I enjoy listening to Martine Ellis' Teaching Space Podcast. It allows me insight into the world of teachers which is invaluable as a librarian who works with schools and teachers. I have been interviewed by Martine a couple of times now, the first time was back in 2018 Why it's time to get to know your school librarian. The second was recently when I spent some time talking to her about the importance of understanding your own journey with Professional Development (PD).
Leading your Own Professional Development
Our topic for discussion this month will be how you find your PD path.
What do you want or need from your own PD?
How do you decide what you need to focus on? Do you have a plan?
Where do you look for appropriate PD? What are your go-to resources?
Do you need more? What can't you find?
What an interesting week and what brilliant timing this podcast is. Revalidation of my chartership has come to the forefront of my thinking and your conversation has made me realise that I need to reconsider my cpd. I have always looked for half day and day long courses, conferences, and books as the source of CPD. I had not really thought about 'bite sized cpd' before. I feel more positive and excited by this - this idea that I am racking up hours with so many of the activities that I just do because they interest me.
The question of how to best keep track of these hours is an interesting one and I suspect a technological solution may arise, a way of marking twitter (or other social media platform) conversations and recording them for reference. No doubt this can be done but it's not something I've got my head around yet.
For me, as I think you discussed, the best CPD arises from face to face conversations rather than online chat. I really enjoy, and get the most from, talking to people.
Thanks for this nudge Elizabeth