Planning PL

My district provides an array of professional learning opportunities each month and they encourage us to continuously grow and evolve as educators. This makes the transition into blended learning across my campus more feasible and realistic. The planning for professional learning is tedious and important because these trainings need to be relevant. Teachers already have so much on their plates, I want these trainings to be a valuable use of their time and lighten their load in the long run once students take responsibility of their own learning utilizing COVA and blended learning. The meticulous planning of the professional learning will make the educators transition in the classroom more seamless because they will be equipped with the necessary tools and resources for a successful implementation of blended learning.

Fostering Collaboration

This innovation project is a breeding playground for collaboration among colleagues. As the facilitator, I want to create a space for everyone to share their ideas, successes, failures, and anything else that helps them during this transitional period. These professional learning opportunities are not just a stage for me to present information and talk AT my colleagues, they will take time to create and reflect with one another. I have always believed that our students enjoy and show success when learning from their peers, and I would like to apply this same sentiment to my colleagues and my innovation project,

Leader of Components

I will be spearheading this initiative to implement the blended learning method in classrooms across our campus. Although, I will not be working alone; I will be creating a mentoring team derived from teachers who were part of the pilot and my administration. This team will be well versed in the research and experience of blended learning, so they will be the most effective group of people to assist me in training more educators on this method.

Resources

Each educator will need access their district-distributed device. This device comes equipped with the necessary programs we will utilize for our blended learning method. For example some of the preprogrammed apps are Clever, Google Classroom, HMH, and Eduphoria. They will also need access to the curriculum of their specific content.

Audience and Their Needs

My audience for this program are teachers that are ready to be apart of an innovative change and want to learn how to be more intentional about the technology they implement in the classroom. As I have brought up my innovation plan, most teachers express an interest because they want to incorporate more technology in their classroom and increase their students' responsibility for their learning.

PL Outline/Schedule

Fink's 3 Column Table

Key Principles

The five key principles of effective professional development are imperative to the growth of our educators and their ability to implement new methods of teaching. These principles provide a framework that assists the facilitator in ensuring educators will feel supported and fluent in incorporating blended learning in their classrooms. The duration (principle 1) of our professional learning sessions will be weekly. These trainings will be held weekly in order to give educators an opportunity to apply what they have learned in previous trainings and the chance to reflect. Support (principle 2) may be the most important principle for educators, because often teachers feel they lack support from administration. Each educator will be assigned a mentor from the pilot team; this mentor will provide support with lesson planning, team teaching, implementation, and modeling. Educators will also engage in the learning process themselves with the engagement (principle 3) principle. Once educators get the opportunity to experience this method of learning, they can identify how this would be executed in their classroom and how their students would respond. Modeling (principle 4) will be conducted by the pilot team and they will provide models for lesson planning, teaching, and implementing blended learning. This is crucial because educators will observe what has been successful by others that have implemented this method already. Lastly, educators will be completing professional learning with content specific (principle 5) groups. This is necessary because the resources and standards across grade levels align and build upon one another, so it is helpful to share ideas and strategies with those specific colleagues. In conclusion, these five key principles will guarantee the professional learning sessions are rigorous and meaningful for educators as they transition into a new wave of teaching and learning.