How Admins Can Empower Teachers with Personalized PD Pt. 1 #adminchat #iaedchat

Professional Development: to most teachers, these two words are followed by sighs, moans, and groans. Thousands of teachers have already taken PD into their own hands by using Twitter and other social networks to connect with like-minded educators to share instructional-changing ideas. But that still hasn’t cured the plague known as Traditional PD that is delivered by administrators. If we expect teachers to empower students, then why shouldn’t administrators do the same for teachers?

It’s not the hours you put in, it’s what you put into the hours…

Since taking on my new position as a Technology Integration Specialist, I have had the opportunity to work with several different school districts. But it was a meeting with one district, in particular, where the idea of restructuring the use of time came up. The question posed was, “How do we let those teachers that are ready to move on, do so, while we give the individual help that the rest might need?” It was clear that the current model of “A La Carte” PD was not working. So we decided to take a critical look at what we put into the hours.

Goals of Personalized PD…

As the team of Instructional Coaches, Tech Coaches, and Admins began to structure the once a month 2-hour PD time, it was clear that there were some goals that we were looking to accomplish…

1. Give teachers the one thing they feel they never have…TIME.
2. Allow them the freedom to explore new teaching methods.
3. Utilize the Instructional Coaches more.
4. Promote the true classroom integration of instructional methods.
5. Promote intrinsic motivation for teachers.
6. Have a positive effect on student outcomes.

The new PD…

This video explains the new PD that we put in place and how it mimics the Climbing Your Mountain analogy.

In order for teachers to access everything they need, it was important to create a website for them to easily navigate. THIS WEBSITE is merely a shell that houses all documents and videos that current teachers (and even future teachers to the district) need. There are certain documents that that can only be accessed by those within the district, but here is a folder that houses a copy of those documents.

To Be Continued…

In my next post, I will be discussing how Google Drive is being utilized to gather research, effectively plan for integration, and act as the main mode of communication between all staff, coaches, and admins even in differing buildings.

Jarod Bormann
#edtech rocks