How might WE learn?

Educators spend a significant amount of time reflecting on pedagogy to support an engaging student learning experience, and rightfully so.  How much time do school leaders spend planning and preparing to support 21st century professional learning?  How might we enhance the HOWs, WHATs, and WHYs for learning in this digitally connected age?

In the next month I’ll be sharing an interactive Digital Leadership Challenge designed to support HOW we learn.  The Digital Leadership Challenge article will be titled “Driven to Collaborate.”  It will feature creative mini-challenges submitted by ten connected educators across the country.  The article and accompanying mini-challenges is being published by the Minnesota Elementary Principal Association (#MESPAmn) and shared electronically via multiple sources including this blog.

We’ll be using a tiered system to ensure that regardless of where you are at on your Digital Leadership journey there will be accessible entry-points to learn and grow.  We’ve also created a cool point-system with electronic badges that will be awarded based on the challenges you complete.  I’m really excited by the inspiring variety of learning opportunities that will be outlined in the article.  Please encourage your colleagues to dial in to this unique, 21st century PD opportunity.

Watch for our the article the 1st week in May.  Special thanks to the amazing educators that collaborated on the Digital Leadership Challenge.

Mini-Challenge Submissions:

Curt Rees, Elementary Principal, WI

@CurtRees on Twitter

*

Patrick Glynn, Elementary Principal, MN

@GallyGopher on Twitter

*

Jessica Johnson, Elementary Principal, WI

@PrincipalJ on Twitter

*

Tony Sinanis, Elementary Lead Learner, NY

Joe Sanfelippo, District Superintendent, WI

@TonySinanis & @Joesanfelippofc on Twitter 

*

Dwight Carter, HS Principal, OH

@Dwight_Carter on Twitter

*

Dave Zukor, Integration Specialist, MN

@DZukor on Twitter

*

Rafranz Davis, Instructional Technology Specialist, TX

@RafranzDavis on Twitter

*

Daisy Dyer Duerr, PreK – 12 Principal, AR

@DaisyDyerDuerr on Twitter

*

Terri Eichholz, Teacher of K – 5 Gifted Students, TX

@TerriEichholz on Twitter

*

Eric Sheninger, High School Principal, NJ

@NMHS_Principal

 

PD & SIPs: Feel Like You're Herding Cats? That's OK!

If you're an educational leader, you've no doubt been involved in developing school improvement plans, following those frameworks that suggest our work can roll easily if we just follow the cyclical arrows: collect the data, identify the implementation needs, train the staff, take action, reflect, revise, and so on...

Continuous improvement plans have good intentions.  Making significant changes in teaching and learning means that educators need to speak a common language, have common expectations, and develop expertise in common effective strategies and instructional moves. It makes sense that we would follow an organized plan with timelines and outcomes, including opportunities for professional growth.  Yet, when embedding professional development activities into school improvement planning, the reality sometimes looks more like this:

Feel like you're herding cats?  Fantastic!  When planning for school improvement and professional learning, educator needs, background experiences, and learning styles vary-- just like those of our students.  If we keep our targets in mind, however, we can design plans that allow us to differentiate professional learning opportunities while still addressing the goals of school improvement.

So How do We Round Them Up? 

1.  Identify and communicate the expected targets.  
I worked with a school district in my county to plan professional learning for their K-5 staff.  The SIP team had identified Tier 1 reading instruction as an area where they needed to ensure that teachers were using evidence-based practices, and that students were receiving quality reading experiences in each and every classroom.  At our first session with staff, we shared a framework of balanced reading instruction, and provided explicit descriptions of exemplary practice.  Teachers talked in small groups about which areas they felt most confident, as well as those about which they wanted to learn more. 

2.  Ask teachers to self-assess. 
Professionals are often more willing to participate when they've had the opportunity to reflect and address their learning needs. We then used a survey asking teachers to identify their level of implementation for each component of the framework, using the following levels: 

• Not Practiced: I do not use this practice and/or I have very little knowledge of this practice.

• Beginning: I am learning about this practice and am just starting to try some things, but I still feel I have a lot to learn.

• Progressing: I have been working on this for awhile, and am beginning to feel comfortable in my understanding and practice. I would like to further hone my skills and knowledge.

• Implementing: I have a deeper understanding of this practice and it has become a part of my instructional routine.  I still have some “fine-tuning” to do.

• Innovating: This practice has become a regular part of my teaching repertoire, and I am comfortable in adjusting it based on my student needs.  I have a deep enough understanding and expertise level that I could advise others.  

The survey also included a place to prioritize topics for further study, as well as space for open-ended responses.

3.  Provide multiple opportunities for professional growth based on teacher-identified needs. 

One of the most powerful models this district found to support teachers was the creation of small grade-level teams to observe a colleague's classroom, focusing on the instructional strategy or routine they wanted to study based on the survey. Using a lab classroom protocol, teachers identified a focus, saw it in action, and debriefed with colleagues afterwards. In addition to the observation, teacher teams studied relevant articles and books on their focus, and set individual professional goals to try the strategies they were learning. Teachers began to shape their own professional learning in this fashion, and continued collaborating and sharing resources through email, Google-docs, and LiveBinder.

4. Remember that it won't happen in a one-day in-service. Nor a two-day. Not even a three-day.

True growth and change occurs over time, so plan the year (and beyond!) in a way that allows teachers to continue to meet, share practices, resources, share student progress, and self-monitor.

Educators may not be cats, but they aren't cattle, either. They need relevance, engagement, ownership, and an opportunity to interact with colleagues within the context of their work.

We don't want our professional development to look like this: 

I'd rather herd cats.

I don't need no stinkin' help!

Rigidity is a terrible thing to grow into as a human being and yet as we become set in our ways, the stiffness sets in.

None of us started off teaching with closed minds.

I'm sure we can all remember a time when the future seemed limitless and we were going to change the world and then something happened.

Amazingly some of us still feel that way, while others have fallen down the rabbit hole unable to to climb out. Suddenly, the comfort of knowing what to do have superseded the need to try new things and grow, it has stunted creativity.

As a community, we are only as strong as our most resistant member and we all need help regardless of whether or not we want to own it or get it.

Students see our struggles and it is our job to be the change we want to see happening. Negativity in a school is like a cancer that festers into unthinkable darkness.

Professional learning and connecting is a way to draw us out the darkness and re-awaken the excitement we once felt about being educators. We all have that within us no matter how challenging the system has become.

Challenge for today: No matter how "bad" things get, find the one positive moment that makes your day AND tell the person who has done it.

How can you help a colleague out of the darkness? or Who has offered you a lifeline and how has it helped? Please share.

The Secret to Successful PD

The Secret to Successful PD:

4 Tips to Personalize YOUR Learning

Professional Development (PD) is not something done to us.  PD should be personalized and perpetual.  The power of your learning is NOT in a presenter’s hands; it’s in a new paradigm.

For too long we've settled for PD branding irons! We show up at state, district and site PD meetings hoping that the time is valuable and responsive to our needs.  We receive the information and mosey back to our schools intent on changing the world in isolation.  It’s time to step away from the branding iron! 

Educators need the equivalent of personalized PD tattoo parlors that are open 24-7!  Learning is a personal endeavor that should be filled with passion and continuous growth.  Each and every educator needs to be empowered to seek meaningful learning experiences that are personalized...just like a tattoo.

4 Tips to Personalizing your Learning: 

1. Get connected.  Build your PLN.  Twitter is a fantastic start.  Believe it or not, there are some amazingly talented and generous "sharers" outside your district, state and country's borders!  Tap into this potential and your students will benefit.

2. Own your learning.  Start by identifying one or two areas you want to grow in and pursue those relentlessly.  Engage your colleagues, administration, state associations, and workshop organizers.  Tell them what you need.  Challenge them to support your learning in a digitally connected age.  Challenge yourself to add a “digital leadership lens” to your repertoire.

3. Share. Teachers are some of the most humble people I know.  They do amazing things in their classrooms every day (believe me...I see it first-hand).  We need to move towards an ethos of sharing, whereas we are celebrating the unique talents and innovative practices of the teachers in our buildings.  For the benefit of students everywhere we need to invest in a culture of collaboration!

4. Stay connected.  Don't let the initial weirdness of Twitter scare you away.  It's lonely at first.  When you look at your initial “follower count” don’t be fooled.  That’s just a number…the power is in the connections and conversations held outside 140 characters.  Try commenting on blogs, conversing via Voxer, or tuning into educational Podcasts.  Sign-up and start a professional Twitter account today, and make it a daily habit to read one blog, comment to a colleague, and share one idea/resource online each week.  Twitter is a phenomenal springboard to collegial connections. 

Over time you will build a super-charged PLN that revitalizes your practice and directly benefits kids.  A 21^st century pedagogy will require educators to think in new ways.  I was recently reminded of a quote that really resonated:

“If you think change is hard…you will like the feeling of irrelevance even less.”

Your PD tattoo awaits.  Seek it with passion and persistence!  Make learning personal.

Photo Credits:

Howlingduckranch.wordpress.com

Swindontowncentre.co.uk

Sharp-Shootin' Professional Development: Can a webinar environment hit the mark as a venue for effective professional learning?  

“Aim at a high mark and you'll hit it. No, not the first time, nor the second time. Maybe not the third. But keep on aiming and keep on shooting for only practice will make you perfect.”

Annie Oakley

The Standoff.

I work at an Intermediate School District which serves 21 local schools across our county.  School administrators wanted their teachers to experience high-quality professional development that didn't require coming to a common site during the school day, and asked that we provide opportunities online.  

One of my projects involves supporting educators in high-poverty districts to better understand and meet the needs of their students.  The more I researched, the more I realized that this was a multi-year endeavor that required more than a few sessions. A one-shot workshop like "The Ten Best Instructional Strategies for Students of Poverty" wasn't even close to a bulls-eye.  

Nope, there was no silver bullet-such work would be long term, requiring a framework of understanding; an exploration of mindsets and beliefs; the fostering of relationships and leadership capacity; and a collaborative response to systemwide practices and policies-while at the same time exploring instructional practice and taking immediate action every single day to support those students.  This was going to be a long term project, but students couldn't wait for us to get wiser over a course of several years.  

Ready. Fire. Aim. 

 I knew we had to start somewhere, though, so, following a one-day workshop with Drs. William Parrett and Kathleen Budge, I scheduled a 5-session book study on their book, Turning High-Poverty Schools into High-Performing Schools.The first session would be a face-to-face kick-off, which included dinner and an interactive how-to session on the Adobe Connect environment.  The remaining sessions (and there's one more to go) were scheduled to meet monthly via webinar for 90 minutes.

I was worried.  Most of the webinars I'd experienced as a participant were narrated slide presentations, and I knew how easy it was to get distracted because I thought I could multi-task and just listen.  How could I make our book study webinars a truly meaningful professional learning experience without shooting myself in the foot?  

So first, I went back to the basics--what did I know about effective professional development? I revisited Learning Forward's Standards for Professional Learning (my go-to reference) to set my sights on a powerful learning design.  I watched several webinars, including one where Sonja Hollins-Alexander, author of Online Professional Development Through Virtual Learning Communities shared best practices and strategies for developing meaningful online Learning Networks.  I Googled "Effective Webinar Presentations" and found several practical tips--most were from the business world and focused on speaking skills--but those reminded me of the need to establish an engaging relationship with the audience despite the impersonal venue.  

Go Ahead...

Then, I considered my own experience as a learner.  I thought about the webinars that I had attended that resonated with me, where I felt I'd learned something that impacted my professional practice.  These were the characteristics I identified:

• Feeling connected to the speaker(s). I liked being able to see the person who was speaking, and I've found that those presenters on camera helped me maintain focus.  Also, some presenters addressed questions I posed in the chat, mentioning me by name.  This simple gesture further personalized the experience.
• Opportunities to interact with others.  The chat box option, available on most webinar platforms, allowed me to ask questions and discuss content with others. I have "met" several educators through webinars, and we have maintained contact via email and twitter to share resources and ideas.
• Active learning components built into the webinar. Participating in polls and surveys, and being invited to reflect and respond to content took away the temptation to "clean up" my email while I listened to a webinar.
• Access to resources.  I found it helpful to have handouts sent ahead of time or immediately following a webinar, and many presenters share web links of articles, videos, books, or school websites that participants can explore later.
• Timely Topics based on research, but seasoned with practical application.

I also reviewed characteristics of professional development, and noticed that my preferences reflected what we know about effective professional learning for adults:

• Aligned to the context of our work
• Opportunities for active learning
• Collaboration with colleagues
• Follow-up and Feedback

Time to Calibrate and Collaborate.

At that point, I had enough ammo to get started in planning my attack.  In part 2 of this blog, I’ll share my experiences on the range and my attempts to be a real sharp shooter.

Old West Wisdom for Trail Blazin' Teachers

A "trailblazer" is...

• a person who makes, does, or discovers something new and makes it acceptable or popular
• a person who marks or prepares a trail...for other people to follow

Keep a look out for my next post... 

"Code of the West for 21st Century Teachers"

Special thanks to Kathy Weiser, owner/editor, Legends of American, http://www.legendsofamerica.com for granting permission for me to adapt work from their cite. 

trailblazer. 2014. In Merriam-Webster.com.

       Retrieved January 11, 2014, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/trailblazer

                   

Is the Water any Good?!

"You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink."

We’ve all heard it before, but implicit in the adage is the underlying assumption that the water is good.  In the case of Professional Development (PD) this is not always true!

I have been guilty of serving-up PD that didn’t hit the mark.  It's in humble reverence for the amazing educators in our school that I share my "epic fail."

I was recently reminded of the most basic PD principle; if something is content-heavy or complicated make sure the path and process are light.

 

We are in the midst of a two month “Flipped Faculty Meeting” series.  The content delves into some intensive reading research and learning about culturally responsive teaching.  It is scholarly and involved.  This complex content is paired with an online learning approach that utilizes our school’s Moodle platform along with some faculty online forum postings.  The online forum process is also new to many staff members.  Both the content and the process are complex.  How did I miss it?!

Fortunately I’m surrounded by an amazing team of teachers that communicate their professional needs in an open and trusting manner.  (Best of all....they are gifted. They truly "get" the importance of relationships and are doing inspiring work with technology integration.)  A leader on staff met with me to solution-seek a means to moving forward on our PD plans so that each and every staff member was learning in a manner that was responsive to their needs.  When collaboration along these lines occurs our kids are the winners!

I’m hoping the short story above highlighted two things:

•  Planning PD for the digitally connected age requires leaders to be more purposeful than ever before.  We cannot assume that an entire staff or building has the same exact needs.  Nor can we project our own readiness-level with regard to a content area, tech/tool, etc. on anyone else.

• Listen to your people.  Put the power of their learning in their hands and support them in an unswerving and wildly passionate manner.  By collaborating with the all-stars on staff you can successfully plan PD that offers multiple pathways to collective growth.

Remember…we can’t always assume that the “water” is inherently good.  Be reflective and critically evaluate the process you’re using to move to new frontiers.  Here’s to wishing you the best of luck in moving forward.   

Photo Credits:

www.bubblews.com

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=664578