MeTA musings

An article recently published in Washington ASCD's eJournal, Curriculum in Context, was an attempt in summarizing my district's professional learning journey during the past several years.

A special thanks goes out to the teachers and administrators on our district leadership team who have spearheaded and refined this vision.  I recall at least three times in which this team overhauled my draft professional learning agenda.  I count it a true blessing to work alongside a team with such a high level of trust.

Two metaphorical descriptors of professional learning that keep me up at night...


Christmas tree effect

"Many leaders base their leadership behavior on the assumption that the most effective way to improve schools is by implementing hot new intitatives.  In district after district, school after school, they can be observed frantically implementing whatever is new, whatever the district next door is doing, one initiative after the other.  The goal is to do, do, and do more.  Rarely do they stick with anything long enough to see if it's getting results...Eventually these schools (and their districts) begin to resemble a Christmas tree -- covered with program ornaments of every new educational practice or fad, leaving faculty and staff feeling completely overwhelmed" (Eaker and Keating, 2012, pp. 8-9)

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Shotgun professional development
In shotgun professional development, each day, week, month or year yields a new focus. Teachers who have experienced this type of PD say things like, "Last year, we focused on formative assessment, but this year we're focusing on positive behavior intervention supports" and are unable to form a connection between the two.   Teachers may also be asked to implement a new instructional strategy in the fall and then the strategy is never discussed again the rest of the year.  The faculty may see change as the "flavor of the month" rather than a systematic effort to improve school culture and/or school achievement, broadly defined.

To use a curriculum analogy, shotgun professional development is often a mile wide and an inch deep.  This type of professional development may lack follow-up and teachers may suffer from what Doug Reeves calls initiative fatigue.

From Rick DuFour's AASA conference slides:

Leaders who push for fewer changes and push for them harder are more likely to have success than leaders who introduce so many changes that people become confused about what matters most (Pfeffer and Sutton, 2006, 174)) 

May it be true with me as well.

We are loose in allowing teams to dig into these questions from different angles. This creates a scenario in which teams of teachers are meeting more often together than we're asking them to meet in large group settings at the building or district level.

Google Docs is a tool that breaks down barriers and creates less paperwork for our staff members. Teams create agendas and track minutes in a Google document that is shared amongst the team and with building and district administrators. Some of our teams use Google spreadsheets to share student assessment data as well. This approach has several distinct advantages.

• Accountability - At any given time a team member can refer back to previously made decisions within the document. Administrators can also gain a better understanding of the team's progress without being present.
• Organization - Teams no longer need to shuffle through 3-ring binders full of handouts, agenda and minutes.  Teams are required to create a collection within Google Docs that encompasses their agendas and minutes, norms, goals and other pertinent documentation.
• Accessibility - Our administrative team can access these documents where ever and whenever. For example, I was once in our elementary school meeting with a team, and received an instant message asking to elaborate on a comment I had left on a team's minutes from the high school. I was able to go into the Google Doc of the high school team and reply to their request.

Google Docs and collaborative learning teams have been an incredible fit for the staff members in our district.

In what ways is your school district or building or team using Google Docs? 

After every all-district professional learning day, we send out a google form to every teacher in the district.

Think of this form as our professional learning's formative assessment.  The results are used by our Iowa Core team (district leadership team comprised of 2+ teachers from each building, principals and district administrators) to plan for the next professional learning opportunity.  I wanted to take a moment to explain why we chose these specific statements and questions.  [Although I briefly explained it earlier as well]

The question, "Which statement best describes your current view of our professional learning opportunities?" is one that was added due to the timing of the year.  This probe helps us determine if our staff is feeling any sort of initiative fatigue at the halfway point of the year.

The statements about theory, demonstration, practice, collaboration and practice are all tied to Iowa's Professional Development Model. At any given time, our goal to ensure that any one of these aspects of quality professional development is not overtaking the others.  In the past, we've heard voices telling us things like "What I learned today makes sense, but I didn't have any time to begin putting it into practice."  Striking this balance is challenging, but we've been using this language to collect staff's perceptions of these ideas all year and will continue to do so.

The statement, "This professional learning opportunity will directly benefit my students" is one we strive to earn high marks every time.  If the staff give our learning low marks in this area, we know we missed the mark.

We also believe it's important to differentiate between a quality (or poor) messenger and a quality (or poor) message.  This is why we continue to use the statement, "The professional learning facilitator(s) was/were effective in his/her role(s)."

"I understand how this professional learning experience relates to building and district goals" is also an important prompt for our district leadership team, because it keeps us grounded in the work we've agreed to focus on for the year.

We've used the statements about follow-up from colleagues and administrators as an attempt to gauge the perceived gaps in our implementation.  To my knowledge, our survey responses this year have not identified any major discrepancies between staff and administration, but we continue to use the statements in the event it becomes a discussion point in the future.

We've only recently started using the most/least beneficial questions.  The results here have helped us break down the specific activities.  I correlate this to a more "standards-based" feedback.  We're attempting to differentiate the homers from the gomers.

Common formative assessments were the biggest new learning for the day, so it was important to get a feeling for how much more time and resources we might need to spend on this topic.  The results from the statement, "When I think about the common formative assessments work ahead of me and my team this year, I feel..." will give us a better idea of our future steps.

Finally, the open-ended questions give our staff members a chance to sound off and provide specific tips on what went well, what didn't go well and the areas they feel we should spend time on in the future.

Our feedback survey questions and statements have evolved over time, but our use of this qualitative data remains the same -- provide the best possible professional learning opportunities for our staff given the precious amount of time we're given.

(Note: I'm open for critiques of our form and would be delighted to learn about the questions, prompts and statements being used in your neck of the woods driving professional learning planning.  Comments are open.)

Creating surveys using Google Forms is a fairly straightforward task. In my school district, we often use Google Forms rather than other survey tools, because all students in grades 4-12 and staff members already have Google Apps for Education accounts. It doesn’t require setting up another account!


Feedback Loops
After a professional learning experience, the staff member or team of teachers who planned the activities will send out a survey to assess the perceived effectiveness of the content, delivery as well as get a feel for the next needed steps. Using consistent lykert scale statements has been effective, because it helps compare one professional learning experience to others. 

Explicitly asking staff “What next steps could be taken…?” assists leadership teams charged with planning the next professional learning connect one day or afternoon to the next. 
Asking staff members to complete the survey within two or three days of their experience has been effective to capture emotions, questions and thoughtful suggestions in close to real-time. Finally, we’ve found that sending a summary of the results to staff after the data has been collected creates a sense of transparency that leads to increased trust between those crafting the learning experience and those taking part in it. 


The feedback loop is complete when the lead professional developer kicks off the next day or afternoon by saying, 

"Your feedback influenced today’s agenda.  Let me explain how…”

Whether it’s Google Forms or Survey Monkey, what’s holding your district back from using feedback loops to create connections from one professional learning experience to the next?

I've written several times about the importance of feedback as a classroom teacher.  I'm a big fan of using feedback from teachers to improve future professional learning as an administrator, too.   Just like the classroom setting, it's not easy crafting the right kind of questions for adults either.  Here are a few likert scale statements that have solicited valuable insights in the past.

• The facilitator was effective in his/her role (Were the people leading the learning doing a good job?)
• I believe there will be adequate follow-up from my colleagues related to this learning (Is there an underlying belief this was a one-and-done learning opportunity or will it be sustainable?)
• I believe there will be adequate follow-up from building/district administrators related to this learning? (Will the administration be a viable support system or was this an isolated waste of time?)
• I believe this learning will directly benefit my students (Perhaps one of the most important questions - Do staff members feel what they learned today will help the students they teach?)

Please add constructive feedback related to this professional learning experience

I'd like to do a better job receiving feedback from teachers so that our leadership team can be even more focused in our future professional learning planning.  I believe one way we can improve is by taking a careful look at the questions asked of our staff.  What questions is your building, district or leadership team using?  What questions have I missed?  Leave them in the comments below.

"Think back a few years ago when no one in our school was using standards-based grading.  Now, look at how many teachers are moving in that direction!" - a teacher from our high school.

I'm in my second year as an administrator in a district of approximately 1300 students.  The administrative team consists of me, the superintendent, and three building principals.  On any given day, I wear one of many hats: technology director, curriculum director, mentoring and induction facilitator, special education director, and also the guy who completes many of the state and federal reports.  I'll be honest in saying there are days when I wonder if central office folks can really make a difference. A few experiences I had today, including the conversation leading to the quote above, helped set me back on the path of feeling a part of this thing we call education. 

I tell myself almost weekly that I don't want to lose sight of what it's like to be a classroom teacher.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy my current job and its challenges, but there are days (weeks?! months?!) I wish I still was teaching full-time.  When I taught high school math, it was easy to describe what I do on a regular basis to those outside the field of education, "I teach kids geometry and statistics."  Because school is a part of nearly everyone's upbringing, the life of a high school math teacher doesn't seem too mysterious.  When I decided to step away from the classroom, I quickly learned that I needed a "non-education" description of this new job.  I describe my role as a person that "helps teachers become better teachers so that more students can learn at a high level."  Pretty vague, eh?  Let me try to explain. 


One of the biggest reasons I took this job was to see if it really is possible for a school to move beyond "sit and get" professional development that lacks follow-up and a connection to student learning, to something meaningful**.  I realized that no matter how often I volunteered to teach or observe in classrooms, I would likely be seen as someone who has lost touch with what it's like to be a classroom teacher.  The key would be to to enlist the assistance of classroom teachers in planning professional development.  Our district leadership team (DLT) consists of building principals, two or three classroom teachers per building and me.  Here's an outline of the process we've used over the past 14 months or so.  First, we meet a week before school starts for a full (paid!) day together and begin outlining the big picture for the year.  We look at our activities from last year, several staff feedback surveys, and a self-study of our progress related to long-term targets we've set.  During this day, we also plan the first day of all-district professional learning.  Here continues the cycle of plan - execute - reflect. 

1. Execute the professional learning activities with DLT classroom teachers leading as often as possible.
2. Ask each staff member to complete an anonymous feedback survey, including a question along the lines of, "What do we need to do next?"
3. I send out the survey results district-wide so that we all have time to reflect on the feedback.
4. I use the results from the feedback survey and our outline for the year to create activities for the district leadership team to experience.  I'll call this the "mini PD" for the sake of further discussion.
5. Before the next professional development day, the DLT meets for a half day and participates in the "mini PD" that I've planned. 
6. We spend the rest of the afternoon or morning planning the next all-district professional learning activities using an outline I've created ahead of time.  Typically, the "mini PD" is an activity or two that might fit into our next all-district professional development day.  By trying it out with the DLT, it gives them a chance to experience it first hand before deciding if/how we should use it with our entire staff.
7. The DLT executes the professional learning activities with classroom teachers leading as often as possible. 
   (Repeat feedback, reflection and planning based on that feedback)

Today, the DLT met.  The meeting started off with the usual "mini PD."  It's pretty typical for the team to tweak or even slightly overhaul my learning activities outline during the planning process, but today something extraordinary happened.  The learning activities outline was completely overhauled, proving my plan to be mediocre at best.  Even though it created some deep conversation about current practice, the "mini PD" the teachers experienced was quickly removed from the outline and postponed until a later date.  The plan we came up with is differentiated by building.  The teachers in this team made it clear by saying...

"I like the idea of doing .....but based on our feedback, we need to spend more time on...."

and

"We can't overwhelm our colleagues with...but we need to provide additional guidance with...."

It's a great group of teachers to work with, because they're not afraid to speak up when our planning does not look "teacher friendly," but what's really impressed me lately is the team's willingness to seek progress rather than procrastination - sometimes at the expense of pushing the limits of themselves and their colleagues.  For example, after sticking to a previously set staff deadline (when I initially suggested we provide more grace), the team shortened yet another deadline.  This team of teachers and principals is stepping out on a limb to avoid Parkinson's law, believing that more time isn't always needed to complete a task. 


The story I've shared here may not be incredibly memorable for those outside our district, but I hope it begins to illustrate the point that teachers play an important role in planning professional development.  Without their input, those of us without classrooms full-time are often left with a mediocre plan at best.  

How are teachers being used, if at all, in your district to plan professional development activities? 


**This year, our anonymous feedback survey data indicates we're trending in the right direction.

Carol Ann Tomlinson says:

Excellent teachers never fall prey to the belief that they are good enough. The best teachers I have known are humbled by how much more they need to learn. They don't add to the chorus of voices chiming, "I already do that."
High-quality educators are determined and often voracious learners. They seek daily to understand their content more fully, to probe the mystery of the young lives before them more deeply, and to extend their pedagogical reach beyond yesterday's boundaries. They know that the parameters of their own lives are extended every time they extend possibilities in students' lives.
These teachers seek out the best professional development opportunities. They read about education. When a district or school fails to support their learning meaningfully, they become their own professional developers.

This is what excites me about leading staff development and interacting with teachers across the district.  When a recent snow day forced our upcoming all-district staff development day to be replaced by a student day, one teacher approached me to voice her frustration.  She was looking forward to our staff development agenda.  This teacher knows she has more to learn.

A few months ago, I suggested that educators, like students do not always know/realize what is in their best immediate interests and I still believe this to be true.  The best teachers know they don't know.  They look for opportunities to learn more about what they don't know.

I'm not 100% sure what this looks like in practice, but one thing we are trying to do in my district is use feedback loops to plan future staff development.  By asking teachers to answer a short digital survey after a staff development day or afternoon, our district leadership team can examine the responses and look for themes that arise during our planning.  Results are shared with the entire staff and these themes are articulated at the next in-service to make connections between learning experiences.  It's a work in progress, but we believe it is creating a more focused staff development environment where fewer people are asking "why" and more educators, like the one mentioned earlier, are instead chomping at the bit to learn more.

What are other buildings/districts doing to systematically make staff development viewed as a continuous process rather than an isolated event?  

I was recently interviewed by SimpleK12 about our district's use of the Google Apps suite to motivate professional development.  We use primarily Google Docs and Google Sites to create a "one stop shop" for PD resources.  Each learning team has a shared folder for meeting agendas/minutes, data files and any other documents they collaborate on.  I think it's safe to say our staff appreciate the feedback loops we've created through the use of Google Forms surveys, too.  The professional development planning process has become much more transparent and dynamic.  Check out the video below for more information.

I've been thinking about personal learning networks as an ideal model for differentiated professional development. A complaint I often hear regarding in-service time is "how can I use THAT in my classroom?" I brought this up at our building leadership team this week and responded with a question of my own:

What if EVERY professional development session was catered to your interests?

After all, if we're supposed to be differentiating content, process and product in our classrooms, why shouldn't we expect the same from our in-service time each year? I used this Educational Leadership article by Bill Ferriter as an example of how it might be done through the use of personal learning networks (PLNs). I'm happy to report that my building principal thought it was a great idea and asked me to present it at the next morning's staff meeting. I knew that my five minute allotment at the meeting wasn't going to be enough to "sell" the idea and definitely not enough time to thoroughly explain the complexities of what a PLN might look like. Instead, I decided to give a "teaser" to the staff to see if I could recruit five staff members who might be interested in giving the idea a try. Twenty-four hours later, I had the fifth volunteer approach me as I walked in to work and started to make a few copies. I'm in the midst of meeting with each of the five educators and helping them setup their own quasi-PLN through the use of Google Reader and various edublogger RSS feeds. Other social networking tools such as Twitter, the Ning I setup earlier this year, and subscribing to journals via Ebsco's RSS feed will be "phase two" for these individuals if all goes well. Furthermore, I have the green light to use our May in-service time to get all of the staff members in my building setup with their own personal learning network. I'm hoping the five volunteers will not only be able to help with their newly acquired technical expertise, but that their enthusiasm towards the idea will spill over between now and then as well. In my previous attempt to diffuse innovations, my interpersonal communication has been lackluster at best. My hope is that by interacting with these five over the next month that the differentiated professional development model might catch on and be something that we can spend even more time developing next academic year. Look for more posts in the future as this model develops over the next month or so.


Note: This is not my original idea. Others, including Evan Abbey at Heartland AEA have suggested using PLNs as professional development. This is my humble attempt at documenting and sharing the idea as it unfolds so that others, too, may hopefully benefit someday.