When I started with my school district 16 years ago, I ran into this. The very first day in our back to school professional development was our opening convocation. For an hour and a half, one of the district administrators (over curriculum) read word for word from a PowerPoint about how we should not read directly from PowerPoints to our students because the best way for them to learn was through hands on activities and discovery. Can you see the irony? Scaffolding, differentiation, spiraling curriculum, choice, ownership, and such should not be only in our classrooms. It should be in our Professional Learning. Several years ago, my district made a change in their vocabulary and has been working hard to live up to it as well. We use the term “learner” instead of “student”. At its heart, a student is a passive role or a position that a person takes. A learner is an active way that a person behaves. We want all of our students, teachers, administrators, and staff to be active, life-long learners. At the same time, we changed from calling it Professional “Development” to Professional “Learning”. Essentially, “Development is something done to you. Learning is something you choose for yourself.” We work to have more and more of our PL being chosen by the teachers instead of required by the administrators. Sure, there are some things that everyone must do, like PLC and testing security training and such. For the most part, we have choice and ownership of our learning. We get 3 days (18 hours) of flex time. Those PL hours are up to use to get. We can do it however fits us throughout the year just as long as it relates to our classroom and can have a direct impact on learning. Most of our district PL days is more like a conference. There are multiple sessions, usually taught by other teachers, and we get to pick the sessions we want to go to. In support of this, we spend a lot of money giving teachers all an extra period for working in PLC teams. We teach 6 out of 8 classes to give us one conference period and one team period. We also have full-time Digital Learning Coaches and Instructional Coaches on all campuses. It fits well with the things in the reading and video this week. I am very lucky to be in this district. This is one of the reasons I don’t leave. Regardless of the problems, it is a very supportive environment. Further reading
Gulamhussein, A. (2013). Teaching the Teachers Effective Professional Development in an Era of High Stakes Accountability. Center for Public Education. Retrieved from http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/system/files/2013-176_ProfessionalDevelopment.pdf Heather Hill. (2015). Review of The Mirage: Confronting the Hard Truth about Our Quest for Teacher Development. Harvard Graduate School of Education. Retrieved from http://www.greatlakescenter.org/docs/Think_Twice/TT-Hill-TNTP.pdf Standards for Professional Learning. (2011). Retrieved from https://learningforward.org/standards Standards for Professional Learning: Quick Reference Guide. (2011). Retrieved from https://learningforward.org/docs/pdf/standardsreferenceguide.pdf?sfvrsn=0 TNTP. (2015). The Mirage: Confronting the Hard Truth About Our Quest for Teacher Development. Retrieved from http://tntp.org/publications/view/evaluation-and-development/the-mirage-confronting-the-truth-about-our-quest-for-teacher-development
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About 5389This is my sixth course in the Lamar University Digital Leading and Learning program. I am now working on an alternative to the traditional "Sit and Get" PL. ArchivesCategories |