Call to Action
The Story Behind the Story
The Why: When we think of students with learning disabilities, we think of everything they CAN’T do. We try our best to challenge them but soon as they get overstimulated, we break and say forget the concept. Modeling these activities and skills during PL can help reduce that overstimulation. When educators get together and model their lessons to one another, it allows for feedback and feedforward. It allows questions to come about that we never thought of, and it allows us to change our lesson for the better. It allows teachers from other departments and content areas to provide you with other strategies that may help. Teachers being actively involved in Special Education developments allows and shows that we all want our students to succeed no matter if they have a disability or not. By using the three steps in my PowerPoint, we can help Special Education teachers come up with content lessons that won’t overstimulate their children and continue to keep them actively engaged in their learning.
What motivated me the most is when I was an assistant food the Special Education unit, I felt as though teachers did not work with the students enough or push them to reach their full potential. Being labeled as SpEd, or having an IEP does not mean you are any so much different than other students, you just learn differently. They just need extra hands-on, extra one-on-one time, and need to feel included. I always told myself that when I became a SpEd teacher, I will make sure to provide my students with more resources, and more time, and just to always assure them that they must work first to receive their break.
The 5 key principles of effective PL (Gulamhussein, 2013):
“The duration of professional development must be significant and ongoing to allow time for teachers to learn a new strategy and grapple with the implementation problem.
There must be ongoing support for a teacher during the implementation stage that addresses the specific challenges of changing classroom practice.
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.
Modeling has been found to be highly effective in helping teachers understand a new practice.
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).”
The What
Title: Education Needs a Change
Audience: Teachers, Staff, Diagnostician
Concept Ideas:
Peer to Peer learning
Pairing a gen ed student with a sped student
Focus on feedback right then
Overall Goal: Improve Student Achievement
Presentation on Google Slides or Microsoft PowerPoint
References
3 ways to upgrade to engaging professional development for teachers. Kognito. (2022, June 16). Retrieved September 26, 2022, from https://kognito.com/blog/3-ways-to-upgrade-to-engaging-professional-development-that-will-delight-your-teachers/
Active learning challenges old education models. Harvard Extension School. (2022, August 9). Retrieved September 27, 2022, from https://extension.harvard.edu/blog/active-learning-challenges-old-education-models/
Cchiaro. (2022, March 10). Keys to improving teacher professional development. Graduate Programs for Educators. Retrieved September 27, 2022, from https://www.graduateprogram.org/2019/09/keys-to-improving-teacher-professional-development/
Gulamhussein, A. (2013). Teaching the Teachers Effective Professional Development in an Era of High Stakes Accountability. Center for Public Education. http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/system/files/2013-176_ProfessionalDevelopment.pdf
Sinek, S. (2009). Start with why: How great leaders inspire everyone to take action. New York, N.Y.: Portfolio.