards-aligned resources that are engaging and relevant for students in their classrooms. This is increasingly important in the pandemic-induced context wherein many teachers have been forced to teach online (something that is new to many K-12 teachers) as they can share resources, tools, and ideas with one another on social media platforms like teachers pay teachers and pinterest. This kind of training allows teachers to leverage the strengths of one another, build networks of support, and take advantage of the affordances of social media sites. I think these recommendations will be rooted in K-12 institutions; however, teachers in higher education settings could also benefit from such a professional development program.
Hi Brittney,
I was really intrigued by your post this week. Currently, I’m working on a manuscript that examined U.S. teachers’ use of Twitter (#Edchat) as a professional learning network (PLN) pre-pandemic and then, during the “Covid-spring” (March – May 2020). Our goal is to understand whether and how the supports teachers sought on their Twitter PLN changed given their needs in the pandemic-induced transition from face-to-face to online teaching. We’re finding some interesting insights about this “first responder network” for teachers in crisis situations!
My question for you is, as you ‘turn teachers loose’ (so to speak) on Twitter, for instance, as part of this professional development program, what challenges might you run into as they are trying to develop these ‘digital literacies.’ That is, as you help these teachers understand how to use Twitter as a PLN — e.g., critically evaluate the resources they find there, collaborate with other teachers, and circulate the resources they design for other teachers — what might be the biggest threat or detractor from their learning that could derail your teaching objectives? Madison and Selin’s post for this week will give you some food for thought. I look forward to seeing what you think!
Hi Brittney, your post made me think of my previous experience when I was using pinterest to find different teaching materials, visuals and lesson plans for the middle school science classes. I believe that such sites are really rich and creative in terms of brainstorming ideas and build collaboration environment among teachers. I never used Teachers pay teachers before and I checked that out thanks to your post. It’s more structured and provides lots of class materials. However, I was thinking is there any other media platform like Teachers pay teachers without paying money for each material. It would be a one drawback in comparison to pinterest. Additionally, your points about using this pd to help teachers to learn the digital literacies is really important and resonated with me. As you said, especially during the pandemic, teachers have to use variety of SNSs to support their instruction even more this time. Supporting them to actively use these platforms and helping them to collaborate and build community among themselves is critical. I also believe that when we are trying to promote teachers’ digital literacy, the potential challenges of using them and the things we can do as educators to resolve these challenges also really crucial to support teachers’ sense of digital literacy.
Brittney,
Your post reminded me of this twitter chat I participated in a few weeks ago. One of the participants, a seasoned teacher and researcher, commented that teachers should “stay away for teachers pay teachers.” Immediately, the questions came about why and where would teachers go to make connections and find materials in a social way. From this interaction, I saw that teachers are hungry to collaborate and connect with people outside of their immediate circles to gather ideas for their students. The guy never commented why he gave the warning, but if I could guess it has something to do with finding credible sources. If that is the case, then I would say that he has a very narrow view of where expertise and resources can come from and be found. I think helping teachers make meaningful connections with one another and helping them find and create resources for one another is a very powerful approach. As you point out, the skills and literacy needed to do this should be further developed.
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