Planning for Hybrid PD (Part 5) - Make the PD Learning Their Own

This week I meet for the fifth face-to-face with my two Sketchpad cohorts. It's only been 3 weeks since our last face-to-face meeting and it is also the beginning of their spring break, so planning for this week has been interesting, since I know their minds will be elsewhere!

As I posted in last weeks online community development posting (part 4), the teachers have really begun to think about student needs as they consider using Sketchpad and the Common Core Standards, so I want to continue to foster that in our face-to-face meeting.  As I did last time, I had participants make suggestions of content/topics they wished to focus on in this weeks face-to-face. Our content focus, based on their input, will be on learning some more about the multiple-representational capabilities of Sketchpad as well as some of the animation capabilities.

In addition to teacher input as I planned, I also really wanted to think about addressing student needs, since in their online discussion forums participants are definitely considering their students as they plan and think about appropriate lessons utilizing the technology. What I think is a very important capability of Sketchpad is the ability to modify a sketch to address various student needs, and so that is my focus as well for this face-to-face. The lesson for this part 5 of the face-to-face - help teachers make connections to their students and provide them with suggestions and the ability to modify what they are learning in the PD to fit their students needs.  Connect to their students and encourage them to make the PD activities their own.

Brief summary of previous Lessons Learned when planning for PD (complete description of each can be found in the links below to full postings):

Lesson One: Begin professional development experiences assessing background skills of participants.

Lesson Two:  Work on building a sense of community and support among participants, where they feel comfortable sharing their struggles, their experiences, their ideas and expertise.

Lesson Three:  Make the activities and learning relevant to the teachers every-day teaching practice.

Lesson Four: Provide teachers with a choice in what the professional development focuses on.

 And this weeks lesson:

Lesson Five: Provide suggestions and examples of taking the activities/content of the professional development and modifying (adding to, deleting from, etc.) to meet the diverse needs of their students. By helping teachers consider how the activities might need to be altered to differentiate for students, you provide them with power and control over what they are learning, and help them make the PD learning and content their own.

I do think these five lessons are sequential. This is the power of a long-term, hybrid PD experience because it allows for you to work through building confidence, community, relevancy, ownership, and reflective practice that is not usually possible in shorter term PD.
 
For the complete Hybrid PD series, click on the links below:

Planning for Hybrid PD - Comfort Level and Confidence First
Follow-up On Planning for Hybrid PD - Day 1 
Follow-up On Planning for Hybrid PD - Day 2
Hybrid PD - Online Community Development Pt 1 
Planning for Hybrid PD (part 2) - Develop Community and Supportive Environment 
Follow-up On Planning for Hybrid PD (Part 2) - F2F Feedback 
Hybrid PD - Online Community Development Pt. 2 
Planning for Hybrid PD (part 3) - Make it Relevant 
Follow-up On Planning for Hybrid PD (part 3) - F2F feedback 
Hybrid PD - Online Community Development Pt. 3 
Planning for Hybrid PD (part 4) - Teacher Input  
Follow-up On Planning for Hybrid PD (part 4) - F2F Feedback 
Hybrid PD - Online Community Development Pt. 4 - Student Focused!