THEN NOW

 Historic approach had been to pull groups of teachers together for whole group/single topic discussions. ◦ District level determination ◦ Sit ‘n get, or make-it-take-it, sometimes work or project based ◦ Stand alone events, often with little or no follow-up ◦ Never differentiated ◦ Little to no teacher choice ◦ Little intentional alignment to school SIP needs or individual teacher growth

 What changed ◦ Common Core: new standards, new expectations for how we teach ◦ New teacher evaluation instrument emphasizing student and teacher growth ◦ A recession: fewer people at central office, less money for travel reimbursement and conferences etc.

 Teacher survey in winter of 2013 indicated strong desire to have choice, follow-up and flexibility in where/when/how PD was conducted.  Middle school teachers participated in a small test pilot of what blended learning could look like. ◦ 4 topics developed from teacher interest surveys ◦ 1 online meeting held in January to provide background knowledge and front load information ◦ Face to face seminars held two months later to follow up, provide for face-to-face conversations and practice, and discuss implementation successes and obstacles

 Feedback just prior to summer indicated a significant preference to continue.  Conversations among school and district leaders lead to creation of a new Professional Development approach.

 Goals: 1)Focus on creating small group, self guided cohorts working on a single year long topic 2)Align district PD with school SIP needs and individual teacher growth needs with an emphasis on instructional strategies 3)Assess teacher professional development alongside student achievement outcomes

 Structure ◦ List of possible topics created from teacher surveys and known districtwide needs ◦ School based curriculum coaches, district lead teacher and Director worked as facilitators ◦ Each cohort designed the actual PD plan for their cohort using a template given to them.

 The virtual side ◦ Online meeting software ◦ Teacher collaboration sites – EdmodoEdmodo ◦ Should be interactive  The personal side ◦ Professional Development day meetings ◦ Out of district school/classroom visits ◦ In district school/classroom visits

 Program evaluation ◦ Teacher survey ◦ Student performance ◦ Learning goals established by cohorts

 The virtual side ◦ Topic specific sites – Google SitesGoogle Sites ◦ Time released materials ◦ Balance research and practice  The personal side ◦ PLC needs assessment ◦ Faculty discussion ◦ Publication of artifacts

 Changes in roles of curriculum coaches  Over estimated the degree of teacher ability with online resources  Realized the need for greater regularity of feedback and reflection  Administrator involvement in determining topic selection

 Teacher feedback ◦ 75% liked the teacher choice ◦ 90% liked or definitely wanted to continue single year long topics ◦ 97% liked the flexibility of connecting to PD from their building ◦ 80% said using online meeting software was pretty easy ◦ 78% indicated PD was aligned to their growth goals ◦ 82% indicated they were using the PD in their classroom

 Teacher Accountability  Sharing of experiences across schools