Planning and Focus
The January book study session addresses the focus of professional development and planning for professional learning activities.
Some of the questions posed during the book study session are included below. What are your thoughts?
- Talk about the positive experiences you have had related to ambitious goals.
- How do you help teachers feel that ambitious goals are manageable?
- Beyond test scores, how can we connect professional learning with student learning?
- Share your thoughts on the “Rule of Six.”
- What are the implications for our work as Staff Development Planners?
Categories: Discussion Board
Here’s a compiled list of what the afterschool groups said…
Planning Staff Development to Maximize Engagement:
- organized
- ask teachers what they need to address specific goals
- use feedback to design session
- if there are different ways to achieve goals, provide choice
- break up the day/session into smaller chunks
- arrange for teachers to work in smaller groups
- sharing best practice
- principal has an integral role as a participant and/or leader
- strategies/tools that can be implemented immediately (e.g. make and take type sessions)
Managing Ambitious Goals:
- institute a pilot to fine tune implementation and get teachers excited
- get kids excited and funnel that energy to fuel teachers
- teacher feature – teacher shares a lesson during faculty meeting
- creative opportunities for teachers to work together (e.g. PLC, common planning, time on staff dev days)
- creative opportunities for teachers to observe each other (e.g. administrative team provides coverage so teachers can visit 3 other teachers classrooms to see implementation of strategies. Visiting teacher asks classroom teacher to sign his/her “passport” as evidence of observation)
- institute a modeling/feedback cycle
- well-structured and organized
- small chunks/small steps
- suggestions for concrete strategy
- providing resources or supplies (e.g. copies, laminated resources, pens for special activity)
- celebrate success
- display data visually to chart progress
- take time to make sure you establish teacher buy in
- institute a school-wide incentive program
Keeping the Focus on Student Learning
- look frequently at multiple sources of data
- consider more than just test data (e.g. discipline referrals, parent survey data)
- collect and analyze student work samples together
- share best practices