#SXSWedu 2015
Austin, Texas: March 9-12
Teacher Professional Development Needs an Overhaul!!!
Beverly Vaillancourt
Jane Chadsey
What we know works:
Relate - Sustained relationships
Repeat - Learn, practice, master
Reframe - New ways of thinking
"The goal is to set teachers free and make teaching fun again" -Beverly Vaillancourt
Missed opportunities to apply design thinking which causes misalignment between what is meaningful for teachers versus where resources are spent
All adult learners should be trusted to be part of designing the professional development experience.
Professional learning should be built on individual strengths, needs, and interests
All adult learners exist within the system. Professional development must respect the system and the learner.
Core Components:
-Specific Outcomes
-Challenges
-Content
-Community
-Timeline
-Recognition
Choice is essential to all professional development
Arana Shapiro
Rebecca Rufo-Tepper
Ross Flatt
W Max Meyer
7 Lessons from 7 Years:
1. Professional Development
2. Capacity-Buidling
3. Collaboration
4. Technology
5. Assessment
6. Iteration
7. Playfulness
You must enable teachers to be designers, design thinking, systems thinking
How do you create professional development where teachers actually design and create ?
Things to think about:
-What are you school's non-negotiables?
-How can you build a culture of innovation at your school?
The teacher is no longer the presenter of information, but the designer of learning spaces and experiences
Ongoing feedback is imperative for this design
The kids at this school are training to be designers and digital citizenship
Week long intensive boss level project (teacher can monitor collaboration skills and system thinking)
Goal was to create a culture where you felt empowered to innovate
They've had students sit in on department meetings to help design and develop games for the classroom
Professional Development: encourages creativity,
Teacher QUEST - teacher professional development
Using gaming doesn't mean starting off with which game you want to play, but focusing on what your learning targets are first
Systems Thinking Tools
JoLisa Hoover
Patrice Dawkins-Jackson
Teach to Lead Initative
Increase pathways and opportunities for teachers to lead, especially those that continue to teach
Teacher Leader Summits
-There were several throughout the country
-Teachers submitted proposals for their ideas that they wanted to work on came together with their teams to develop their ideas for improving any aspect of education of their choice
Great story was shared about a group of students that came together with an idea to improve the graduation rate at their high school. It was powerful to listen to how they came together and worked through their idea.
Gaming the System: Teachers Hacking the Classroom
Dyslexia: Changing How We Think About Potential
Presenters
-Mom and son presented on dyslexia together
-Look at your students with dyslexia in a different way and you'll realize they're some of the smartest people in the room
-Discussion about assumptions made regarding students in special education and receiving support services. Personal story from the presenter: She asked about what special education support services would be available for her son in the advanced placement classes. She was told that they have general education courses for their students receiving special education services. She had to set up a meeting at the district level.
-There's nothing that anyone can say to make me feel bad about my dyslexia. I was born with it and it's who I am. -Ben Cooper
-I had a teacher who finally told me there were ways to work with my dyslexia. It was the first time someone had said they could work WITH it instead of AROUND IT. -Audience member answer
-teachers made me feel stupid, didn't realize my potential. They thought I was a behavior problem. It was the worst time in my life -Ben Cooper
Good techngology available
text to speech & speech to text
Book share
Dragon dictation