Candidate as
Leader
Professional Development
I delivered a professional learning session to all 90 staff members in my school. I was one of nine teachers responsible for redelivering our experience at the Ron Clark Academy. One of my big takeaways from RCA was the quality of discussions that the children were able to have with one another. This got me thinking of FlipGrid, an application that allows teachers and students to post to a video discussion board.
I began the learning session with my big three takeaways from RCA: be positive, "do you", and discussion strategies. My main focus was on the discussion strategies. I showed my colleagues how to scaffold students' discussion skills with FlipGrid by creating prompts and encouraging students to watch and reflect on their video posts. I showed examples of my own experiences with second graders discussing literary language. Students used the discussion prompt to create their own definition of literary language and read an example from their personal books. I showed teachers how to create their own discussion prompts to meet the needs within their own content areas.
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Online Module
This online module served as an alternative learning experience to the in-person professional development session. Creating these in succession helped me better see the differences of synchronous versus self-guided delivery models. Although lectures and physical delivery of content has many uses and benefits, I think that asynchronous professional development will continue gaining preference among educators. A self-guided model allows teachers to experience the content at their own time and pace.
I think that it is important for the creator of the module to include an opportunity for the viewers to interact and provide feedback. For example, in this module, I created a FlipGrid prompt for teachers to respond to so that they could "act as students" and experience FlipGrid for themselves. They can reflect, ask questions, provide examples of their learning, as well as interact with other participants. Whether in-person or online, the professional learning experience must be engaging and relevant, just as our students expect of us.
I think that it is important for the creator of the module to include an opportunity for the viewers to interact and provide feedback. For example, in this module, I created a FlipGrid prompt for teachers to respond to so that they could "act as students" and experience FlipGrid for themselves. They can reflect, ask questions, provide examples of their learning, as well as interact with other participants. Whether in-person or online, the professional learning experience must be engaging and relevant, just as our students expect of us.