Connections

I made this image this morning to visually illustrate the connections of the different professional development programs and how I categorize their implications to my teaching practice. It is nice to be able to view these connections in this way. It provides another perspective of which to understand how these professional developments are connected and which characteristics they share.

An interesting observation that I had in looking at this image was how the learning strategies seemed to have more key components making more connections than the teaching methods. I think this is because the characteristics I listed were generally aimed at student learning. The images I created for these professional developments were very illustrative in nature as I intended them to be images I could use with my students as visual aids. The teaching methods were professional developments that presented information that was aimed improving my lessons and practices. The images created for these professional development concepts were more personally relevant images that might not communicate specific meaning to anyone other than myself. It is amazing that to me that these approaches were generated unconsciously. Yet, in reflection, they make perfect sense for what I wanted to communicate.