My Professional Development session will first have a "why" statement or an overview of the benefits of the specific teaching strategy/technology piece. Then I will not just "show" teachers how this looks in a classroom setting, but give them an opportunity to teach to their fellow colleagues and create a sense of experience and attainability.  This top down method will show why adults need to learn and create motivation in the process.

The Learners' Self-Concept:
As a person transitions into adulthood, the focus shifts from dependance to self-directed personality. Adults believe they are responsible for their lives (Knowles et al., 2005). Teachers need to be treated as capable human beings who are intrinsically motivated to be better. 

During my PD session, I will create self-directed and individual led activities where teachers have the opportunity to determine their own success in learning and developing new practices with technology. The traditional lecturing training sessions are long outdated and just do not work. 

The Role of the Learners' Experiences:
As a person matures, he/she collects a plethora of experiences that become a growing resource for learning. 

As a facilitator, I will look to teachers to share their experiences and then have them group together and create "new endings" or "beginnings" to those experiences. This a great way to tap into their creativity and problem solve at the same time. 

Readiness to Learn: 
Adults readiness to learn becomes oriented increasingly to the developmental tasks of certain social roles. (Knowles et al., 2005)

During my PD, I will have other teachers take on certain roles and help facilitate implementing a certain piece of technology in the classroom. Just as our students feel more empowered and motivated to learn when we include them in tasks and decision making, is the same for teachers during PD sessions. 

Motivation:
As a person matures, the motivation to learn becomes internal. Some adults are responsive to external motivators such as a better job or pay raise, but the most influential motivators are internal.

During PD, center the topics to encourage and increase willingness to think outside of the box. Stop focusing on test scores and numbers, It becomes a huge mood killer and takes the wind out of the sails of teachers who came into the meeting with a positive attitude and willingness to learn. 

Orientation to Learning:
Maturing adults are life-centered (task-centered, problem-centered) in their orientation to learning (Knowles et al., 2005). 

While facilitating PD, I will assign each individual teacher a task while working with the technology. This increases teacher focus and accountability. Putting teachers into group to just "play around" with the said technology is a waste of time and you loose the interest and motivation to learn from your teachers.