Dream It & Do It Together! Collaborative PD for K-8 Classrooms

Purpose & objective

As teachers turned technology coaches, we are constantly seeking professional learning and resources that will allow us to be more effective at providing meaningful PD for the teachers we work with. The purpose of this session is to share best practices with participants, as well as provide opportunities for participants to engage in these activities and experiences in a hands-on manner.
Together, we will explore collaborative PD exercises utilizing tools such as Flipgrid and Seesaw, our 3-phase TILT (Teachers Integrating and Learning Technology) program, and how we incorporate collaborative coaching cycles. This program has been in our district for over a decade, and we have experienced success in improving pedagogical use of technology in classrooms, as well as creating a group of teachers who are leaders in their buildings to help other teachers understand the importance of meaningful technology use for teaching and learning.

Participants will:
Explore digital tools to increase teacher involvement and collaboration in PD,
Select the appropriate tool to use in different learning situations,
Identify strategies for providing meaningful PD,
Learn how to engage teachers in a 3-phase professional development program that builds their technological capacity, growth mindset and develops teacher leaders,
Determine how to encourage teachers to become agents for their own learning by engaging in scaffolded, small-group PD and coaching cycles.

Outline

Content & Activities
We will share with participants how we collaborate with one another to coach teachers in our district, spanning from kindergarten to middle school teachers. Our focus is on providing on-going support, through coaching cycles and our three-phase professional development program, TILT. We’ll be demonstrating this content by engaging in hands-on activities using digital tools, such as Flipgrid, Seesaw, and Google. Our goal is to engage the workshop participants in learning these tools by actively participating in activities that could be replicated and used in their own schools and districts.

Time
30 minutes - spend time as “learners”, engaging in welcome activities using devices and tools, such as Flipgrid and Google.
30 minutes - spend time as “teachers”, thinking about how they can apply what they learned into their own schools and districts.
30 minutes - spend time as “leaders”, sharing what they learned with the participants in a demo slam of an idea or tool, and posting to a digital portfolio (Seesaw).

Process
We will model our three-phase PD process throughout this session. The first phase is the teacher as a learner, followed by the teacher applying what they learned to their classrooms, and finally, sharing what they learned as a leader or mentor. This session will be collaborative and provide teachers/coaches with time to talk to one another and share what they already know and what they learn. It will be very hands-on, modeling a variety of tech tools to involve participants in learning through engaging activities.

Supporting research

There is a plethora of research, articles, blog posts, and ideas available for technology coaches and teacher professional development. The research speaks to the importance of creating teacher-learners who seek meaningful learning opportunities, share their thinking and learning, reflect on their progress and set goals. Listed below are some of the most effective pieces we discovered:

Learning Policy Institute:
https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/product-files/Effective_Teacher_Professional_Development_BRIEF.pdf

Developing and Delivering Effective Professional Development for Educators:
https://www.edtechteam.com/blog/2017/11/developing-delivering-effective-professional-development-educators/

Why Professional Development Matters:
https://learningforward.org/docs/default-source/pdf/why_pd_matters_web.pdf

Teacher Development Research Review: Keys to Educator Success:
https://www.edutopia.org/teacher-development-research-keys-success

What Makes Professional Development for Teachers Effective?
https://soeonline.american.edu/blog/what-makes-professional-development-for-teachers-effective