115: Webinar

1) What are the advantages to watching a webinar as opposed to reading an article?

The first webinar I had listened to was merely a voice over a PowerPoint presentation. During the initial webinar, listeners could ask questions to the presenter, which would have been an advantage of merely reading an article, however I was watching the recording and was unable to ask questions. I actually found myself frustrated during this webinar specifically because the pace of the webinar was much slower than my reading pace would have been. This type of webinar also prevents the reader from skimming for important information and on the whole felt like ineffective use of time.

After this experience, I was about to write off webinars as something uniquely different in beneficial. Then I read Andrea’s post about Kate Kinsella’s vocabulary webinar. I watched the series of webinars and was hooked. These webinars were far superior than merely reading an article because she was able to incorporate video footage of the discussed vocabulary teaching strategies being used in a classroom. It was like reading an article but then actually being able to see what was in the article being applied. This is incredibly useful because at times, visualizing a particular strategy discussed in an article or figuring out how to actually take it and use it in the classroom can be difficult. Seeing it implemented allows me to picture how I can take that strategy and apply it in my own classroom.

2) How can you see this tool assisting your own development as a teacher?

I wish I would have known about webinars earlier. A lot of times I come across a particular concept or skill that I have difficulty understanding how to teach. If there is a webinar on teaching that particular skill or concept, I could watch it and see it in action in another classroom. My only fear is that the library of free webinars online are quite limited. Perhaps as time goes on, they will be a more prevalent resource online.

3) What are some other topics you would like to see on webinars?

It would be most useful for me to see webinars on the implementation of guided reading and how that implementation changes at different levels. This year I had students come into my class ranging anywhere between a Pre-A and a level 50. I really struggled to quickly learn how to meet each of these students needs and often times was ineffectively implementing guided reading for a particular group of students. If there were webinars on how to conduct guided reading at specific leveled groupings, it could have really improved my practice.