Pedagogy
differentiated staff development plans
Traditional staff development is quick to draw a groan from many teachers due to the 'sit and get' nature of most trainings that leave teachers confused, lost or just bored as the one size fits all model that would never be used with our students fails to engage teachers. I would develop a differentiated Technology Staff Development Plan that would allow teachers and administrators to document other types of staff development, including modeling, co-teaching, conferencing, finding resources, and mentoring teachers.
Scaffolding & Differentiation
The differentiated professional development program would be designed to focus on individual teachers and their needs using Vygotsky's theory of Zone of Proximal Development and scaffolding. This is a better choice of delivering the professional development content because the use it or lose it one time group training sessions are not effective in creating sustainable technology integration and innovation in classrooms. The program would also be focused on differentiated instruction as described by Carol Ann Tomlinson as a teacher or in this case a technology integration specialist "...accommodat[ing] the different ways that students learn involv[ing] a hefty dose of common sense, as well as sturdy support in the theory and research of education" (Tomlinson & Allan, 2000). Below is how these two theories would be combined with personalized learning to develop a more effective professional development experience.
Personalized Learning
The program would also be aligned to the five essential Personalized Learning Elements developed by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) in conjunction with the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA). The Technology Integration Specialist would create a website of online and blended learning training resources with virtual support that are flexible and available when the teacher is ready to use them. Through the scaffolding process, teachers will be able to experience the role of teacher as "facilitator" with technology and see how that affects learning in their classroom. Our teachers are each individuals with different content, pedagogical and technological interests and their professional development goals and training should reflect that. The Technology Integration Specialist would meet with individual teachers to discuss and establish technology goals and a differentiated action plan for the year based off of each teachers' expressed needs and goals. The scaffolding model will also allow teachers to work at their own pace towards mastery or progression. When one technology skill or goal is completed, the process would begin again with another so that teachers are not held back nor overwhelmed at the rate of training. Explore and Create training sessions will allow teachers to create something using a technology tool that they can instantly take back and use in their classroom so they have real world application.
Mastery, Autonomy & purpose
Teacher motivation plays a key role in the success of technology integration in the classroom. Autonomy, mastery and purpose, three elements in the motivation formula as identified by Daniel Pink, are recognized within this proposal and support the reason why traditional carrot on a stick incentives do not work when engaging in activities like teaching that require cognitive skill.
Teachers want autonomy. They want to have a choice in how and what they learn about professionally and this program allows for an opportunity to go beyond superficial exploration of topics. The ability to explore meaningful tools and best practices in a deeper way leads to the second motivational element of mastery. All effective teachers are lifelong learners themselves and have genuine desire to continue learning. This proposal takes that innate desire to improve and capitalizes on it. |
Finally, as teachers we want to be involved in a larger purpose, mainly in helping influence the lives of our students in a positive way. With the united purpose of helping students succeed, this program will help teachers understand how to use technology to prepare students for a world that we do not have the foresight to be able to see. The program will allow for encouragement amongst colleagues, sharing of successes and failures and authentic practice that will lead to effective technology integration in the classroom. |