When creating and facilitating professional development it is very easy to convince myself why it is needed being a Type II leader. The data has identified an area of need and I have a strategy that is research-based worthy of trying to support the cause. This can be a trap and I have to be mindful of everyone else’s needs and understanding of why. Thankfully, being in a room delivering PD with educators can be enjoyable and the secret is very similar to any classroom. Can you get your students to work harder than you? A lot of times when delivering PD we are focused on what we are teaching, but as we all know, the power is what our staff is learning during that time. We learn by doing which is one baby step towards creating new behaviors. Having data to support the need is helpful, but it is the “Doing” that allows it to stick.  

 

The second conversation I was with a first-year teacher I have been working with. She expressed frustration with classroom management and the lack of engagement with her students. She is in the process of reaching out for help in tweaking her curriculum to allow for more student engagement and ownership. Her state of mind fluctuated between interdependence (seeking out collaborative help from her instructional coach and other veteran teachers) as well as flexibility by engaging in the creative problem-solving process in regard to reworking her curriculum. I believe that with more experience and time, she could enter into the craftsmanship state of mind as she continues to develop her curriculum further. 

-Powerful: Student choice leads to ownership and hopefully engagement. 

-Easy: We are using the curriculum that already exists, we are just splitting up the time in a different way and approaching the concepts being taught in a more interactive way with student choice. 

-Emotionally Compelling: This is where choice and student ownership come into play. If this happens, behavioral issues should decrease thus affecting the teacher’s emotional state as well. 

-Reachable: A multigenre project is a very feasible goal for this unit and several teachers in the building have resources for this teacher to pull from. 

-Student-focused: our goal is all about student engagement. 

We decided that maybe if she could incorporate a math notebook into her lessons, the students would have the necessary tools to begin working on their homework problems.  

We set a goal that she would help the students create a notebook and encourage the students to use them during their math homework.  In 2 weeks we would check to see if the students are using the notebook to begin their homework and take the initiative to start.