Professional Learning
Takeaways and New Questions from EAA School Visits
I encourage you to take the time to put a team together or even a cross-district or cross-state team to go visit Nolan Elementary, Phoenix Multicultural, Brenda Scott Academy for Theatre Arts, and Southeastern Technical High School sooner than later. Michigan and Detroit have a lot of volatile political dynamics (i.e things change), and I’d hate for people to miss the chance to see what can happen when you integrate personalized, mastery-based, and blended into a “student-centered” model of learning.
Congratulations! You Survived the 1st Grading Period
I asked my PLN (personal learning network) what they wish they had known that first grading period. Here’s some things to consider as you continue your awesome work in the second grading period.
Preparing Teachers for Deeper Learning
A system of teacher development linked to the needs of hiring entities that awarded licenses based on demonstrated competence would provide personalized development pathways for teachers and ensure well-trained teachers for schools.
LearnZillion: Dreaming Big About Collaborative PD
Historically, most PD has been the low engagement top-down model. PLCs have benefits of teacher-owned collaboration. The LearnZillion approach “combines the rigor and consistency of the top-down approach with the benefits of teacher collaboration,” said Westendorf.
No More Boring PD with Flipped & Blended Conferences
With all the cool conferencing apps and social learning tools, there’s just no excuse for running an boring old fashioned get together these days.
Would You Like to Play the Google Game?
The game was hosted on Google+, and as each player logged in to his or her district Google account, I explained how the game would be played. Once everyone had joined the sessions’ Google+ Community, I walked each group through the first level where they learned about the basics of understanding Google’s social networking platform.
Professional Development Powered By Edmodo
While most of the adult learning on Edmodo has been teacher-driven, there are some good examples of administrators leading by example. The SUPES Academy integrated Edmodo into a professional development program for superintendents.
Plugging Into Professional Learning Communities
We're celebrating Connected Educator Month with Edmodo , the largest social learning network- where the educators ARE connected educators. Many districts and teacher networks connect on Edmodo, the free social learning platform. Following are five examples:
Building Buzz in Detroit
The EAA has built a blended professional development course for teachers inside of Buzz that uses a variety of resources to help teachers learn how to build a strong learning environment through fostering relationships, creating a common language, developing a shared classroom vision and establishing rituals and routines.
Blended Learning Model Helps Students
Their driving objective is to empower teachers to be more efficient and effective with ever-diminishing resources and ever-growing student numbers and shifting demographics.