TESOL 2010, March 25, 7:30a.m. questions: mcona@arlington.k12.va.us Description: Presenters share an online reflective practice group model that provides quality, sustained professional development for adult ESOL teachers through the asynchronous exploration of ideas and best practices. Presenters demonstrate the free Web tool they used and discuss issues surrounding online professional development and fostering program cohesion in practice.

8. Reaching our Teachers

12. A New PD Opportunity “ In reflective practice…teachers become listeners, observers, thinkers, and researchers …” ~ Yu Ren Dong

21. Project Management

23. 4. Participants: Teachers wiki

27. 5. Web tool: Wetpaint On Monday’s we posted reminders and suggestions on the frontpage, or Announcements page. GREEN area is all part of the standard Wetpaint template. The white areas are modifiable by the user.

28. Create all content – admin, tasks explained, netiquette, project timeline (shown here), peer review partnering for each week, etc, BEFORE building out the wiki. When all content is finalized and ready to post, THEN copy and paste to the wiki. You can create however many pages and sublevels as needed. Plan it all first so that the only thing changing from week to week is the content the participants are adding themselves, discussion areas, announcements, and resource pages. Also, plan where you can hyperlink to other relevant sections or to outside resources.

29. Peer review front page and subpages for each week (according to the alternating partner plan made ahead of time) were posted and linked to before the launch of the project. During initial face to face workshop, participants completed an example peer review activity and discussion to walk through all tasks that would be expected of them each week.

30. Be sure to register for a free Educators account to increase file attachment limit from 40 to 250 (limit as of 2009, may be more now). Be sure to include in the initial workshop a consensus building activity on standards for lesson plans, reflections, and peer reviews. Include training on using all aspects of the wiki interface!

31. Be sure to use descriptive subject lines for each discussion thread for better organization. Wetpaint is searchable!

39. Resources Brookfield, S. (1995). Becoming a critically reflective teacher . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Center for Adult English Language Acquisition (CAELA) Network. (2008). Framework for quality professional development for practitioners working with adult English language learners. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics. http://www.cal.org/caelanetwork/profdev/framework/index.html Dong, Yu Ren, (2000). Learning to see diverse students through reflective teaching portfolios. In Teacher Education, edited by Karen E. Johnson. TESOL. Farrell, T.S. (2008). Reflective practice in the professional development of teachers of adult English language learners. Washington DC. Center for Adult English Language Acquisition. http://www.cal.org/caelanetwork/pd_resources/reflectivepractice.html Florez, MaryAnn C. (2001). Reflective teaching practice in adult ESL settings. Washington, DC. National Center for ESL Literacy Education. http://www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/digests/reflect.html Richards, J.C., & Lockhart, C. (1996). Reflective teaching in the second language classroom. New York: Cambridge University Press. Schaetzel, K., Peyton, J.K., Burt, M. (2007). Professional development for adult ESL practitioners: Building Capacity . Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics. http://www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/briefs/profdev.html