Profession Development - April Benton
Hyperdocs was the professional development that I had planned for my PD implementation. My goal was to present this PD during the teachers' already scheduled PLC time. I usually offer professional development to them once a month. We were going to increase those times to bi-monthly for this PD. I wanted to do it during PLC times rather than after school based on my reading from the text of Hew and Brush that stated that a lack of time was one of the most significant factors that teachers face. By having them to complete this during that time, I was able to preserve their after school time, and I had hoped that teachers would be more willing to learn and excited. I was only going to provide the PD to the second-grade teachers. I had picked them because our K-2 school will be transitioning to Chromebooks, and I wanted to use them as the digital leaders in the school the following year.
When COVID19 closed, our schools and teachers were scrambling to create online lesson plans. I decided to expand my PD to the entire district and offer it weekly through a hyperdoc. Based on what I learned from this course, modeling is a huge factor when implementing professional development. The principals supported me with the PD, but it was optional. I am amazed at how many teachers have taken advantage of and are excited about using hyperdocs. The weekly videos that were presented each week by Dr. Liao in this class were one of my inspirations when I moved everything online. I used screencastify to make these videos, which is the tool that I have also encouraged our teachers to use all year. I was able to walk the participants through the weekly assignments and show them exactly where and how to submit each week.
By switching to online, I was sad that I had to remove the coaching piece, but each day I had time for coaching on Zoom and had several teachers take advantage of the time. I have also learned that having those face to face conversations is so crucial, and I hope when we can meet face to face again, we will be able to implement the coaching component. I have also learned that when teachers have the time they are more excited about participating in PD. I offered Digital Learning Competencies credit that is an incentive, but many times I would get a few teachers to participate. Since teachers have more time for professional development, I was amazed at the participation in the quality of work that the participants created.
When COVID19 closed, our schools and teachers were scrambling to create online lesson plans. I decided to expand my PD to the entire district and offer it weekly through a hyperdoc. Based on what I learned from this course, modeling is a huge factor when implementing professional development. The principals supported me with the PD, but it was optional. I am amazed at how many teachers have taken advantage of and are excited about using hyperdocs. The weekly videos that were presented each week by Dr. Liao in this class were one of my inspirations when I moved everything online. I used screencastify to make these videos, which is the tool that I have also encouraged our teachers to use all year. I was able to walk the participants through the weekly assignments and show them exactly where and how to submit each week.
By switching to online, I was sad that I had to remove the coaching piece, but each day I had time for coaching on Zoom and had several teachers take advantage of the time. I have also learned that having those face to face conversations is so crucial, and I hope when we can meet face to face again, we will be able to implement the coaching component. I have also learned that when teachers have the time they are more excited about participating in PD. I offered Digital Learning Competencies credit that is an incentive, but many times I would get a few teachers to participate. Since teachers have more time for professional development, I was amazed at the participation in the quality of work that the participants created.
Comments
I think it is great that you made yourself available to the teachers on Zoom. This is a great way for them to get "face-to-face" help from you. I also think more teachers participated since they have more time during the day to work on things.
I also liked how you coached on Zoom -- I did something similar with Google Meet and it really helped with teachers seeing and modeling in a "face to face" enviroment.