Friday, September 23, 2016

An Ideal PD Event

Rob Stephenson, Founder of Curious Crew.
I've been thinking about differentiated professional development, and then this afternoon I experienced a top-notch example.

The event was led by Rob Stephenson, STEAM specialist and founder of Curious Crew. He orchestrated a targeted professional learning hour and a half for fifth grade teachers, the art teacher, the high school STEAM teacher, and special educators.

The event included a number of hands-on events, discussion, literary connections, and pedagogical ideas and examples. It was awesome.

What made this event awesome included the following elements:
  • A good number of people
  • Meaningful discussion and exploration
  • Modeling
  • A blend of explanation, small group exploration, and whole group share/process
  • Information and project work that we can replicate in our classroom right away.
  • Presented on school time.
The only suggestion I have for the event would be to give the teachers a box of supplies so that we could replicate the activity right away with the proper supplies, but other than that, it was a good example of meaningful professional learning. 

While I'm generally a fan of teacher choice and voice with regard to professional learning choices, this event was well chosen and funded for us. I can't wait to process the experience with my team and plan a time when we'll replicate the learning with students.