Following-up Staff Development

In far too many cases, all of the energy that goes into a staff development program winds up in the planning and instruction, with little dedicated to follow-up. This method might be based on hope, but in reality is very self defeating. Hoping something stuck, does not insure the trainings will ever make a difference.

There are many models of following-up or supporting further growth. In Results: A Fresh Look at Follow-up,author Pat Roy lists a number of ways to do this:
•Classroom visitation of a master teacher using the new practices along with debriefing;
•Classroom demonstration lessons with a debriefing session;
•Reading an article on the new strategy and discussing it with colleagues;
•Reviewing sample lesson plans and adapting them for the classroom;
•Co-planning and co-teaching lessons with a coach or knowledgeable peer;
•Planning with a study group that focuses on implementing new practices;
•Developing an Innovation Configuration with colleagues;
•Videotaping a lesson and requesting collegial review and feedback;
•Problem-solving implementation issues; and
•Self-assessing new practices using a rubric or Innovation Configuration.

In 1998, The National Training Partnership posted Some Hot Notes on Staff Development and Follow-up Strategies. Some of their more interesting points include the fact that:
•"Teachers typically forget 90 percent of what they learn in one-shot workshops."
•"Strong professional communities provide a context for sustained learning. The most effective teachers hooked up with a network of professionals who addressed problems and found solutions together, gaining in their sense of professional identity, motivation."
•"Released time for sharing what teachers are doing--what has and has not worked--has been effective and powerful."

Thomas R. Guskey from the University of Kentucky states, "For advances to be made and professional improvements to continue, the new practices and techniques that were the focus of the professional development effort must become used almost out of habit. And for this to occur, continued support and encouragement, paired with subtle pressure to persist, are essential." Guskey gives more details to this process in RESULTS-ORIENTED PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT:IN SEARCH OF AN OPTIMAL MIX OF EFFECTIVE PRACTICES

Evaluating Staff Development

As budgets tighten, stakeholders are demanding more accountability from school districts. Determining whether staff development investments are working is becoming a big of a piece of the planning process.

""In the age of accountability, organizations must prove the value of professional development investments. Real proof of value goes beyond enjoyment of participants and consists of significant improvements in skills, knowledge, and attitudes for participants and for their students, the ultimate value proposition." Steven Shaha, Valerie K. Lewis, et al. outline a very scientific process for evaluating programs in "Evaluating Professional Development: An approach to verifying program impact on teachers and students”, as published by the National Staff Development Council.

Evaluation can fall into a couple of different categories. One type is formative while the other type is called summative.

-NCREL's "Evaluating the Success of Professional Development" offers the following distinctions:

"Formative evaluation is used to modify or improve a professional development program. It is conducted throughout a professional development program to provide feedback and to determine changes to be made during the program to make it more valuable to participating educators. "

"Summative evaluation is conducted at the conclusion of a professional development program to determine its overall success, again in reference to the goals determined during the earliest stages of planning. Summative evaluation focuses on long-term changes in the educators through surveys, interviews, and peer evaluation. "

Northern Arizona University's Dr. Michael Blocher simple comparison chart showing the difference between the two types.

Online Resources for Staff Development

Not only is the Internet opening up so many more opportunities for professional development, but it is also opening up new forms of delivering professional development to a huge array of learning styles. There are traditional articles online that give helpful guidance in tech learning but many new sites that use delivery manners that are very cutting edge.

Starting a good lists of online resources is Internet 4 Classrooms. The site focuses on the most common applications used by educators and then offers extensive lists of links to other helpful websites.

A site that just seems to be bursting with online help for developing websites is W3 Schools . HTML, XML, RSS, are just the beginning of the things web developers can learn at this site. Their motto is “The best things in life are free” and the site is dedicated to providing educators with free tools to make the web useful to teaching.

Apple’s website isn’t just helpful to those of us lucky enough to be equipped with Macs and iBooks, but is loaded with many solutions even Windows users can use in the classroom. iPods are definitely Apple’s hottest item and Apple provides extensive support for integrating iPods into the classroom at their education site . The beauty of the iPods in the Classroom section is that it provides actual lesson plans. Even nicer is the fact that you don’t need an iPod to use the lesson plans. Anything that plays mp3 files like a PC or a Palm will work. Heck, I bet even an old cassette recorder listening center would fit the integration ideas provided by Apple. The education site also includes other solutions for including forms of technology into the classroom whether it is made by Apple or not.

Techlearning.com is an extremely comprehensive professional development website that offers technology using teaching assistance in many aspects of the profession. This site focuses more on integration and philosophies behind using technology effectively as opposed to teaching someone how to use iMovie.
Collaboration, conferences, grants, hot topics are all treated with a great deal of depth.

As a very visual and auditory learner, I am very excited about the high quality professional development opportunities now available in video and podcast formats. I have definitely found my niche for learning best online. The great new wireless dsl we just installed at home and the fiber optic lines at school finally make this stuff easily accessible.

Here are some of my favorites: Atomic Learning is the visual learner’s paradise. The site is loaded with tutorial, step-by-step videos in almost every facet of educational technology. For the most part, I am a self-taught computer user. AL fills in the gaps and shows me techniques I am yet to discover. I have found the Microsoft Office lessons to be the most helpful. Best is the fact that as MACUL members we receive free access to the site. It helps not only learn but provide support to other teachers.

The Educational Podcast Network lists all kinds of podcasts that are related to teaching and learning. Currently close to 45 programs are listed under their professional development section. There are all kinds of program options from special education to one of my favorites, a teaching with handhelds show called “The Soft Reset” by former GoKnow developer Mike Curtis and the guru of handhelds in the classroom Omaha’s Tony Vincent.

One thing especially nice about podcasts is the fact that many of the programs come from actual classroom teachers who have a passion for sharing their experience. This type of PD is often the most relevant and easiest to implement. Bob Sprankle’s "Bobby Bucket Show” is a great example. Shows are also easily
burnable to compact discs and an inspirational speech by someone like Elliott Solloway can be dropped on a superintendent or principal’s desk quite easily.

As it gets easier and easier to find help online for professional development, the quality of the products continues to increase. The most exciting fact is that it is only going to get better.