Professional Development Activities - and learning

To date, I have completed the following for this course:

1. Attended an AlAnon meeting.

I plan to attend another tonight or tomorrow. One of the benefits of attending these 12-step programs is that I've learned more about the programs and the assistance they offer. I had wanted to attend a Gamblers Anonymous meeting, but the meeting in my area doesn't work with my schedule. However, I have talked about this at home and my husband and I will attend some Gamblers Anonymous meetings in the future. Someone we know has had an issue with gambling and we've decided that attending some meetings might help us to help this person. Gambling is but one addiction which can ruin lives and about which denial can result in no change in attitude or behavior. We have watched this from a distance and are witness to the devastation this addiction can cause.

2. Joined professional organizations.

I have been an ACA and ASCA member for years and had joined the AADA Division about a year ago. I joined the ACES division, as required for this class and learned that retirees are able to join NACES, the national organization for free, so I am also an NACES member. I have considered becoming a member of the multicultural organization affiliated with ACA and also joined that division. I expect that the literature I receive will be valuable as I continue in school.

3. I have decided to attend the 2010 ASCA conference in Boston. Although the conference does not begin until July 2, which is after this course has ended, I look forward to attending the conference. I will spend my days going to workshops, listening to speakers and meeting with colleagues. I generally leave conferences feeling renewed about my profession.

4. I have been going to the ADP Center frequently for assistance and will be attending an Intro to Mac training through the Office for Technology tomorrow. I have registered for a Blackboard 9 training and a Creative PPT training later this month. I intend to attend many trainings this summer and to become comfortable and adept with technology.

5. I completed an entry for Dr. Renfro-Michel on "A Day in the Life of a Middle School Counselor." I will present in class this Wed and hope the presentation will be interesting and informative to my classmates. I decided against a PPT in favor of something a bit more theatrical. We'll see. . . I guess I should provide feedback forms!

6. As an act of advocacy, I wrote an email against passage of the Opportunity Scholarship Act, which I will attach to my Blog once I figure out how to do it. The Opportunity Scholarship Act is the proposed legislation which will provide tax benefits to corporations for their support of charter schools. I received an email from the NJ Supervisors and Principals Assn. (http://capwiz.com/njpsa/mailapp/) regarding this and immediately wrote my email. I AM SO AGAINST THIS and believe that many people truly are working toward the demise of public education. My email was sent to Christopher Bateman (R-NJ 16th), Peter J. Biondi (R-NJ 16th) and Denise Coyle (R-NJ 16th). In my email I offered to speak with them in person. I wish they would take me up on my offer!

Related to my position of advocacy against charter schools and vouchers and in favor of public education which is truly equitable, I also purchased the book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System, by Diane Ravitch. I had heard an interview last week on NPR with Dr. Ravitch and was intrigued by the data she was able to present and her views on public education, which are that public education is an important and necessary institution, that schools should not be run like corporations, that family involvement is crucial to student success, and that teachers should be paid for the job they do - teaching - and not based on the data which results from unreliable, invalid tests. Go, Diane! I don't know how much of this I will read before the end of this course, but I certainly intend to read it after June 10th. What saddens me is that I doubt that a great many people will read this book and understand what is being said about the value of public education.

7. The last of my professional development activities was the result of the angst I experienced the first week of class: I returned to therapy. As a child and an adolescent, I never believed I was particularly intelligent or capable. I struggled with math and with some other logical, sequential skills. Family issues and genetic history led to on-going struggles with what I later learned was depression. Throughout my life, I haved visited and re-visited therapy as a means of learning more about myself and how I may be most happy/calm/social/focused/successful. Education and therapy seem to have led me to now entering a doctoral program, something about which I have been excited and apprehensive. The first week of this class rekindled some of the old insecurities and doubts and I decided that an appropriate and beneficial professional development activity would be to return to therapy for a few sessions. I am back and am more excited about my PhD. program than apprehensive.

So, about the "learning" aspect of my professional development activities:

I do greatly enjoy challenges and believe there is so much that can enrich my life: I hope to never stop learning. For me, the structure of school and of required assignments encourages my learning. I can learn on my own, but learning from others who know much more than I do about specific topics is teaching and mentoring at its very best. I love the collaboration of sharing information and experiences in class and of our being able to learn from one another. I enjoy the tasks assigned by passionate instructors who know that the opportunities they provide will lead to increased knowledge and expertise. I have learned from the professional development activities and will take many of them with me in my future coursework.