Rebecca Recco — EDLD 5388
How will incorporate the 5 key principle of effective PD into your plan:

 

• The duration of professional learning must be significant and ongoing to allow time for teachers to learn a new strategy and grapple with the implementation problem. Ongoing support.

 

The duration of the PD will be a semester.  This will allow for the rollout of the plan, a small, initial project, and then a longer period where teachers will start transitioning their existing lesson plans into Google Classroom.  During the transition, there will be collaborations with team teachers and coaches to share feedback and ideas.

 

• There must be support for a teacher during the implementation stage that addresses the specific challenges of changing classroom practice.

 

Each teacher at Cindy Avitia High School has a coach and a team.  Coaches already provide weekly observation and data meetings, so it would be during these meetings that coaches could offer the most support for teachers individually and in teams to help this transition go smoothly.  Team teachers would also provide support for one another during team meetings where they already meet to discuss team-level instruction and ensure that expectations and instruction are consistent across the board.  

 

• Teachers’ initial exposure to a concept should not be passive, but rather should engage teachers through varied approaches so they can participate actively in making sense of a new practice.

 

The initial exposure to this concept will be given in a way that is an exact example of what they will be creating for their students.  They will arrive at a PD session expecting the usual slide show of instruction, but the only slide on the board will be a join code for our Google Classroom for PD.  They will log in, move through the slide show and materials to learn about how we will be moving our instruction from Slides to Classroom, and will have the rest of the afternoon to move one unit planned for the future into Classroom and adding resources so students can move through the instructional part on their own.  They will also include a product for students to create to show mastery of the unit objective.  As teachers are working on this unit, I will move from teacher to teacher to ensure they understand our PD objective and are comfortable moving their instruction into a student-led model.  For the teachers who are struggling, I will help them overcome obstacles to reach this goal.

 

• Modelling has been found to be highly effective in helping teachers understand a new practice.

 

Because teachers will be learning about this objective through a Google Classroom model of what they will be creating for their students, they can use the model as an example and refer to it whenever they’re not sure how to build their units.  I will include different types of resources in the PD classroom so teachers can refer to those things in building their own, and can also see what kinds of resources are most helpful for online, student-led learning.

 

• The content presented to teachers shouldn’t be generic, but instead specific to the discipline (for middle school and high school teachers) or grade-level (for elementary school teachers).

 

This content is designed specifically for teachers at Cindy Avitia High School.  Because each teacher will be creating content for their own discipline, the learning experience will be different for each teacher as they choose what to do based on their students’ specific needs.

 

• How will you foster collaboration?

 

Teachers will collaborate with other teachers in their team levels to ensure that all students within that team will experience a certain level of consistency in all Google Classrooms.  This will reduce confusion in students as they move into a different kind of learning.  Teachers will meet bi-weekly to discuss Google Classroom, but will also have opportunities to work with team teachers and coaches at weekly observation and data meetings if the need is there.  Coaches already use this time to work with teachers on teacher-specified needs, so it would be easy to include more support if needed.  Coaches will be checking updates to the Google Classrooms and offering suggestions one on one with teachers, either way.  During these check-ins, coaches will spotlight teacher successes and celebrating them in weekly posts to PD Google Classroom.

 

• Who will lead what components?

 

I will lead the initial rollout.  Coaches will lead team-level coaching and meetings.  Teachers will eventually lead team-level meetings once they are comfortable with this system.

 

• Audience and their needs

 

The audience is teachers at Cindy Avitia High School.  They currently teach using Google Slides, presented in-person to all students at the same time, regardless of student needs.  These teachers are very busy and a lot is expected of them.  They don’t get much planning time to take on more projects, so many are reluctant to try new things.  This program is designed to show them a way to take what they’re already doing and materials they are already using, and tweak them so they can reach more students, gain student engagement, save time playing catch-up with students are absent or who need extra help, and automate repetitive tasks, all while empowering students to be in charge of their own learning.  

• Instructional Design of your PL (will you use BHAG & 3 Column Table or UbD Template or something else)

I will use the BHAG and 3-Column Table

• Schedule/timeline

Phase 1:  3 weeks
Initial Build — 2 weeks
Launch  — 1 week

Phase 2:  9 weeks
Bi-weekly team meetings led by coaches
Weekly look-fors in Classroom design to target challenges and fine-tune planning
Monthly in-person group collaborative discussion/work time
Teacher celebrations, resources, and ideas posted weekly to PD Google Classroom.

Phase 3: 9 weeks
Bi-Weekly check-ins at coaching meetings
Weekly look-fors continue
Updates to PD Google Classroom continue

 

 

• Types of resources you will need

 

Google Classroom, Google Slides, Email, Resources to add to Google Classroom, Screen Captures of basic Google Classroom features, PD time for initial rollout, PD time in team level meetings, fun rewards for teacher celebrations.

 

Resources:

Fink, L. D. (2013). Creating significant learning experiences: An integrated approach to designing college courses. John Wiley & Sons.

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/Main-Menu/Staffingstudents/Teaching-the-Teachers-Effective-Professional-Development-in-an-Era-of-High-Stakes-Accountability/Teaching-the-Teachers-Full-Report.pdf