Change is upon us
In the world of education professional development has been at the forefront of teacher learning. Teachers are being asked to learn in a “Sit and Get” style. As teachers, we are being taught more and more to get away from teacher-focused and teacher-paced learning environments. So why wouldn’t Professional Learning start to do the same? Our professional development should mirror what teachers are being taught. To support teacher learning schools need to reimagine their approach to professional learning. This can no longer be in a one day, one size meets all professional development.
A Call for Change
The Why:
If you are an educator like me you have had your fair share of Professional Development. I have spent the last 14 years sitting in professional development that has been “sit and get”. The schools that I have been apart of have spent large sums to have professional development speakers come in. I have heard some great presenters and have been motivated to change. But oftentimes that motivation has left me with questions and concerns. How can I implement that in my classroom? What does that look like in my classroom? You see there is nothing wrong with what the presenter presented. The problem is what happens after the presentation.
The Why is what has driven me to push for change within my own district. My school has all the pieces needed in order to create something very special. All we need is a little push.
The video:
I have created a few videos using a number of different platforms like iMovie, Adobe Spark, and Screencastify. For this project, I chose to use Screencastify. It took me several different cuts to come up with the finished product. I normally use iMovie but felt that Screencastify gave me a better platform to convey my overall message. I first created a write up of what I wanted to say. Once I had a solid idea of what I was going to be talking about, I looked for pictures. I like to use google slides because I am comfortable with using it with Screencastify. A great add-on to google slides is Unsplash. This is a great place to find royalty-free pictures. For this project editing was made simple with Screencastify’s editing tools.
What does Effective Professional Development Look Like?
5 Principals for Effective Professional Development
- Duration
- Support
- Active Learning
- Modeling
- Content-Specific
Using the 5 principles for effective professional development will be the foundation of my alternative professional development plan.
Throughout my Lamar experience, I have been creating an innovative plan for Blended Learning. One of the biggest pieces of this plan will be implementing blended learning through an alternative professional learning plan.
For a closer look at my Professional Learning Plan for blended learning Click Here.
Other Items You May be interested in:
Resources
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
Tucker, C. R. (2019). Power up blended learning: a professional learning infrastructure to support sustainable change. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, A SAGE Company.
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