I have enjoyed reading your discussions and descriptions of your own PD in your schools as well as your responses to my ideas of what to think about as you read. Before we jump into the readings for Week 5, I was asked in the VCI about the format of the report for the Needs Assessment survey. While there is not a set format, you do need to provide information to me (and other readers) about your context and what you did to collect the data. And you need to present your results in a ways that makes it easy for you and for others to use the results to prioritize and plan the professional learning plan for your school. So I'll make some suggestions, but feel free to modify as needed.
1. Begin with a description of your school context (information for me and the others in your small group), including the number of teachers, the grade levels, how many teachers at each level, resources teachers and administrators.
2. Tell how the survey was distributed to those teachers/administrators, if you did any followup in terms of re-sending the survey link for example, and how many people returned the survey (give a total but break down by grade level/area as well so that the conclusions you draw can be contextualized to those teachers).
3. Put in tables or charts of the survey results.
4. Write a narrative summary of what you found out. What are the key ELA standards that they say they are implementing and which ones seem to not be implemented as much? What do they say they are knowledgeable about and which ones were not checked as much? What did they say they would like to learn more about and which were not checked so much or were not checked? What types of formats were most popular?
Share your charts/tables in the small group online discussion that you need to have during week 5 to help each other with the summaries.
This week you will continue to read about professional development and learning. In the Research on PD piece, parts 2,3,4,5, you will read about processes and approaches to PD, effective environments, what and how to evaluate PD programs, and indicators of effective PD. In the Guskey article, there are new issues around PD that will be brought up, and the Hobbs et al article discusses a type of PD around digital and media literacies. Before you read, what do you hope to find out in these readings this week that is new to you? What ideas do you already have that you hope will be reinforced?
In your blogs this week, discuss the key ideas that you have gotten out of these readings that you think will be important for you to remember as you are creating your own school-wide professional learning plan? Why? How do they match up with adult learning theory? How will you integrate a plan to assess the effectiveness of your program? What might be some challenges you will have as you make your plan? Why? How can you help each other to try and address those challenges? Be sure to include the following concepts/terms in your discussion: learning environment, mental model, principles of learning, design principles, evaluation, technology, time, collaboration.
Remember that you will need to find a time for your blog group to get together online to share your results of your survey this coming week. Let me know if you would like for me to join you (Tuesday is a day I teach from 7-10 so couldn't join any group then).
The write up of the needs assessment needs to be uploaded to Canvas during Week 6 before the face to face class on Feb. 24--I'll remind you again. We will spend some time in class working on starting your Task 2 and making sure you all know what needs to go in there.
Stay warm this weekend, and Happy Valentine's Day on Wednesday!
I hope to find out more about adult learning. I feel confident in my ability to teach children because I understand how they learn and what approaches and practices can be used. I feel very underdeveloped in my ability to guide adults in learning processes, as I do not know much about how they learn. I feel like I need too know a little more about how they learn so that I can understand the approaches and practices that can be used in professional development settings.
ReplyDeleteI also hope to learn more about how to evaluate PD to determine effectiveness. I hope that the ideas of feedback and implementation percentages will be included in the discussions of how to evaluate PD, as these are what come to mind when I consider how I would evaluate a PD program. I would want to get feedback at multiple points from the participants as well as data on the implementation that is occurring as a result. I feel like there is much more to evaluating a PD program, so I am interested to learn more. I assume parts of the evaluate will also include observations of implementation as well as student achievement data.
Finally, I hope to learn more about creating the most conducive PD environment for learning, collaboration, and growth. There are a few things I am sure are part of this, such as allowing discussion and accepting differing opinions, but as I said about evaluation, I'm sure there is much more!
I would to know more about developing an effective environment for a successful PD program. I understand that the help of the principal and an on-going program is vital for success. However, there must be man more factors to consider when creating an environment that will encourage teachers to continue with the implementation of the newly learned approaches.
ReplyDeleteI would also like to learn about more PD programs that focus on media and digital literacies. Since technology integration in the classroom is being greatly encouraged, what are some PD programs that are practical and can enhance classroom instruction and improve student learning?
As I read these chapters, I hope to would like to better understand how to evaluate effective PD. Should a checklist, survey, or small group discussion be used? Which strategies are most effective for evaluation?
As I read this week I want to know more about how to plan effective PD and how to gain "buy in" from teachers who do not think they have time for new learning or do not want to participate. I see that as a struggle I will have at my school.
ReplyDeleteI expect that we will read about how to determine if a PD program is beneficial or not. I expect that quality PD programs will be researched based and will offer feedback to the participants. I also expect that quality PD will empower teachers to use the new information in their classrooms.
I hope that I learn about online PD programs and other technology that teachers can participate in with small groups.
This week, I hope to find out about how schools and teachers actually implement long-term and effective professional learning opportunities into their already busy schedules. Does most of it occur after or before school? Or, do they does it mainly occur in their PLC time? I know some schools they have a different schedule one day a week (late start or an early dismissal) to have their PLCs and not have to always give up their planning time.
ReplyDeleteI am also curious about PD in regards to digital and media literacies. I am not usually a big fan of webinars or remote presentations, but I look forward to reading the Hobbs et al article. Perhaps new ways to do facilitate PD in a digital format will be presented.
I hope the tie between professional learning and student achievement continues to be a major theme of our PD discussion. Why else should we do PD if not to help our students be more successful? I also hope that the idea of matching the PD opportunity the specific interests and needs of the participant is reinforced as well. We had some common characteristics of effective PD revealed in Section 1 of the Research piece, and I hope to see a more condensed list of characteristics or go more in-depth to the ones that we already read about.
ReplyDeleteI hope to find out what new issues research has revealed surrounding PD. I am looking forward to learning more about effective ways to approach PD. I know that teachers have a lot of knowledge to offer and that PD shouldn’t discount this. I also know that PD should be approached with the idea that teachers can implement ideas and then somehow be able to come back and ask questions and reflect on the implementation of what it was the PD focused on. An effective environment would involve collaboration amongst teachers and be participatory rather than just the presenter lecturing the whole time. I would assume that increased student achievement is the number one indicator that determines if the PD was successful. I also am curious to know what other ways besides surveys are used to evaluate the effectiveness of PD programs as this is usually what I am given at the end of a PD session. Creating multimodal texts and incorporating technology into literacy seem to be popular areas that teachers want PD in at my school, so I am looking forward to learning more about digital and media literacies
My personal interest lies in learning more and about designing PD that allows for true feedback and support. Until recently my personal experiences with "feedback" has been filling out a google form about the presenter and information given or leaving an exit ticket. Support has looked like receiving an e-mail address to be able to ask the presenter questions later on. I'd like to gain an understanding of how to incorporate time and resources that allow for feedback and support to teachers.
ReplyDeleteI am hoping to also learn about what drives teachers to engage in professional development opportunities and how to promote engagement from those who are more resistant to the idea of PD. My building has great teachers but many just seem so resistant to seek professional development opportunities. I don't know if this is because our district isn't known for providing the best experiences or if time is an issue, but the resistance is there. I'd like to find ways to overcome it.
While I still hope to continue to expand and learn more on the topic of adult learning, I hope that the ideas that I have are confirmed. I tend to approach adult learning much like I do learning for my students; express importance and relevance of content, chunk information, provide tasks that lend to collaboration, monitor pacing needs, verify learning.
This week I hope that the readings will serve as a guide that offers suggestions for next steps in planning PD as I begin to analyze the results from the needs assessment. We have read that PD should be interactive and relevant to teacher’s needs. Although teachers may share in the same needs, everyone learns differently. I hope to find out more about the adult learning theory. When I looked at the titles of the readings assigned for this week, I hope to learn new ideas about using technology in a PD session and obtain recommendations towards arranging the best environment for PD. Also I am hoping to collect researched-based suggestions about what works and what does not work in PD. The title, “Everyone Learns from Everyone” reminds me that teachers hold a wealth of information. In Bean, Chapter 5: “No longer is the emphasis on educators being the recipient of something ‘done to or for them.’ Rather, the focus is on teachers being proactive in their own learning by being involved in collaborative learning…” I will be looking for suggestions on how to create PD environments in which everyone is proactive in their own learning while they are working together and learning from one another.
ReplyDeleteThis week I want to learn more about the development process of an effective PD. In our readings this previous week, we learned that PDs should be interactive and engaging, and we also learned about the adult learning model. In our teaching practices, we learn all about different learning modalities, and I want to learn how to apply that to adults as well. In my particular school, our professional development and PLCs are much different than those that are talked about in the book. I hope my understanding of PLCs from the previous chapters is supported in these readings and I would also love to learn more about PLCs and how I can help my school create more engaging PLCs for our teachers.
ReplyDeleteThis week I hope to learn what makes PD not only engaging to teachers, but what needs to happen in order to make that PD go beyond that presentation or group meeting, etc. What kind of support or feedback opportunities should be provided to teachers afterward? I would like to know how to create PD that makes teachers forget about checking their cellphones/watch or thinking about the million things they could be doing in their classroom instead. I’m also interested in learning about the digital and media literacy PD that is included in this weeks reading. Since I don’t have a background in literacy PD, Im looking forward to learning more about the topic in general.
ReplyDeleteI hope to learn how to use the feedback from teachers to create PD that is meaningful for them. I'm also hoping to learn more about how to create PD! I have always being on the receiving side of PD so I'm not entirely 100% sure how to go about creating PD from scratch per say. I am hoping that the idea of being an active learner is reinforced when I read!
ReplyDeleteThis week, I hope to learn how to create effective, entertaining, and enlightening professional development opportunities for my teachers. This idea is so daunting to me. I know I have been in many developmental workshops that have been fantastic information, but the delivery and the ease of implementing to my classroom are too much for the current school--and by the time the next school year roles around, I've already overwhelmed with so many other boxes to check and loops to jump.
ReplyDelete