Directions

Your principal has asked you to facilitate a Plan and collaborate a professional development session for a group of teachers that relates to curriculum standards, instruction, and/or assessment of learning. Using the vision of a school, state curriculum standards, school improvement goals, and student achievement data, integrate your own vision of student learning into a professional development session (a training for teachers)that will help a selected group of teachers increase the academic gains of their diverse classroom populations. 

Include the following:

• A needs assessment of the area you have chosen (based on student achievement data)
• Goals for the session, a communication plan for the school and the community, activities that are research-based, and an assessment (aligned with session goals)
• Future plans for on-going evaluation and monitoring

Include consultation and direct communication with stakeholders (teachers, administrators, community, families, and others) and how you would use the media, technology, and both human and fiscal capital to organize and implement the session.Provide examples of the types of professional development opportunities that could be assisted by collaboration with the various groups.

Consider collaboration among the following groups:

• Staff and teachers at the school level
• Parents and community members in the school community
• Online with others in the teaching profession nationally and worldwide

The professional development session is one that would be facilitated by you and would be a minimum of one-hour in length. Write a report that includes the following:

1.    Development, articulation, and implementation of a vision of student learning

• Include how your vision of student learning supported the vision of the school
• Describe how you will communicate your vision
• List the attributes that you will needed to implement and promote your vision and explain how they will be used to facilitate planning and implementation

2.    Planning, collaboration, and implementation

• List the stakeholders involved in the process and their roles
• Explain how you included stakeholders to collaborate in the process
• List the planning steps you will take prior to implementation and include how you will organize and develope your plan using technology applications
• Discuss issues of school climate or culture uncovered during planning and who you will include in the discussions of your findings
• Describe how you will use internal and external resources to implement your plan

3.    Goals and topic(s) of the session

• Identify the goals and topics for the session and how they align with the district/school's improvement goals. Goals and topic(s) must be related to curricular, instructional, and/or assessment issues
• Explain how you will use student demographic data and other school/community contextual data in preparing the session

4.    Presentation

• Provide the arguments and/or evidence that support the need for the professional development session, including relevant student achievement data
• Provide detailed information about the activities you will use in the session and why you chose those activities. Include information on the sequence of delivery and timeframe for activities.
• Implement best practices and applicable resources during the session
• Apply social and educational opportunities for the school, community, and outside sources

5.    Session assessment and plans for ongoing evaluation

• Provide a copy of the assessment that will be completed by participants during/after the session.
• Report and analyze the assessment results.
• Provide information and a plan for gathering data, monitoring and evaluating your plan at the school level

6.    Reflect on your experience of planning, collaborating and facilitating the professional development session. Consider the following questions in your reflection:

• What challenges did you face during the planning phase? How did you overcome them?
• What do you think will go well during the session?
• What would you change if you facilitated a session like this in the future (and why)?
• How effective do you feel the session will be (and why)?
• How will your efforts benefit teachers, students, families, and community?
• What roadblocks and possible solutions to developing collaborations did you consider?
• How will professional development improve student learning opportunities?