Professional Development/Learning
What really is PL (some call it PD)? PL (professional learning) refers to teachers, in particular, learning about their profession. Teachers attend professional learning through the entirety of their career. In most states, all teachers are required to attend a certain number of hours of professional development in order to maintain their teaching certificate. There are some districts that require a particular number of PD (professional development/learning) hours in order to remain employed by the district.
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There are 5 components/principles to PD that must be met. See the table to the left to read the components.
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I am proposing to implement a blended learning environment to my classroom beginning next year. Upon implementing it myself, I will be presenting my ideas of blended learning and proposing to my colleagues to in me in my journey. I will be inviting all of the grade level teachers and para-professionals that service our students to come to my initial PD prior to the first day of school. I will present PD to my colleagues and support them through the process.
I have created an outline of my professional development, a 3 Column Table, and a UbD Template to aid me in creating the first part of my professional development (the interest raising introduction).
PD Outline
3 Column Table
UbD Template
Here is the 1 hour professional development I will use to introduce the blended learning station rotation to the teachers in my school. There are 33 classroom teachers and 8 para-professionals that service and teach the students in the school. They will all be invited to come and see the intro to blended learning to see if it is something they would like to be a part of the implementation phase of blended learning in Genoa Elementary.
There will also be 1 principal, 1 assistant principal, and 2 instructional coaches (math and language arts) that will be invited.
The materials that will be needed for the following PD will be: a computer that is linked to a Promethian Board, envelopes that contain one small piece of colored paper, pens, paper for the teachers to use to take notes on, and candy for the teachers to snack on.
A Few Other Bits of Info...
In order to foster collaboration, I
will encourage grade-level teachers to implement blended learning as a team. It is important for teachers to have colleagues that are there to collaborate with and to support through the process. Any time new concepts, curriculum, or grade-level standards are introduced, teachers need each other.
Once the blended learning team and cohorts have been established, the remainder of the PD can continue. All of the participants will work together to get it done. Instructional coaches will work with me to aid in implementation and to collect data to guide future instruction.
The entire implementation period for blended learning at Genoa Elementary will begin in August with an introduction/ interest PD and will continue through the year until May (8 months).