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Creating PD Choice Boards!


As the new EdTech and Social Studies Specialist, part of my job includes planning and facilitating professional development for our social studies teachers. Our main PD sessions take place once a month on Wednesdays when teachers are released early from their school sites.

 Leading these PD sessions was a part of the job that I was SUPER excited about when I first started. However, there are some challenges that I wasn't prepared for that have caused me to reflect and rethink the way I have been planning. 

Challenges


1) We have 32 schools in our district, and there are three different release times. To honor everyone's time and make sure teachers don't have to work outside of contract hours, we decided to have two different sessions with a half-hour of overlap time. I set up the activities in Google Classroom, number them, and include videos and directions so that teachers can work through them at their own pace when they arrive. However, some teachers have a difficult time with that amount of self-direction. Also, some teachers have expressed that it is difficult for them to focus in a room where different people are working on different assignments at different paces. 

 2) Our state just adopted new social studies standards with a focus on inquiry learning. This is a transition year, so teachers were told they could use the old standards OR the new standards this year. For most grade levels, there are significant changes in the actual content, in addition to the shift to inquiry-based learning. Some teachers are using old standards, some teachers are using new standards, some teachers are trying inquiry activities, and some teachers don't have any clue what inquiry learning means. We are all over the place. So, it has been difficult planning activities that would be meaningful for everyone, and it is even more difficult trying to find the best way to move everyone forward in the shift to inquiry learning.

Choice Boards


I decided to try something new for our PD session this month. I wanted to assess where each teacher is in their ability to plan a unit using the new standards so that I can figure out how to effectively support each individual person. However, planning is such a personal act of creation, and I don't want to force everyone to plan units and lessons the same way I do. So, I set up a choice board activity with four different options. 



For each activity, I included resources, an optional template, examples, and reflection questions. I also gave teachers the option to work on this activity with their teams at their own school site or to come to a central location where I would be there to provide support. 

This activity took a lot of time to design, but I was lucky enough to get really great feedback and ideas from my EdTech teammate before I rolled it out to our teachers. There are definitely parts of this activity that could be better, and I will adjust and try to improve this for the next session. I will also be following up with some teachers who need a little more one-on-one help completing their activity. 

However, I had a really great moment today when I received an email from a teacher that had expressed some displeasure at the way the last session was organized. Her email was titled, "So good!" In the email, she stated the following: "We divided up in our grades and all felt very productive today. Thanks so much." It was a simple message, but it made my day. 

We are all life-long learners. Some days I wonder if I am ever going to figure out how to be good at this new role. Other days, I know that I won't fail as long as I don't stop trying.

Today was a good day. 😊

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