Reflection

After reading about how instructional design/technology is used in businesses, P-12 schools, and higher education, I would say that a major theme between all of them is the idea of pushing yourself to always be better. In each of these areas, the authors discussed the importance of training. In a business, employees need to go through training to learn new procedures and or programs. In a P-12 school system, teachers and staff participate in professional development, continuing education, seminars, etc. As we read this week, professors in higher education are encouraged, if not required, to get their doctorate, submit articles for publication, and go through training. In all three of these areas, the idea of being complacent and unwilling to learn new things is unacceptable. With this type of attitude, a business, school, or university won’t be able to grow and change as the world around us changes. Therefore, it is important, no matter what you do, to look for ways to better yourself.

I think as teachers, we can learn a lot from both businesses and high education facilities. Businesses have put forth an effort to adapt to different cultures. This is a great example for schools to follow, especially in diverse districts. In the chapter about high education, Brenda Litchfield talked about using orientations and workshops to assist new faculty members. At the orientation and through the workshops during the year, Litchfield is able to help new faculty become acquainted with important aspects of teaching at the university. This is something that would be important to do as well in a P-12 school district. Some districts do provide new staff with assistance at the beginning of the year, but this is something that could be continued throughout the entire year (or longer), as Litchfield does.

One competency that I would like to work on is to become more involved in professional activities. As a reading interventionist, I am actually a part of the support staff, not the teaching staff. So, on professional development days, I spend my time in the classroom instead of attending trainings, meeting, etc. I think I would really benefit from being a part of these professional activities. However, I know there are many opportunities to attend conferences or workshops outside of school. I think that I need to put forth more effort to find valuable workshops that I could attend. Another way for me to work on this would be to becoming involved in other committees at school. I am currently a part of the school improvement team, but there are many other committees that I could be a part of next year.