Week 8 -- Meaningful Professional Development #SAVMP

This week's assignment asks the question...What are some of the ways to create meaningful staff professional development?

To begin with, I believe that meaningful professional development leads to better learning in the classroom. The professional development on our campus has gone through a metamorphosis-- by design, and the change is remarkable.

When I first arrived on campus as the new instructional leader for our school, there were immediate pressing needs. One was the need for infrastructure and systems to fill the void. Unfortunately, that meant that our monthly faculty meetings were committed to rolling out these initiatives and to training faculty and staff on the necessary requirements needed to comply with district initiatives. The second critical need was for our faculty to get to know their new leader and to "roll out" my style and credibility for them. So...over the course of a year I set out to meet those two goals.

Well...leap forward in time to a full year later. My style is one of teacher leadership and distributed leadership among the staff. Our very first faculty meeting of the year, I was committed to making that shift to the teacher-led faculty meeting where WE ALL own the growth made by the school experts--the teachers! A year's worth of work had resulted in a great professional development experience vs. the old style "meeting."

Our first faculty meeting was a success! If I was to use the measure--would I enjoy sitting in one of my faculty meetings? The answer, after this first meeting, was a resounding yes! I began the meeting with a new tradition I had started. The idea had been shared with me by my wise friend. At pre-service training, I brought in a large stuffed Cheetah that I had bought at Toys R Us--the Cheetah is Cherry Street's mascot. At each meeting thereafter, whoever received the Cheetah would have to "pass the torch" to the next Cheetah Champion AND they would have to personalize the Cheetah in some way. I gave the "torch" to one of our teacher leaders who is known for going above and beyond especially with her ability to network with families. I also personalized the Cheetah by adding a BluRay box to his collar. I am a huge science fiction geek, and I added the box for the movie Oblivion.

At this first faculty meeting, it was the teacher leader's opportunity to "pass the torch" and recognize a Champion on our campus. She put on her glasses to read an index card that she had written with notes because she said, "I wanted to make sure I got this right." She then set out to describe a teacher who knows the name of every student in the school, a teacher who takes weekend time to have his family help him clean up the campus, and a teacher who makes a difference with our students. As she shared this information and ultimately the teacher's name, I got chill bumps and a few tears welled up in my eyes. There are so many champions at our school, and now the teachers are stepping up to recognize the champion in each other. The room broke into applause, and as our COACH received the Cheetah that was now covered in chocolate wrappers (the teacher leader's new personal touch), I could swear I saw a tear in his eyes too. That was waaaayyy cool!

Relying on that same teacher leadership model, we moved on to the next part of the meeting which was for one of our campus experts in Kagan to model for the group and then have the group work through some activities as well. Our teacher leader worked with the group to have us create a Kagan team cheer and to spend time in a Kagan team-building activity which allowed us to get to know each other a little better. Some of our cheers were very goofy, but the whole experience was wonderful. In just a few short minutes, we had invested a little time in getting to know each member of our group and hear their story. And, we got to do a little risk-taking by moving outside of our comfort zones and creating something silly and goofy that unified our groups. The room was filled with laughter. Ultimately, the goal is for the groups to take these demonstrated activities and begin to implement them successfully in their classrooms.

Next, we watched ANOTHER teacher leader demonstrate the behavior management program called Classroom Dojo. This program is so accessible that parents can log on during the school day in real time to see how their students are behaving during the school day. Additionally, teachers can use the App for the program to carry hand-held devices with them such as their SmartPhone or their iPad or tablet, and they can track behavior data from any location on campus. One of our kindergarten teachers provided a testimonial about how successful the program had been in her kindergarten classroom. Her feedback was definitely a strong selling point for many folks.

We covered several more items, and the new precedent has been set for our faculty meetings.

And here is where the impact on instruction can be felt from all this DISTRIBUTED LEADERSHIP. 

1. Climate and morale are encouraged and positively promoted when the teachers praise each other.
2. Positive climate is increased ACROSS CAMPUS when the faculty and the students participate in team-building and class-building activities. Discipline referrals typically decrease when Kagan structures are implemented at a school.
3. The effective best practices of one teacher are shared with other faculty members, and WE ALL GET STRONGER.

In my weekly Classroom Walk-Thrus, I have seen the Kagan Structures being used, and I have seen the Class Dojo spread like wild-fire. This type of faculty meeting is less about meeting and more about professional development to impact instruction. AND....I am so glad we are in Year Two. I just can't wait to get to Year Three--the sky is the limit!