This document provides information about professional learning opportunities for educators in various school districts. It discusses strategies for sustaining quality professional development, personalizing learning for staff, and sharing best practices between colleagues. A variety of professional learning models are outlined, including summer institutes, flipped staff meetings, virtual learning, and social media platforms for collaboration. Effective tools for reflection like blogging and mentoring programs are also highlighted. The overall goal is to provide continuous, high-quality learning to improve teaching and raise student achievement.

1. Revisited
Dr. Charles Young, Palo Alto Unified School District
Dr. Lisa Gonzales, Portola Valley School District
Jason Borgen, Santa Cruz County Office of Education
bit.ly/techlearningjan2014

2. Outcomes
• Learn strategies on how to sustain quality professional
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learning
Explore options to personalize learning for staff
Share with colleagues what you are doing and what we
can further learn from each other

3. DAY OF GLASS 2 - edited
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=NMkHtwnYVOg

4. Working from a Vision for
High Quality Professional Development PAUSD
Professional Learning is a Comprehensive, sustained
and intensive approach to improving teachers’,
principals’ and support staffs’ effectiveness in raising
student achievement. In order to provide all students the
highest quality learning environment in every Palo Alto
School, all certificated and classified staff must be
continuously engaged in Professional Learning.

5. Professional Learning in PAUSD will…
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be focused on student learning goals and evidence (data)
strengthen content knowledge and instructional strategies to meet
the needs of all students
be collaborative and foster a sense of collective responsibility
focused on improved student performance, PK-12
be ongoing, embedded in our daily work, with an emphasis on
inquiry and reflection to improve practice
be regularly evaluated to ensure experiences are high-quality,
research-based, and effective in meeting intended goals
be in alignment with site and district goals.

6. Effective Schools Maximize Time...and People!
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Ensure systematic collaboration by identifying teachers with similar goals
and interests
Encourage experimentation to determine best practices
Expand the learning of teams to full faculty through multiple and open
methods of communication and dialogue
Create a shared vision, educational strategy, goals and benchmarks
among the teams
Identify and make available team members, the people, research and
materials necessary to inform group learning and decision making
Use data to open communication and problem solving, while avoiding
blame
“Effective Schools.” Childs-Bowen, Deborah. (2007). NSDC. Oxford, OH.

7. Developing the PD Calendar
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Does is reflect staff interests and needs?
Does is support the strategic plan?
Does is work from clearly identified themes?
Does it convey long term planning?
Does it highlight milestones?
Does it make sense when mapped backward from the targeted end?
Does it note what quarterly formative assessments will be collected?
Does it convey flexibility?
Does it show how staff learns in different ways and learns during the work day?
Does it build staff ownership?
Does it show when specific evaluation tasks must be completed?
Does it emphasize commitment to significant follow up?
Is it part of the ongoing program planning and evaluation?
“10 Questions to Help Reshape the PD Calendar.” Champion, Bobby. (2004). NSDC. Oxford, OH.

8. Summer Focused Institutes
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Power-up Technology Institute
Next Tech Institute
Equity Institute
New Teacher Orientation
Institute
Writer’s Workshop-Columbia
Teacher’s College Institute
Hybrid Learning Institute
Keeping the Learning Going:
one day institute
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ongoing follow-up sessions and
workshops during the course of
the year
use of TOSA’s
after school workshops
site collaboration
Partnering with local universities: Constructive Classroom Conversation watch videos, read articles, peer feedback on articles, work in teams, no
grade from instructorcertificate of accomplishment

9. Creative Phrasing for Collaboration
Move from….
It takes time I don’t have
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We’re doing too much already
I don’t want to waste all my time
in that session
I don’t have time to think about
next year
I can’t handle one more thing to
do
I’m already changing my
instruction and assessments.
Now I have to do this?
To this…
We use a lot of time for our own
learning, but its important.
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Let’s try this out. I think it might
help me a lot in the classroom.
If we fit this workshop in, it will
help us for next year.
It didn’t work the last time we
tried it, but times have changed
and we can learn from mistakes.
This is important to our efforts.
Let’s put our time into it.

10. PVSD Tech Institute - Day One
Google Suite - Intermediate Level
Google Suite - Advanced Level
• AM - Deep dive with Google,
especially docs, sites, forms, and
presentations
• AM - Also organizing yourself
and your own work / email in
Google
• PM - Updated to Sites and
Forms
• AM - Teacher Dashboard and
work with students
• AM - Opportunity to review Docs
and Blogger
• PM - Project Development create a new or revised for CCS
project to include Google Docs

11. PVSD Tech Institute - Day Two/Three
DAY TWO
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Voicethread & The Flipped
Classroom and work with Google
Sites (includes practice and
project development)
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Rediscover New and Improved
Online Resources - Discovery
Streaming / Ed1Stop (includes
project development)
DAY THREE
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Ormondale Staff - Content
Creation on iPad & Web
(Includes practice and project
development)
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Corte Madera Staff - The Cloud
& Your Devices (includes
practice and project
development)

12. Staff Meetings and Then Some...
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The flipped staff meeting
Dedicated time to PD in every
meeting for those with
traditional set-ups
Districtwide - Google
Hangout with leadership from
DO and support from
principals at sites
Use of Edmodo to focus
work, meet in between,
frontload, follow-up

13. Flipped PD
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Brokers of Expertise on CCSS (or The
Teaching Channel videos) - watch video,
complete activities, live 90 minute group
facilitated meeting, counts toward PD hours
Positive mindset - must trust people, let go of compliance,
build trust, be flexible, entertain proposal
Use of Schoology as a Leadership Team - assigned chapters
between meetings, communication feature on Schoology to
share

14. Google Hangouts

15. Virtual Meetings, Webinars, and More!
• Classroom 2.0
• EdWeb Webinars
• Simple K12
• ACSA/TICAL Leading
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Digitally
Online Conferences via
Learning Revolution

16. On Demand Learning via Social Bookmarking
and Diigo
• Traditional website bookmarks are stored on ONE
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computer
Social bookmarking allows you to bookmark and share
immediately

17. Diigo Allows You to SHARE
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Bookmarks
Highlights
Annotates
Screenshots
Example:
Go to: http://diigo.com/0glz0

18. Exploring the Twitterverse
Searching Hashtags
Common Hashtags
(http://bit.ly/
comhash)
Twitter Chats
Following Educators

19. Finding Common Ground - Blogging
• Relationship building
• Focused conversations
• Formal/informal - eliminates the rules
• Can safely address teachable moments in
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the classroom
Becomes a teachable moment outside
the classroom - worldwide consumption (or not)
Find yourself...and your voice
Size matters...it’s the rule of 1000

20. Entry by Middle School Principal
My most recent visit before winter break and your last two posts fit
together so well, especially within the context of discussions we’ve started to
have about vocabulary and grammar in our new world of common core. I appreciate
your growth perspective for the students and use of the data to guide your
instruction and intervention.
I think we are poised to have deeper conversations together amongst the
language arts and 4th and 5th grade teachers about the essential vocabulary and
grammar we want for our students to learn. We briefly started it last year after the
CLMS conference in Monterey and I think we were just not ready to go much
deeper at the time because we didn’t know what the full transition to common core
was really going to look like at the time. Now, however, we in a better position to
come back together as a group and articulate what students need to know to a
much fuller and deeper extent. I look forward to continuing those conversations with
you and the group as a whole.

21. 8th grade teacher’s blog
Results of the FIRST Exit Ticket on Central
Idea, Author's Purpose, and Vocabulary
"Is Humanity a Special Threat" (Exxon
Valdez) Society theme
CCSS RI 7.1, 7.2, LL7.4a, LL7.4b
December 12, 2013
Results of the SECOND Exit Ticket on
Central Idea, Author's Purpose, and
Vocabulary
"Battle for the Rain Forest" (Texaco/Chevron
in Ecuador) Society Theme
CCSS RI 7.1, 7.2, LL7.4a, LL7.4b
December 19, 2013

22. Her Reflections & Conversations
“Adding new visuals on how to view the data I am
collecting. We continue to focus on central idea, theme, and
author's purpose. The exit tickets are also providing valuable
discussions as we go over the answers.
Reading Success: They are not just glossing over words
they do not understand. Many are first looking at context and
then raising their hand with a vocabulary question - FINALLY.
I have been emphasizing this all year, and, apparently, it has
SUNK in! Hopefully, it will last.”

23. Blogging: What Teachers Said…
• Blogging was a “positive experience”
• Use of the technology was “easy” after the initial period
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to “overcome their discomfort”
Helped reflect on practice
Assisted with data collection and analysis
Helped monitor work by colleagues/supervisors
Mills, G.E. (2003). Action research: A guide for the teacher researcher. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Prentice Hall.
Cavanaugh, T., Cavanaugh, C. (2005). Blogging as a Professional Tool. Paper presented at eLearn Conference 2005 in
Vancouver, CA.
West, R. E., Wright, G. A., Graham, C. R. (2005). Blogs, Wikis, and Aggregators: A New Vocabulary for Promoting Reflection
and Collaboration in a Preservice Technology Integration Course. Paper presented at SITE conference 2005 in Phoenix, AZ.

24. Mentoring
• Formal programs where new employees and those
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wanting to grow in an organization can receive PD leading visioning, strategic plans, crucial conversations,
leadership skills, etc.
Improvement plans available for those in need to focus
on specific areas - check in’s from other sites using a
variety of technologies
TOSA approach (Teachers on Special Assignment)

25. What Can You Add…?

26. Outcomes
• Learn strategies on how to sustain quality professional
•
•
learning
Explore options to personalize learning for staff
Share with colleagues what you are doing and what we
can further learn from each other

27. Leadership from a Dancing Guy –
bit.ly/dancingguy2014