The Stuff That's Wrong
In my district, we have Instructional Technology Facilitators who serve just a couple of schools each, and we offer in-house PD during teachers' planning periods at least once per month. This structure is convenient for teachers, so they don't have to take a day off and get a sub just to get some professional development.
In the past, I've structured my PD arc for the year on things like the ISTE Standards or Technology Integration themes, like digital citizenship, gamification, or student-centered learning.
But even with those topics sort of uniting what I offer, I was still jumping from topic to topic or tool to tool each month, and for my teachers, it was difficult to take what I was offering and use it in a relevant way in their classrooms.
I also had teachers who felt my content was way over their heads, while others felt I wasn't meeting their advanced needs. I needed to change things up.
My First Changes
First, I'm giving my teachers a single focus for the year. That focus is going to be Blended Learning. Each PD session will be designed to get teachers using differentiated resources and constructing opportunities to bring student choice and individual control into the classroom. We'll be starting the year with resources, move into assessment and feedback, then create and revise lessons and add components of instructional design.
Next, I'm leveling the PD for teachers. Our school colors are blue and orange, so the blue team will have a narrower focus on tools / pedagogy and will help teachers who are a little less comfortable with technology. The orange team consists of teachers who are a little more tech savvy, so we'll be focusing more on employing a wider variety of strategies and more complex technology.
So far, my teachers are loving the new setup. Only time will tell if it will be effective. Stay tuned!
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