Session+2+Scenario


 * Please respond to the following scenario. When you can, please respond to other people's thoughts and opinions. **


 * Scenario**
 * You are a professional developoment specialist for a school district, working with a high school principal to set up the PD plan for a school year. This particular high school is not meeting AYP goals, and the superintendent has charged you with ensuring that the PD program is high quality and focused. The principal is determined to implement a series of very targeted sessions through the year addressing data-driven decision making for instruction, in which the emphasis is on individual teacher instructional planning. You recognize that the potential impact of this PD focus could be enhanced significantly with the benefits of a professional learning community context, and you must make the case to take some precious PD time from the data-driven decision making content, to invest in the development and fostering of community and collaboration. How would you make this case to convince this principal?

Data-driven decision making, by the nature of the life-cycle process, requires collaboration for assessment, evaluation, and the continual improvement of processes based on data. It would be essential, if not elemental, to have a learning community/collaboration tool in place for instructors to collaboratively assess processes and data, review, evaluate and come to agreement on 'next steps' in the process improvement. I would stress to the principal that a collaboration tool would make the entire data-driven learning process and adoption much more user friendly with a collaboration tool, allowing for more innovative adopters to assist others in understanding the process. It would also provide a platform for the community development of standards that could be presented to the principal for review for improvement of course content as the data-driven adoption process goes forward. -Lorna

To make the case for community and collaboration to be part of the PD plan, I would first present research to the principal on the benefits of adults working within a community and collaborating with each other. I would show him that researchers have pointed to benefits of the collaborative aspects of the social learning theory and working within a community. Some of these benefits include providing quick feedback on each other’s work and learning from the experiences of different participants. Different teachers could learn techniques from other teachers. Teachers would learn about successful and unsuccessful techniques. Next, I would show the principal a table of the time spent on developing a community and collaboration and the goals which should be achieved. Once those goals are achieved, the rest of the time will be spent on instructional planning. The table will show that the time spent on developing a community will be a fraction of the time devoted to data driven instructional planning. -Dan

My first step for making my case for community and collaboration to be part of the PD plan is to do some hands on work with an online community. I would develop a basic community and make it a place where teachers can connect whenever they are free and on their own time. I would set up different discussions referring to the age of students, subject or class. There would be a place to post teaching tools, experiences using them and the pros and cons of each. I would show the principal that even teachers who are not familiar with online communities will learn this and can bring it into their class room. I would research some statistics on community collaboration and how the teachers learned from it and how it strengthened the overall PD plan. I would also show him how collaborating together would further the data-driven plan and how the teachers see and adopt to it. -Shannon

Although data driven decision making instruction is very important, collaboration and sense of community are also significant and both can help with individual teaching goals. A positive community encourages adults to invest in their work and it “supports and encourages knowledge acquisition” (Pratt 232). With community and collaboration, it creates enthusiasm about what is being taught. During discussions in the group new ideas are being shared, which almost always sparks new thoughts. Collaboration assists other coworkers to share their thoughts and are also held responsible when expectations are given a timeline. When working together, support is given. Many possibilities can stem from a positive learning community and collaboration. -Meghan
 * I would even suggest to the principal to demonstrate the positive outcomes of collaboration during a data driven meeting. This will give the principal the chance to see that community and collaboration should be discussed during PD training.

In order to convince the principal to spend time on a professional development community, I would create an online community and share it with thim. I would first set up the forum. I would create a space where teachers would upload their lessons, their activities, and finally their quizzes or tests. I would post a few samples to show the principal how the online community would be utilized. I would also set up area discussions. I would segment the disussion forums by content, grade, and possibly class. Again, I would show the principal how this would be utilized. Finally,in the community, I would set up an online gradebook. In this way, teachers would post grades. I would share with the principal that having grades posted for viewing by colleagues would encourage teachers to intervene with struggling students. It would also encourage teachers to change instruction, to look to others for help and guidance. After sharing the tool with the principal, and showing him how collaboration and support may change the course of data, I would outline a plan for teaching teachers. Once teachers become accostomed to using the tool, they can automatically save lessons and do grades. By sharing, the can work to improved the school's performance. Joanna ||