Leadership: Positive Professional Development Experience

 This entry comes after some learning about effective professional development facilitation in our Teacher Leadership course. Thomas R. Guskey discusses backward planning needed for this type of professional development to happen - and makes it quite obvious why so much PD tends to fail. The big take away from this article is to note that these 5 things need to happen when planning teacher learning:

1) Desired student learning outcomes - what specific outcomes do we want to see and what evidence best reflects these outcomes (the decision should be based on data)

2) New practices & policies to be implemented - determine practices based on evidence (actual research, with citations) that will result in the desired outcomes

3) Needed organizational support - ideally needing school leader support and school resources (release time, technology, instructional materials) as well as feedback for teachers as they implement new strategies

4) Educator knowledge and skills - what must educators know and be able to do to implement the practices/policies?

5) Optimal professional learning activities - the set of experiences that will allow 4 to happen

So where have I seen this in practice?

A few years ago the Instructional Coordinator for Assessment at our board created the Secondary Assessment Leadership Team. This was a team you could apply to and 1-2 candidates were selected from each school location. We participated in an assessment camp that happened in the summer over 2-3 days and then had full day PL release during the year as well as some evening PL sessions to attend. This was continuous learning over time geared at building leadership capacity in the board in assessment with the goal of improving student learning. Here is how each of the 5 planning items were addressed:

1. We wanted to see student learning improve through changing assessment practices in the secondary portion of the board to better align with Ontario policy. This shift should see assessment & evaluation provide students with more varied opportunities to show their learning, get descriptive feedback and have a more transparent assessment experience in school. By doing this we believed that we would see improvements in student wellness and academic achievement. I don't know if the central data collecting for these goals happened. It may have happened on a school by school basis through student surveys and monitoring grades and final evaluation results.
   
   
2. Our work was all grounded in research. The learning of the SALT team used thoughtfully chosen resources over a period of time. For example, one year our work was focused around "Developing Assessment-Capable Visible Learners" by Nancy Frey, John Hattie and Douglas Fisher. We also had board developed smaller resources created by teachers based on research that as SALT leaders we could use with our school staff.
   
   
3. I have partially addressed this above - you can see clearly that we had board level support and resources (time release, reading materials) - and this support extended to the school level (at most locations). Principals were briefed about the work of the SALT team via a video conference and (ideally) the SALT lead was with the principal at the time. Release time was provided for school teams and principals could use the school discretionary release days for this purpose as well. SALT leads were expected to plan professional learning for their locations and this often occurred during provincial PA days, staff meetings and early-release days. Feedback for teachers would have been more dependent on how each location planned.
   
   
4. Our first year with the SALT team focused on improving final evaluations. Much of the practice was grounded only in the use of products and exams were still common-place in many locations. The Secondary Assessment Steering Committee felt that addressing final evaluations was an important starting point with the most impact as it would help steer more teachers toward changing practices in other places. We use our Final Evaluations checklist a lot that year and addressed teacher knowledge around Growing Success, equity, triangulation and analyzing final evaluations next to the overall expectations of a given course.
   
   
5. The SALT team sessions were set up to have us look at part of the resource we were focused on that year and also evolved to include leadership and facilitation skills (including planning for PL). It always included time to work on our planning while sharing and getting feedback from fellow group members. We often used reflective time to debrief on things we had tried since the last meeting so that we could adjust, learn new things and plan for the next leadership opportunity.

I had never really thought about these explicit steps for planning professional learning/development in the past, but I will definitely refer back to this learning for my future facilitation opportunities!

Portfolio: Facilitating Professional Development

As part of my Teacher Leadership Part 1 AQ we are to build a portfolio of artifacts that reflect who we are as a leader and who we want to become. In this entry I will be reflecting on how opportunities to lead professional development have impacted me as a leader.

I started to lead professional learning in my school  fairly early in my career (probably my 4th year) and usually it was to expose colleagues to a technology that I was using (i.e. Twitter) or explain the classroom strategy that I was using (i.e. Flipped classroom). It was my admin, at the time, that was asking me to share these things - I did not see myself as a teacher leader at this time.

It was the encouragement of an elementary peer, now friend, that got me to apply to present at my first conference (and by the end of this month I will have "presented" at a conference 5 times in less than two years). These opportunities have given me a chance to see first hand what sharing my practice can do for others (and have taught me some of the nuances needed to sometimes have dissonant conversations about education).

Here is the slide deck from my first conference workshop that I lead at OAME in May of 2016.

Portfolio: Theoretical Foundations: Standards & Ethics Plan

I am taking the Teacher Leadership Part 1 AQ. Our culminating task involves creating a leadership portfolio by choosing items from each module of the course to share and reflecting on its contribution to my growth as a leader. I have chosen to share my portfolio as part of my blog.

This entry is from the module entitled Theoretical Foundations where we looked at the importance of a first impression, theories of leadership, the OCT standards, transformational leadership, and the Teacher Leadership and Learning Program.

I am including my plan for leading staff through professional learning around the Ontario College of Teachers (OCT) Standards and Ethical Standards. I think the ideal audience for a plan like this would be an NTIP group (new teachers and their mentors) but could also be used for a school wide professional learning.

I feel that this assignment was the one that I benefited from the most because it forced me to think about how to make a seemingly dry topic into meaningful, relevant learning. These standards are what we agree to adhere to when we apply to be an Ontario Certified Teacher and the standards and ethics are the roots we should never forget as teachers.

I found that reviewing the standards and ethics also reminded me of Ontario's assessment policy document, Growing Success.

Here is the plan that I came up with:

Standards Plan (35 minutes)

Format	Action	Consolidation
Group (15 + 5 minutes)	Give an envelope with the 5 standards and their descriptions (separated). Groups have to pair the titles and descriptions. Clarify the standards for any groups that need it. Then groups choose from one of the following options: “Most Important to Least Important” protocol – try to prioritize the 5 principles from  most to least important. Share your thinking and try to agree on the order. Is it possible to rank them? OR “Name it, Explain it” protocol – give each principle a ONE word name explain why you think it is the best choice.	Groups work together to brainstorm ways that they use/show the standards in their daily practices (both in and out of the classroom).
Individual (10 + 5 minutes)	Staff reflection (supply a graphic organizer for anyone who would like) to analyze personal practices as ways that they think they best exemplify each standard and one area of their practice they could work on to better exemplify each standard.	Staff anonymously share one best and one are of improvement via a padlet (padlet.com) for whole group debrief.

Ethical Dilemma Plan (25 minutes)

(This plan could be used at the same professional learning session or at a future session)

Format	Action	Consolidation
Group (5 minutes)	Review the Ethical Standards via OCT website as a whole group.	Time to discuss points that are not clear.
Individual & Group (5 + 5 + 10 minutes)	Case studies – give each group an ethical dilemma (dilemmas collected from known education stories) – 1 copy per person. Have staff use the “3-2-1” protocol (identify 3 things you think are key to the situation, 2 things you want more information about, and 1 suggested solution you have). Present the following as a resource for ethical dilemmas: 1.      Refer to the Ethical Standards at http://www.oct.ca/public/professional-standards/ethical-standards to help determine which option fits within the standards 2.      Bounce ideas off of a colleague with reference to the Ethical Standards 3.      Consult your department head 4.      Discuss with your union Branch President 5.      Consult with your principal or vice-principal	Group discussion about solutions – can you agree on a solution? Which resources would you choose to use? Which would you skip? Why?

Links to Daily School Routines

The following will be released as a resource after the above activities are complete for staff reference.

Standard	Description and Links to Daily School Routines
Commitment to Students and Student Learning	Members are dedicated in their care and commitment to students. They treat students equitably and with respect and are sensitive to factors that influence individual student learning. Members facilitate the development of students as contributing citizens of Canadian society.
	-        Differentiated learning and assessment practices -        Recognition of the needs of different backgrounds (cultural, sexual orientation, etc) -        Student supervision -        Seating plans that attend to needs to students with IEPs or social needs -        Teaching character and embedding relevant Canadian and world issues into lessons where possible
Professional Knowledge	Members strive to be current in their professional knowledge and recognize its relationship to practice. They understand and reflect on student development, learning theory, pedagogy, curriculum, ethics, educational research and related policies and legislation to inform professional judgment in practice.
	-        Exploring new strategies, ideas and techniques (pedagogy, assessment practice, etc) through reading and/or professional networks -        Use student data, research, Growing Success, and related board assessment policy documents to guide and support decisions -        Reflect on personal practice when new ideas are presented
Professional Practice	Members apply professional knowledge and experience to promote student learning. They use appropriate pedagogy, assessment and evaluation, resources and technology in planning for and responding to the needs of individual students and learning communities. Members refine their professional practice through ongoing inquiry, dialogue and reflection.
	-         Trying new strategies, ideas and techniques in the classroom -         Using student assessment data to plan future use of new techniques and/or make adjustments -         Using student assessment data to plan/reflect on lessons going forward -         Collaborate with course teams, department and other professional networks to make decisions, develop curriculum, and reflect on practices
Leadership in Learning Communities	Members promote and participate in the creation of collaborative, safe and supportive learning communities. They recognize their shared responsibilities and their leadership roles in order to facilitate student success. Members maintain and uphold the principles of the ethical standards in these learning communities.
	-         Arrange classrooms/learning environments to promote collaboration, safe spaces, and effective learning -         Promote learning and learning skills as primary focus (not grades) -         Be an example learner by sharing learning, trying new things, etc -         Deprivatize practice by sharing with colleagues and/or online
Ongoing Professional Learning	Members recognize that a commitment to ongoing professional learning is integral to effective practice and to student learning. Professional practice and self-directed learning are informed by experience, research, collaboration and knowledge.
	-        Participate in collaborative inquiries or do personal action research -        Attend workshops, lunch and learn opportunities, courses etc -        Read  blogs, books, tweets or other professional dialogues -        Reflect on own practices to identify personal areas of learning

A New Year with #AssessPeel

We are far enough into the new school year now to have "written" our progress reports (for a semestered secondary school, anyway) and I am happy to be entrenched in a few things related to assessment and evaluation, both in my own classroom and with the board. Here are some of the highlights which I hope to share in more detail as the year trucks on.

1. Peel Teacher Assessment Working Team

Last year I was pleased to be asked by my vice principal to join the PTAWT as a representative of our superintendency. Each superintendent has a group of schools that they represent so there are about 10-12 teachers on this team (plus the coordinating principals and superintendent) and 3 facilitators (the assessment instructional coordinator and 2 instructional coaches).

The teacher group meets 3-4 times in the school year, as does the administrator group (PAAWT) and then we we have a chance to meet as a whole group at the end of the school year. This started in second semester of last year and both groups identified similar areas to work on, but obviously our team is focusing on the in-class portions of the topics. We are currently working on overarching learning goals (OLGs) and learning goals using Rethinking Letter Grades (a resource by a couple of teachers in BC) to work with OLGs and should be moving into learning goals more specifically at our next session.

OLGs are known as Big Ideas in the book mentioned below and are essentially the broad spectrum learning goals of a course (usually 3-5 goals) that marry the skills (dos) and content (knows) of the course (while curriculum documents usually have a lot of this separate and do not over-arch the entire course).

2. Rethinking Letter Grades

I eluding to us using this resource with the PTAWT above, and I am also using it on my own time and with my schools assessment working team. I had a day with my science teacher team in mid September where we used some of the suggestions for creating big ideas (OLGs) for our Grade 9 and 10 academic courses. It is definitely a process and we were more efficient when we got to working on the Grade 10 course. What I love about creating and using OLGs is how easily it lends itself to other things, such as backward design of the course and bringing a focus to every class and evaluation used. It can provide a lot of structure, if you let it.

What the book really does with these ideas is lead you to creating a Learning Map - essentially a rubric for the course! This can be used to determine a final level/grade for each student at the end of the course and to map progress along the way. This is the stage I am now working on. Trying to come up with what each OLG looks like at each level (in student friendly language). I am a big fan of throwing grades out as much as possible. It should be about the learning (and the progress made), not about some number that we say a student achieves. A lot more motivation comes to students who can look for meaningful (specific) things they can work on to improve, instead of trying to use numbers to motivate them (many kids are not motivated by their marks at all).

3. Co-Facilitating a Book Talk

Our instructional coordinator of assessment has asked me to co-facilitate a book talk around Rethinking Letter Grades with her this month. It is running on 3 Wednesdays after school from Oct 14-28. We have also pulled another of the teachers from the PTAWT to join us and a few of my colleagues have signed up for the sessions. We are still hoping to add a few more participants, so if you are a Peel teacher and interested sign up on My Learning Plan ASAP.

4. Proposal for OAME

Last year I made an attempt to become a presenter for OAME around my flipped classroom and assessment practices but was unsuccessful. This years conference has a focus essentially around "diving into things" so I have submitted a proposal around the above mentioned book. My fingers are crossed and I am thankful for getting to do this book talk first so that I will have some ideas around a flow to use for the session if I am approved.

What 21st Century Learning Means to Me

Over the past year or so there has been a lot of talk about 21st Century Learning. Recently it was suggested that "what does 21st century learning mean to you?" should be used as the next #peel21st blog hop so I decided to jump on. You can find the links to the other bloggers participating tonight below. Here goes!

When we talk about 21st century learners we’re often referring to student learning, but it is just as important to look at our own – it makes it possible for our students to do the same. 21st century learning means taking learning into our own hands. Formal PD is no longer the primary source for learning.

I participate in organized twitterchats such as #flipclass, #cdnedchat and #peel21st. I have been able to connect with like-minded people for ideas, growth, and support. Furthermore, I have attended board EdCamp network meetings and city-wide, full-day EdCamps so that I can discuss these topics in person.

I feel better prepared to interact with the learners in my classroom when I embrace myself as a learner in this technological age.

Check out what my colleagues have to say on the topic :)

Susan Campo @susancampo
Jim Cash @cashjim
Shivonne Lewis-­‐Young @SLewisYoung
Greg Pearson @vptechnodork
Phil Young @_PhilYoung
James Nunes @jameseliasnunes
Donald Campbell @libramlad
Ken Dewar Bestbefore2030
Graham Whisen @grahamwhisen
Lynn Filliter @assessmentgeek
Debbie Axiak @DebbieAxiak
Alicia Quennell @AliciaQuennell
Jonathan So @MrSoClassroom
Jim Blackwood @jimmyblackwood
Jason Richea @jrichea
Tina Zita @Tina_zita
Sean Broda
Donald Campbell
Josh Crozier
Engy Boutros @mrsboutrosSean Coroza @SRCoroza

Week 7 - Stations Lab for Newton's Laws & A Science Tech Symposium

A week late, but still worth sharing.

Through the connections I have made on Twitter I have come across some very interesting ideas, concepts, people, and many fun moments. In a recent #flipclass twitter chat (Mondays 8pm ET) someone questioned how a flipped physics class can address misconceptions and it lead to Katie Lanier mentioning activities/labs that they do for this specific purpose. She was nice enough to share the one that she uses for forces and I used it after introducing Newton's 3 Laws. The students enjoyed doing it and said the next day that it was helpful for clarifying the ideas. I took some videos of them and have linked them with brief descriptions below. Some of the video is better than others (i.e. sometimes I asked students questions, and sometimes it is a just a shot of them doing it). [Please let me know if the links are not working]

Station 1: Flick a piece of cardboard off of a beaker that has a penny sitting on it.

Station 2: Determine which of two boxes is heavier without picking them up.

Station 3: Balance a metre stick (weighted on one end) on your palm.

Station 4: Pull the "table cloth" out from under the "dishes".

Station 5: Try to pull only one square of toilet paper off using one hand.

Station 6/7: Use a "tapping device" to move a ball (one is starting it moving, another based on changing its direction and controlling how far it goes).

I would definitely do this again and would love to find more of these types of activities for other units (even if they are simulation based) to help with other misconceptions. These are exactly what you hope to find time to do by flipping a class :)

One thing I might do differently would be to make at least some of them a bit more PEOE style (predict (explain) observe explain) so that they have to put thought into it BEFORE trying instead of just after seeing it.

Thank you Ms. Lanier!

Last Saturday my board posted a Science & Technology Symposium. There were some interesting topics discussed and it seemed like everyone walked away with something new in their minds (which is all we can ask really). I went to a session that was about getting students to use concepts and ideas to come up with research projects that relate to the curriculum that will also involve primary research and then actually coming up with community action to create awareness about their topic. The second keynote speaker was a professor that he had worked with that was doing research on students using this process so it was a nice tie in and made me wish that I was teaching Gr 10 Science so that I could try it myself. Maybe I can convince my colleagues to try it themselves ;)

Week 6 - We Will All Be Numeracy Teachers

This past Friday was a PD Day - and since the new push in the board (and the province) is numeracy, we got to kick the day off with some numbers fun. I was part of the cross-curricular numeracy committee that was charged with planning the morning sessions of our day. We are lucky to have some very passionate teachers and administrators and came up with a plan that we were hopeful would achieve our goals.

We set out to do two things:
1) Try to get everyone to relate to numeracy and realize that it connects to their subject area
2) Accentuate the connection between a growth mindset (which was a focus of ours last year) and success in mathematics - ideally getting staff to recognize how our culture is fine with saying "Oh, it's OK, you're just not good at math" but would never dream of telling someone it was OK to not be good at reading at a young age.

Here is what we came up with:
- Fishbowl: Numeracy team discusses their attitudes toward math and how they got there
- 4 corners: image of 4 different weather that staff chose to match their math attitude - discuss these attitudes within these groups
- Create a graphic organizer to compare "Mathematics" and "numeracy" in cross-curricular groups (ah-ha moments were shared with the whole group afterward)
- Sort skills as "Literacy" or "numeracy" (these came from board/ministry documents that we cut up and gave to groups in an envelope, ah-ha moments were shared with the group)
- Break
- Shared reading of our board's “Balanced Mathematics Instruction K-12” poster
- Online mindset inventory to get staff thinking about their own mindsets
- Brief video clip of two different student mindsets when asked a question in class & share some quotes about mindset
- Brainstorm ideas of how to improve mindset within our classroom, school, and parent community (gallery walk to share)
- Brief Michael Jordan video & his story

It seemed to go pretty well. There was a lot of discussion throughout the morning among the different groups of staff for many of the items listed above. It seemed to evoke a lot of thought around the ideas we were hoping for and allowed a lot of them to relate personally to the overall ideas. We have asked everyone for feedback via Google Forms and the responses I have seen so far have been more positive than negative. We are hoping to be able to come up with our next steps from this feedback so that we can keep things as relevant for our staff as possible.

If you have any ideas or suggestions to share with us please leave me a comment below :)