Module 4: Professional Development Strategies

Professional development is key to maintaining a continually educated, modern, and effective teaching faculty. I have found that the most effective professional development sessions in my school focus on specific and proven ways to teach students with different disabilities. These methods must have been proven to be effective and efficient. My school, Transitional High School, exists to service the disorderly students of Harrison county that would otherwise have been either expelled or a constant disruption to the normal operation of another high school. These students often carry with them an identified disorder and accompanied by an IEP or Section 504. Meeting the needs of these students all at the same time within our classrooms is a challenge. The key designing the most effective professional development (PD) is meeting the needs of the teachers participating in the PD. A needs assessment is needed to identify the proper topics for PD. Another effective professional development topic for my school would be how to prevent classroom disruptions, deescalate the disruptions, and how to discipline students so that the negative behaviors are reduced or eliminated. Discipline is a highly needed PD topics, because of our highly transient student population we are constantly receiving students who are in need of structure and discipline.

Last year, I had a need in my classroom to help my students develop a better understanding of vocabulary terms. I used the old and tired "here are vocab, define the vocab, now take a quiz on the vocab" method. It was not effective at all. After attending a PD session on building student vocabulary. The session focused on using a worksheet with sections for a definition, description of the term in the students' own words, a drawing, and section for the students to use the word in a sentence. It seemed like a simple worksheet and I have my students use the vocabulary in class discussions, but after having the students use these worksheets they performed much better on their vocab quizzes. The PD opportunity was effective, because it meet a need of mine to help my students not only learn but to also raise their grades. Another effective PD experience was my first PD session I ever attended. I attended the session on my first day at my first permanent teaching position was on personal defense and restraints. It made me a bit nervous, but I still use that training to this day and has help me defend myself, another teacher, principal, and my students from other violent and drugged students. During my first semester I experienced a restraint where a student slammed a police officer into a bank of lockers while filling a warrant for the students' arrest that resulted in a tumble on the hallway floor. These learning experiences may not have all involved teaching, but they were needed in my school.

For my PD initiative, I will focus on practical iPad training that is driven by the needs of my teachers. We have a set of 20 iPads for my school on a mobile cart. It can be difficult to access the iPads when we want them, but most of the teachers in my school like using the iPads in the classroom, but find it difficult to find and learn how to use new educational apps. Some apps have been provided for us, but we also have the option to purchase news apps on an individual level. I want to give the teachers opportunities to choose their own apps to focus on in pairs (i.e., two math teachers paired together). In this way, there is a support system between teachers in the same discipline. The school iPads are available and have been introduced, but I don't feel that they have truly been "integrated." By helping teachers identify new apps for their classroom that the teacher is interested in, I hope to influence the teachers to integrate the iPads into their classroom to meet the CSOs and to interest the students in learning. My TI initiative is to fully integrate the iPads into the classrooms on a regular basis. I hope to do this by ordering $10 iTunes gift cards for each teacher to use in the PD sessions, teach them how to use the cards and download apps that must be paid for, and utilize the aid of a technology specialist in Harrison county that our school has used before. She has offered to help us use the iPads and is available for free PD sessions. I will be acting as a leader by making myself available for helping the participating teachers in choosing apps and using them. I will also be checking in on the participants periodically to make sure there are no snags integrating the iPads and help problem solve any issues that may arise. 

Some resources I will be using:

Apple Professional Development Catalog

Free/Low Cost Apps for Education

iPad PD - The Three Rs

Free Educational Apps