It goes without saying that those in education have ‘a lot
on their plate’ these days. I would bet that it has been less than 24 hours
since you’ve last thought, said, or heard “when
will I find time…” or “there aren’t enough
hours in the day…” But, somehow, we always manage to make that plate a
little bigger and do more because it’s what’s in the best interest for kids.
In our district we have ‘building PD’ once a month for 90
minutes. These opportunities are
typically designed by the Instructional Leadership Team (ILT) - based on the
identified needs of staff - and align with our school and district initiatives.
For over a year we’ve been focusing on the idea of accountable talk and offering focused sessions through a differentiated
PD approach. Through surveys of staff,
sharing of student work, and classroom walk-throughs it is evident that staff
has bought in. Students are engaged in deeper levels of authentic conversation, carefully listening to one another,
speaking in complete sentences, and building arguments with claim and evidence.
The school-wide efforts can be seen all over and the staff is proud
of their efforts and what skills students have learned through this focus.
While this has been exciting work, it’s not the only thing
we do. We had reached a crossroads coming into this school year – everyone could
feel it, no one could put their finger on it. Our ILT met several times with
the intent of planning the next steps for professional development and it just wasn’t
feeling right. Staff was surveyed on their
next needs from PD and we even spent time diving into the different ways a
teacher could immerse in professional development. There was uncertainty of
whether we continue focusing on accountable talk or if there was a different, broader direction that made sense. What we did know was that there is a definite momentum
among the staff to grow professionally and we didn’t want to lose that.
So we listened – really listened – to what the staff was
saying. We put aside the surveys about professional development and listened to
what they were really saying in the lunchroom, in their team meetings, in
observation and goal conferences, and to one another. What we heard were things
like What about GLAD, do we still do
that? or I don’t have time for ____
because now I do accountable talk.
It became clear that over the past few years of different
initiatives brought on by the school, district and/or state that we had not
messaged the purpose of professional development accurately. As our
instructional coach said in last week’s meeting with staff, the purpose of our
professional development is to build and strengthen our capacity for
instructional design and decision-making. Accountable talk is a component of
instructional design.
After having our staff each fill a paper plate with all of the
different things we do as staff members at our school, our facilitators
recorded as the staff shared out. The list had about 75 different items when we
were finished which was eye-opening to everyone in the room, yet also
validating of their hard work. As a staff, we highlighted the items which
directly relate to instructional design and decision-making, making special
note that accountable was one component. We didn't want to send a message that we were abandoning this most recent focus.
Knowing that our staff responds well to the idea of having
differentiated PD, we now have our next steps in our PD plans. Each staff member
has identified their top 3 components from the highlighted list to focus on and
strengthen their understanding through a variety of PD approaches. Additionally, each staff member identified the top 3 ideas
in which they feel confident and would be willing to share in the planning of a PD offering for colleagues.
The new charge for our ILT is to now look at the identified
needs and plan for who and how the PD will be offered. There is a new
excitement among staff knowing that we are going to have the opportunity dive
deeper into the already-great things we are doing. It’s not about adding to
your plate with another thing. Rather,
it’s feeling confident and competent about the tools, strategies, and content to effectively reach and teach our students.
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