The Story
What is the Story Behind the Story?
When it comes to Professional Development opportunities, unfortunately, it often comes with a negative connotation. Many teachers and educators can often approach the situation with a fixed mindset (like myself) because they do not understand why they need to attend the presentation when it does not adequately meet their needs. Learning often occurs when the learners are actively engaged and involved in making meaningful connections to the material rather than passively obtaining the information from a lecture-style presentation. That is why schools must move away from professional development and move towards more effective professional learning opportunities.
After reading, Teaching the Teachers Effective Professional Development in an Era of High Stakes Accountability by Gulamhussein (2013), I find myself wondering if any other teachers are like myself and struggle to implement those strategies and resources from the "Set and Get" and "One Size Fits All" approach to professional development. After approaching many of my colleagues on campus about their thoughts on this topic, I realized I was not alone. I introduced the idea of professional learning to them, and they were ecstatic with the idea of it. I have created a presentation below representing the critical points to implement effective professional learning opportunities on my campus.
The Why
I have always loved technology and getting to see what a great tool it can be for teachers. I have been with my district for almost five years now. When I first started everything was paper or textbook-based. Unfortunately, we had little to no technology resources. I struggled with making connections to students to keep them engaged and on task. I fell in love with play-based learning in undergrad, and that was successful in some areas of the curriculum but was lacking in other areas. I was not making the connections I needed. We have slowly implemented 1 to 1 devices over the last three years. Having the opportunity to implement technology in the classroom has drastically changed my classroom environment. My students are thrilled to learn various things and are far more engaged and excited about learning.
Teachers are often required to use new and innovative resources and strategies to teach their students, but we often forget that those new strategies can take time and practice to implement them successfully. It is essential to take the time to address learners' needs and activate their prior knowledge to be effective. Educators need to have the opportunity to receive the proper training and support needed to fully understand how to implement sufficient active learning strategies for their students. Professional learning allows them the opportunity to feel comfortable and assured when receiving and implementing this information. It is also essential to meet teachers where they are and ensuring that their needs are being met as well. Professional development does not need to be advertised as a universal "fix". Teachers must be successfully equipped with the tools and resources they need to be effective in the classroom. Changing to a "Go and Show" form of professional learning will be an ongoing process, just as when teachers try to change and evolve the way they engage and innovate with their students in the classroom. I am always interested in what changes can be utilized in my classroom to help my students be successful. The change to a new and improved professional learning model creates that very same curious feeling for me too. I can't wait to see how much teachers, including myself, can accomplish in our classrooms by have the opportunity to learn at our own pace.
The What
I created my presentation, located below, using the application Powtoon. I plan to present this to my Assistant Principal to demonstrate how we can take the next steps to develop genuine professional learning opportunities on the application Google Classroom and how implement it on our campus. I will explain how this process allows teachers to choose the learning opportunity based on their specific needs as well as for their students'. I have uploaded my video presentation to YouTube so that it is easily accessible, and anyone who watches it will get the same experience as they would in the original audience.
The How
The creation of my professional learning presentation was rather vexing at the beginning. When I create a presentation, I instantly think about Google. I prefer to use Google for almost everything because it always saves my work, is easy to make changes and adjustments, and I can access it from almost any device. For this presentation, I thought to push myself out of my usual comfort zone. I struggled with choosing what format and applications I would use to get my ideas and points across. I considered iMovie, Google Slides (of course), Prezi, and QuickTime. I even started using the first two before getting frustrated and starting back at square one. I came across Powtoon, a user-friendly and intuitive animation software that allows you to create engaging videos with a professional look and feel. I had used this application a few times before but thought it would be a great tool to use for this opportunity and I could explore the application more. It offered the opportunity to allow for a more simplistic design, not too much decoration, as Duarte (2009) states in her Five Rules for presentations video. I realized that in the past, I, being the elementary school teacher I am, usually go way over the top with the amount of information or decorations I would put on each slide. My goal for this presentation was to scale that information back and only put the essential information and points needed. All of my images and video clips in my presentation were courtesy of Powtoon and free video search courtesy of Story Blocks.
I look forward to seeing my audience's reactions when I present this new and innovative professional learning idea.