There’s More to Professional

Learning

than Handouts and Slides

Tammy A. Andreyko, Ed.D.

Karyn L. Dobda

North Allegheny School District

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

www.northallegheny.org

Program Description

Revise your current professional

development model to integrate

researched-based strategies and

related learning opportunities.

In this session, the presenters will

demonstrate how to develop engaging

activities that will expand educators’

knowledge and skills.

Who are we? Who are you?

“Of all of the variables that influence student achievement,

the two that have the most profound influence are

teacher quality and leadership quality.”

(Darling-Hammond and Sykes, 1999; Leithwood, Louis, Anderson, and Wahlstrom, 2004; Marzano, 2007)

Effective professional development has three essential characteristics:

1) a focus on student learning, 2) rigorous measurements of adult

decisions, and 3) a focus on people and practices,

not programs.

Reeves (2010)

What will

happen

when you

retire?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veuSc9ZhpPY

What would you like to say

about your staff development

program in five years?

2020

● Student achievement

● Best practices

● Emerging trends

Our Goal

Develop a program which would be a

vehicle to turn practical instructional

research into a reality in the classroom. (Reeves, 2010)

How did we do it? How did we make

professional learning engaging, meaningful,

and fun?

We packed up and hit the road!

Develop Collective Ownership

Build a Common Language and Framework of Instruction

Focus improvement on Instructional Practices

Align to District’s Mission and Vision

Establish a District-wide PLC

We changed our model.

• Established a district-wide professional

development program for all teachers and

administrators

• Developed collaborative leadership teams

comprised of building principals and teachers to

lead this initiative

• Surveyed our staff as a part of our comprehensive

planning process to ascertain their needs

• Leveraged technology as a means for

communication (podcasts) and engagement

• Utilized a train the trainer model

Building Our PLCs

12 Schools in the District

• Experience of staff

ranging from 1 to 30+

years

• Teachers of all grades and

content areas K - 12

• Varied readiness levels

• Multiple learning styles

We turned to…

Walk the Talk

Effective

professional

development

involves modeling

instructional

practices that

increase student

learning and

achievement.

“The key to being an

accomplished teacher is

acquiring the skill to continually

improve one’s practice; an

important vehicle for this is

reflection and conversation.”

-Danielson

Each one of

our sessions

began with

learning goals

and the related

learning

activities.

A Common Lesson Plan Template

• Learning

Goals

• Learning

Activities

• Formative

Assessment

• Resources

• Homework

Helping Learners Process

New Information

From the Clipboard to the Filing Cabinet

New

Learnings

Long

Term

Memory

http://www.sparkinsight.com/factlets

http://knoxschools.org/cms/lib7/TN01917079/Centricity/Do

main/143/RigorMeter.pdf

Using

Advance

Organizers

• Articles • Videos • Prepared handouts

Cooperative Group Activities

• Reciprocal Teaching

• Jigsaw

Similarities

and

Differences

www.readwritethink.org/classroom-

resources/printouts/compare-contrast-chart-30198.html

Note Taking Methods

Assigning

Purposeful

Homework

And we used humor...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d29VsG35DQM

Physical Movement

(Brain Breaks)

If it’s true that 65% of today’s grade

school students will work in jobs that

don’t exist yet, then we better get

ready for some drastically different

learning environments.

http://www.fastcoexist.com/1680348/mapping-the-future-of-

education-technology

Designing Problem/Project

Based Learning (PBL) Activities

http://pblblendedlearningatsmallms.weebly.com/

PBL for all Content Areas

http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/investigati

on/luxury-liner-picture-frame/

Flipped PD

Session

Hands-on Activities

Small Cooperative Groups

http://tccl.rit.albany.edu/knilt/index.php/Unit_1:_What_

is_Problem_Based_Learning%3F#What_is_Problem_B

ased_Learning.3F

Focusing on the

Classroom

Environment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhiCFdWeQfA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJhsWfhDnjw

We played games!

Do or do not...There is no try.

“Trying” requires little effort an does not require success. “Doing” doesn’t stop until success is achieved.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=yoda+do+

or+do+not+there+is+no+try&spfreload=1

-Yoda

Classroom Management

“...and let’s face it, without rules there’s chaos.”

- Kramer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJ4J5NBNp5k

Tricks of the Trade

Providing examples of strategies for classroom management

http://www.edutopia.org/classroom-management-teacher-tips-video

Rewards and Consequences

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qy_mIEnnlF4

Assessment

Formative

Assessment “Assessments always have more to do with helping students grow than with cataloging their mistakes.”

-Carol Ann Tomlinson (1999)

Formative Assessment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K72dRv5ejIc

Rubrics for

Formative Assessment

A Variety of Formative

Assessment Tools

Celebrating

Success

“The one factor that surfaced

as the single most influential

component of an effective

school is the individual

teachers within that school.”

Marzano (2007)

Follow us on !

@kdobs1129

@taalovesksu