The link to the podcast above was found on the http://k12online.ning.com/video website, which contains many podcasts that are excellent for elementary and high school teachers to view.
In this particular podcast, professional development is discussed. The man talking in the podcast beings by talking about how many of us teachers here in the United States have the luxury of using technology in our classroom, whether it be smartboards or powerpoint presentations or computers at each student's desk. Meanwhile, many places in the world do not have these capabilities. Wherever you are as a teacher and what exactly you have, it does not matter. All teachers share a common trait: the classroom. The classroom, as the man says, is a "vital part to our identity". It's where teachers grow as teachers. It is there in the classroom where teachers should develop professionally and be learners themselves. He believes that teachers growth should not be reflected on the current trends, such as the boom in technology. Instead, it should be emerging from their classrooms and starting there. Classroom-based professional development means for teachers to build on relationships with students, involves students in classroom development, and focus on classroom as an evironment. Teachers need to be first and foremost teachers. In order to be teachers, they need to reflect on what they are doing in the classroom and learn from that and then involve and teach their students. Most importantly, the man in this podcast believe that classrooms have to become places where the teachers continually engage in practice and experiment on what is best for the learners.
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