While developing my Professional Development project this week, I was intrigued by a concept laid out in Sheninger's (2014) Digital Leadership of a model of professional development called Professional Growth Period (PGP) This PGP allows staff the autonomy to learn about anything that interests or motivates them as long as it has the impact of potentially impacting student learning. This Professional Growth Period is time (one 48 minute period) given to teachers/staff members during contract time 2-3 times a week. This PGP time is to be used specifically for learning, innovating, and pursuing ways to become a better educator and learner as well as to follow passions and acquire new knowledge. In essence this is a individualized and differentiated learning plan for educators. Some sample activities were given:
- Develop and engage in a PLN
- Research Best Practices
- Develop Learning Activities
- Engage in Real time PD
- Learn to use Tech tools
- Collaborate with Colleagues
Here is Sheninger's blog on PGP. Within this blog, Sheninger gives specific and imp
This model is genius and worth using as a model to integrate into our professional development plan. One of my biggest concerns about professional development has always been -TIME! It is so typical of places that I have been that educators are not given the time or are expected to use their own time to process, develop, and integrate best practices and learning. I don't know another profession that expects the employees to use their own time to become a master at their craft.
Differentiating learning for teachers- what a concept! We do this all the time for students and it only makes sense to do it for teachers. Although I would love to schedule this PGP time 2-3 times a week for our staff, in reality I know that would not be possible with our current schedule and resources. I think this is something that we could implement slowly, possibly 2-4 times a semester, and then evaluate to determine the success and how it is impacting student learning.
Embrace Change??- Yes, I am.
Stacy-
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this concept with staff. It is a great way to allow for inquiry and personalized learning.
Stacy,
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of a learning portfolio. I have taken part in professional development time that seemed to be wasted. It is frustrating to want to learn as a group or in a PLC when other teachers do not want to be there. a learning portfolio will definitely help with accountability. Great information, thank you for sharing!
Stacy,
ReplyDeleteI thought this was a very beneficial and applicable concept to incorporate. This is similar to an idea that our principal recently mentioned, in a modified version, in order to make our professional development time more meaningful. I really like the concept, and think this is great information!
Stacy - I appreciated your blog post this week as I, too, was working on the "leading professional development" module. Your perspective on the module was so refreshing to read about (sometimes after researching and working on your own project for a week can be consuming) and it was nice to read other ideas. I especially liked the part about contracted time for 'read' professional development. Many times our days can be spent listening to a speaker, applying some new technique or working on grades. If we were allowed time for lesson planning, finding resources for classrooms and creating PLN's - what a great school to work in! Food for thought when we both become school leaders!
ReplyDeleteJulia