Introduction
Professional learning (PL) is meant to be about developing the right skills for our students, teacher growth, and lesson planning. During PL teachers mainly group with their department whether it's by grade and content or just content. PL allows teachers to bounce ideas and strategies off of one another by engaging and then demonstrating with one another. SpEd students lack the use of technology because most educators do not have the time and patience to teach them. Technology can be very beneficial to children with learning disabilities. With my PL strategies, we will be going from “sit and get” learning to “ go and show” learning.
Call to Action
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. In my Call to Action video, I developed three steps that 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.
Professional Learning Blueprint
For the longest, I thought Profesional Learning(PL) and Professional development (PD) were the same, turns out they are not. Professional development is more lectures, seminars, or workshops that are meant to help educators continue to grow in their careers. Although professional learning also consists of those, it also requires more engagement with each other and modeling (WGU 2019). During PL teachers mainly group with their department whether it's by grade and content or just content. PL allows teachers to bounce ideas and strategies off of one another by engaging and then demonstrating with one another. Although PL might feel weird at first, it helps you and your students out in the long run. Modeling new strategies with your department group, gives teachers opportunities for feedback and feedforward. Demonstrating what worked and what didn’t, talking, and expressing those practices get you more comfortable when you have to model for your students.
Audience
My audience is all staff in my school k-5th. In a special education class, there are all-grade students, and getting all teachers on board can help motivate others. Us working together for Gen Ed students and SpEd students to collaborate by building ePortfolio can not only help academic skills, but also social skills. Modeling some of these collaborations during Professional Development can give them an idea of how to properly develop these lessons in class.
Fostering Collaboration
Student and teacher engagement is important in learning new lessons and materials. To learn, you must first make a mistake or not know in general. Learning should be more about engaging with coworkers, talking to them seeing what works and what doesn’t, and also bouncing ideas off of one another. If videos are shown during PL, they should be shortened, to no more than three minutes so teachers utilize all their time.
Fostering Self Directed Learning
By modeling a flipped classroom, I will be able to promote self-directed learning. Flipped classrooms are designed for lessons to be given 100% online and students teach and learn at their own pace by providing videos, notes, etc. for students to learn on their own and then come to school and work on materials and tests for what they know. Modeling self-directed learning would be important in this type of learning. Demonstrating to students how to take breaks in between videos, how to stay on task and keep their minds from drifting, and just assuring them that even though you are doing a flipped classroom model, you are still available for questions.
Professional Learning Instructors
With the help of a 3rd-grade General education teacher and the campus diagnostician, we will be fostering all factors of Professional Learning. Making sure teachers have PL options, making sure they are modeling lessons, and also asking questions. My coworker and I will have a 15-minute rotation with all PL groups to discuss their plans and modeling.
The image above is from
Karin Stateler. Concepts in the image are from Teaching the Teachers Effective Professional Development in an Era of High Stakes Accountability (Gulamhussein, 2013).
5 Key Principals
Duration:
PL will take place once a month six hours a day. A span of 8 months (1 school year) for a total of 48 hours. During PL teachers will be demonstrating, modeling, and collaborating on strategies for their students within their department group.
Support:
I will offer as much support as possible during all PL days. I will have 15-minute sessions with each teacher department group to discuss feedforward and give feedback on their implementations
Active Participation:
As I am making my 15-minute rounds to each group, I will make sure each teacher gets a chance to engage in their new practice so they can feel comfortable. Teachers will be creating and working on ePortfolios also during PL.
Modeling:
During all PL sessions, I will share my ePortfolios with teachers. I will have teachers share and discuss their ePortfolios w/ each other within their department group. Also, during PL teachers will model any new practices they have discussed. As teachers have students work on their ePortfolios, once a week they will share discussion posts on what works and what doesn’t.
Specific Content:
Each department group will also be separated by grade level. As I am going around during my 15-minute walk-throughs, teachers will get to share with me their ideas and strategies.
Timeline
My professional learning timeline will start from January 2023 to June 2023. Teachers will have a total of 20 hours of PL during those months. The first meeting will be the day everyone comes back from winter break. The earlier we start to implement this PL the better. It will be an introduction and telling staff about the goals I want to accomplish. The meetings after that will be all about engaging, modeling, and asking questions.
BHAG
A Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) is one that determines greatness. It is a big outrageous goal that you and your team will stretch beyond the obvious (Rhythm System 2022). There are three main steps to creating a BHAG. Step 1: Know Thyself, step 2: Set the Right Mark, step 3: Grow With Purpose
My BHAG is to have Teachers collaborate on building ePortfolios and use them for discussions throughout the school year. Also, to have SpEd and Gen Ed students collaborate with each other on building ePortfolios to use for discussions throughout the school year.
As I was aligning outcomes, I utilized Fink’s 3 Column Table and Wiggins and McTighe UbD Template, I got to see my BHAG in further and greater detail.
Summary
The overall goal of Professional Learning is for teachers to engage, collaborate, and model ideas to each other. For the very first meeting, make sure all educators have a growth mindset and know what a growth mindset is so that the PL can be 100% effective. I want my teachers and staff to understand that having sped and gen. Ed students collaborating on ePortfolio will develop better social skills. I want to have teachers collaborate on building ePortfolios and use them for discussions throughout the school year. Also, to have SpEd and Gen Ed students collaborate with eachother on building ePortfolios to use for discussions throughout the school year.
References
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Gulamhussein, A. (2020, January 1). Teaching The Teachers Effective Professional Development in an Era of High Stakes Accountability. http://conference.ohioschoolboards.org/2017/wp-content/uploads/sites/17/2016/07/1pm111317A114Job-embedPD.pdf.
Karin Stateler. Concepts in the image are from Teaching the Teachers Effective Professional Development in an Era of High Stakes Accountability (Gulamhussein, 2013).