A really good professional development that I participated in was on Balanced Literacy. When leaving a professional development, I think it is very important to feel sure and confident that you can take the information presented and actually use it in the classroom. The Balance Literacy Professional Development that I attended was facilitated by an Area Reading Coach and her approach was very simplistic... Balanced Literacy is an approach of reading and writing. She was careful and detailed in explaining Reading TO, WITH and BY Children and Writing FOR, WITH, and BY Children . There were many clear examples in real life inner city classrooms, and not examples from "pleasantville." I think, it is always soothing for a teacher to see a new strategy with students that are more realistic with behaviors and learning styles. The facilitator also allowed the participants to practice administering an assessment on each other for clarity and understanding. Within the first three minutes we knew exactly what would be covered in the presentation, what would be expected of us, and was informed that a reference and resource guide would be provided at the conclusion of the session. Besides being very detailed, transparent, and extremely knowledgeable about her craft the presenter was pleasant and was able to answer any questions that was posed to her. A good professional development consists of a knowledgeable presenter, with examples that are helpful and realistic, and that can be easily implemented into the classroom. If you leave a professional development feeling confident, informed and excited about the possibility of implementing new strategies then I think it will fall in the good to great category.
http://www.sharingsuccess.org/code/bv/pd.html
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/1996/04/17/30chart.h15.html
http://peterpappas.blogs.com/copy_paste/2009/03/a-guide-to-designing-effective-professional-development-essential-questions-for-the-successful-staff.html
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Nice explanation of what worked in the PD: Simple, realistic goals; clear, relevant and realistic examples; relevant practice; clear expectations; take-away resources to support what you learned in the future; knowledgeable presenter.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like it looked effortless, which is the sign of a good presenter!
BTW, I'm thinking of moving to Pleasantville.
jd
I agree. It's always a much better use of our time if we can learn strategies and see examples of things that work in "our" world too.
ReplyDeleteLisa, both Jim and Anna had good points. I agree with Jim when he talks about good pd having clear goals along with relevant and realistic examples, although I certainly hope he doens't leave us for Pleasantville.
ReplyDeleteAnother feature of good pd in my opinion is the relevance of the presenter. You mentioned that the instructor of this session knew her craft. That is a must. But for me, I also want to know who is speaking to me. Is it someone who has been in a classroom for a number of years? Is it someone who has only taught one or two years yet now they are telling me what an expert they are?
I love the idea of a presenter using real examples from real students, that are similar to my own. I find that when I present I try to bring examples that are current and realistic.
Hopefully I am building upon best practices as I go.
Great post.
Lisa, this does sound like an excellent PD. I always like PD's that give realistic examples of what children have done with their ideas. Its even better when those samples are from local students.
ReplyDeleteAnd Jim, I think Pleasantville sounds pleasant.....