Developing
Effective
Professional Learning

Ileana Reyna ~ Veronica Balli ~ Erika Peña

According to the article, Effective Professional Development in an Era of High Stakes Accountability, most professional development today is ineffective (Gulamhussein, 2013).

This page is dedicated to a Professional Learning Plan that my colleagues and I created to effectively implement blended learning in our school, Victor Fields Elementary.

We followed 3 steps when creating this plan. Our 1st step was to promote a Go & Show approach to professional learning. Our 2nd step was to create an outline that provides an overview for the PL sessions we created that will support our innovation plan. Our 3rd step was to fully prepare our 1st PL session. See how our hard work played out below.

Promoting a Go & Show PL

STEP 1

Although teachers attend countless hours of Professional Learning every year to continue to learn, grow, and foster a learning mindset, most sessions are considered ineffective. Most current professional learning sessions are delivered in a one size fits all “Sit & Get” approach where new teachers are often left confused and overwhelmed, while veteran teachers are often left frustrated with the redundant information. Just like students deserve personalized and differentiated instruction, so do our teachers. We believe we can reach and grow more teachers, and in turn reach more students, with a “Go and Show” professional blended learning approach that provides teachers with Choice, Ownership, and Voice through Authentic professional learning opportunities.

Go & Show PL

Source: https://www.rcboe.org/domain/10088

STEP 2

Blended Learning
PL Outline

As we move forward into the implementation phase of our innovation project, Blended Learning: Personalizing the Future of Education, we, the Blended Learning Implementation Team (BLIT), want to make sure to deliver an alternative professional learning plan to our Administration and K-5 Reading teachers. By including the 5 Principles of Effective Professional Development, we will ensure that we provide ongoing support, engagement, modeling, and learning goals that target the specific needs of our campus staff and students. Our professional learning outline is directed toward introducing and implementing our blended learning initiative while supporting our staff and students through the change.

PL Outline

STEP 3

Blended Learning PL Plan

When developing our Professional Learning Plan, our objective was to create a significant learning environment for our Administration and K-5 Reading teachers, as we envision for our students. We understood that if we expected our teachers to invest their time in implementing a successful blended learning environment in their classrooms, our PL needed to replicate and model what it looks like and sounds like in order to engage their minds and capture their hearts.

Our PL Plan aims to deepen our teachers' knowledge of blended learning by fully submerging them in a differentiated learning environment, one that is tailored to their needs. Our goal is that by the end of our initial PL session, our learners will not only have a deeper knowledge of blended learning but also see the benefits of a blended learning environment because they were actively engaged in one.

Full PL Plan