Follow-up on Planning for Hybrid PD (part 6) - Final F2F Feedback

I am feeling like a proud parent after my final face-to-face meeting with my two teacher cohorts.  After 6 months together, this final meeting was all about them sharing what they each have been doing in their classrooms with Sketchpad and Sketchpad LessonLink and focusing on Common Core Standards while integrating technology into math instruction. Just like a parent, I merely started them on the path and guided as needed. They, through personal motivation and interest as well as with the support and guidance from each other, have personalized what they have learned, adapted it to fit their needs, and shown change not only in skills but in confidence about teaching the Common Core Standards, teaching with technology, and listening to their students and helping students deepen mathematical understanding.

From my most recent post, my final lesson was:

Lesson Six: Provide the opportunity for sharing, presentation and peer feedback to model the professionalism, collaboration, and support that will be needed to sustain use of PD learning.

We spent a good portion of the time together having everyone share a lesson they had chosen and done with students.  Everyone had picked a different lesson, which was nice.  Teachers who were resource teachers had actually collaborated with others in the class, so a few presented as 'teams', which was really exciting to see.

What struck me most was that everyone was so supportive of each other, asking questions, sharing their experiences, connecting what they had done to what was being shared. It was a truly collaborative environment.  I also was struck by the diversity of how everyone is actually using Sketchpad with their students.  Some are doing whole class demonstrations for just review, others have students at the computer doing activities individually, while others are doing things with small groups of students or creating centers for students to rotate through.  Each person was definitely taking what they had learned and using it in a matter that fit their comfort level, teaching style, and students needs.  But, what was strikingly similar was all of their descriptions of their students - how engaged the kids were in the math, really focusing on the different way they have been forced to question students and help students develop their understandings.

If I had to sum up what I think the biggest changes that have occurred in all these teachers as a result of this long-term, hybrid professional development it is the following:
1) They are more confident in their own ability to provide students with different ways to learn mathematics
2) They have more focus on questioning students, are more willing to let students struggle and discover, and are more focused on understanding student misconceptions
3) They WANT to use technology because they realize how powerful engagement and visualization is in helping students understand mathematics

One final note that almost everyone in each group said - they were looking forward to summer and having the time to really plan for next year because they wanted to try to use Sketchpad right from the very beginning. I am excited!

More in a few weeks, after we finish the final component - the last online unit.  At that point, I will do a bit of summing up and share some of their personal goals as a result of participating in this long-term pd experience.  

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!
Planning for Hybrid PD (part 5) - Make the PD Learning Their Own 
Follow-up for Hybrid PD (part 5) - F2F Feedback 
Planning for Hybrid PD (part 6) -Sharing and Collaboration

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!

Hybrid PD - Online Community Development Pt 3

I am in the third online unit of my hybrid/blended PD so wanted to give some feedback and updates on how things are going online.  For those of you who have been following my hybrid/blended professional development series on integrating technology into math instruction (see a listing of all posts in the series at the bottom of this blog), you will remember that we just finished our third face-to-face meeting a couple weeks ago.

My focus for this third unit (both f2f & online) is relevancy:

Lesson Three: Make the activities and learning relevant to the teachers every-day teaching practice. By providing activities that focus on learning the skills, how to integrate technology appropriately, and also cohere to the specific content and curriculum the teachers must follow, it is more likely that they will begin to change their own practice. If they can see the relevancy to their own daily experience, they are going to be more willing to implement new tools and strategies.

This current online unit is five weeks long, and while there is specific content teachers are assigned to do (watch videos, readings, and Sketchpad math activities) as they continue learning the software, learning and practicing instructional strategies, and learning specific math content and Common Core standards, there is quite a bit of personal choice involved. As in previous units, they must choose at least one lesson, using Sketchpad, to do with their students.  This means creating a lesson plan and providing feedback and student artifacts after the implementation. The difference in this unit is they can choose what lessons to implement rather than being given a specific lesson.  The lessons they choose can be specific to their classroom, their students, their content and their needs. (They find relevant lessons to their needs using Sketchpad Lessonlink, which provides ready-to-use Sketchpad lessons that they are searching for either by content, textbook, or even standard they may be currently teaching).

What I am finding so far this unit is much more excitement and a lot more sharing of activities and how the teachers are working with Sketchpad and their students.  Granted, I still have those participants who are not posting, but those that are seem to be so much more vociferous and energetic in their postings. They are really making connections to how the use of technology makes learning of mathematics engaging and more understandable for their students. Many seem to have reached a turning point, where the software is no longer the 'enemy' they are trying to fit into their teaching, but rather an amazing resource that is expanding their teaching and their students learning.  I think the biggest factor in this enthusiastic embracing of using the technology in their practice is the relevancy of lessons to what they are teaching.  They have found lessons that are making it easier for them to help their students learn what has to be taught right now.

This brings me to a question that came up in an #edchat I participated in this week on Twitter.  Jeffery Heil (@jheil65), in response to my tweet that "think this goes back to showing the direct relevancy to what they teach, how tech is a tool to support/enhance" responded "I agree, but relevant for whom? Tech might be necessary but perhaps not sufficient for student learning".  It was a great question, and if I look at what I wrote above in my Lesson Three, it might seem I am only thinking of the teacher, in terms of relevancy - their curriculum, pacing, standards, students' needs, etc.  But, Jefferey has had me thinking all week on relevancy for the students as well. I am finding, in the responses of the teachers in my online PD, they have focused on relevancy for themselves and their own teaching requirements, but also relevancy for their students as well, by providing opportunities to see, touch, and connect the mathematics to something visual or contextual.

Here are a few example comments from my online teachers which I think exemplify both teacher and student relevancy:

 "{Using the Sketchpad Activity {Graphing Quadratic Equations"} I really like the ability to easily use parameters to influence graphs. I like that there always seems to be several ways to accomplish the same task (like the use of sliders or +/- keys), as that allows us to better adapt to student strengths. I really like the self-correcting aspects of working in Sketchpad. If it is done right, it works the way it should, if not, it won't work and the troubleshooting (often where the real learning occurs) begins. I also like the ability to easily issue programming challenges to the students. This gives valuable insight into the way in which students approach mathematics."

"I like the real life application that was used in {How slope is Measured}. As I did this activity I wondered if students would explore beyond the guidelines. Would they question what it looks like if slope is the same but the coordinates are different. Would they want to explore even more possibilities for different staircases? Would they be able to transfer that knowledge over to the slope game and come up with some strategies to "stump" their partners. How slope is measured is a great activity for building understanding of the concept. This would provide students opportunities to explore and apply their understanding. Another way I might approach these two activities is to use the slope game as an explore activity, use measuring slope as a explore and summarize activity and then revisit the slope game to assess their understanding."

"I love using the lessons from lesson link. They relate so close to what I am currently teaching. I did a lesson on Rotations on paper first because I couldn't get into the computer lab until Thursday. On paper it didn't go so well. Next year, I will save the lesson to do just on Sketchpad. I am so proud of myself!"

"{Using the Sketchpad Activity "Toy Car"} Based on my students' need, I basically had to ask what units of measure would be reasonable. So I ask if is it possible to push a Hot Wheel car two feet and one seconds? I illustrated how far two feet was and count for one second, and they agreed that it was possible if you pushed it fast enough. I then went on to discuss a wind-up toy car. I asked the question, what about a wind-up toy car? What would happen if you wind-up a toy car and then let it roll, would it start off fast and then lose speed as it travels? They all agreed that it would. Based on this information we decided that the numbers on the left were seconds and the numbers on the bottom were probably feet. We then did several practices using the different rates. I believe this type of questioning relates to the Standards of Mathematical Practice because it encourages students to think about what is reasonable. Next we discussed another name for the word rate, and we came up the distance. So we decided that the rate/distance was based on time."

I have probably included too many examples, but it's so exciting and gratifying to me to see the change in these teachers perspectives about using technology to teach mathematics, I just couldn't help myself! Their obvious focus on their students, their students needs and making sure the activities they pick and the questions they ask are relevant to their students learning of math concepts simply solidifies for me the importance of relevancy. When considering new technology and really, any new strategy or innovation, that we want teachers to adopt and use to change their practice, relevancy to what they teach, how they teach, and the students they teach should be a key factor in the decisions made and the support provided.


**If you are interested in reading the Hybrid Professional Development series of posting in their entirety, here are the titles and links:


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

Follow-up On Planning for Hybrid PD (part 3) - F2F Feedback

In my most recent post in my hybrid/blended PD series, Planning for Hybrid PD (part 3) - Make it Relevant, I was about to embark on my 3rd face-to-face meeting with the teachers. I have met with the groups and have to say, I think relevancy was definitely the thing to focus on, for two reasons.

1) After almost 3 months working together, with 2 previous face-to-face meetings and 2 online components, the teachers are feeling comfortable with each other and really willing to voice their frustrations, ask for help or ideas, and share strategies.

2) They feel much more comfortable with the software themselves and are actually thinking of how it could work with their students, so they are want lessons that fit what they teach, since that's an easier stretch as they try something new.

How did these two reasons fit into my goal for this third face-to-face meeting of making it relevant?  As I said previously

Lesson Three: Make the activities and learning relevant to the teachers every-day teaching practice.  By providing activities that focus on learning the skills, how to integrate technology appropriately, and also cohere to the specific content and curriculum the teachers must follow, it is more likely that they will begin to change their own practice.  If they can see the relevancy to their own daily experience, they are going to be more willing to implement new tools and strategies.

The first part of the meeting we spent sharing out what happened in the classrooms when teachers tried to implement some lessons in the classroom. The teachers were so open about both the good and the bad experiences, and it was gratifying to me to see the level of support for each other.  One person had problems with students getting distracted when at the computers and not focusing on the lesson, so several others offered suggestions on how to address that problem (allow software play time, have students work in pairs, do the activity as a whole class first, etc.) Several teachers stepped up to show what their students had done or said, so that was great. The most important thing that came out of this was that many of them spoke up to say they struggled with implementing a lesson because it wasn't what they were teaching, to which others offered alternate lessons they had found on Sketchpad LessonLink, or offered ways they modified the current activities to fit.

Reason 1 fits into relevancy because teachers were open enough to share what was going on, and the need for relevancy to their every day teaching experience was very apparent in what and how they shared. The teachers were not afraid to share what they were feeling and experiencing, were willing to try things, and were really wanting to continue implementing Sketchpad with their students, which was great to see and hear. At the same time, they vented their frustration about implementing activities these past two months that did not always fit what they had to teach and expressed the desire to use activities that addressed content specifically matched the curriculum/content they were teaching. This solidified for me that relevancy was a crucial issue to focus on going forward.

The rest of our face-to-face time was spent learning some new skills of the software related to upcoming activities that were chosen based on their curriculum and creating student web pages in LessonLink to help them get ready for using the software in computer labs.  A majority of time was spent using Sketchpad LessonLink to find relevant lessons specific to content they would be teaching.  The teachers were engaged, collaborating, and excited about finding lessons, and for me, the exciting part was being able to focus on specific Sketchpad skills relevant to the lessons they found.

Reason 2 fits in with my goal of relevancy because since the teachers were more comfortable with both Sketchpad and Sketchpad LessonLink, they were not bogged down with how-to's, rather they focused on what resources and lessons would help them teach math dynamically to their students. They have almost gotten past their fear of the tools themselves (there is still some uncertainty and fear of course, more to do with using it with students at this point) to focusing on how the tools can help support their instruction. Being able to find lessons and activities that directly connect to the math content they are teaching, and having the chance to try those activities out, learn the math and software skills associated with those activities, and get feedback and advice from others, has made the thought of using technology to teach math a more natural occurrence in their lesson planning.

Relevancy matters in professional development if you want change to happen.  Like anything, it is a slow process, and as I am learning from this experience, comes AFTER providing the necessary skills and tools to develop a level of confidence, and after creating a collaborative, supportive community (see my previous posts relating to this).

Planning for Hybrid PD (Part 3) - Make it Relevant

This week is my third face-to-face set of meetings with the two groups of teachers I have been embarking with in the hybrid, or blended, professional development journey. We are focused on learning and integrating dynamic mathematics into math instruction using The Geometer's Sketchpad. We are just coming off our 2nd online unit, about to start our 3rd cycle.  This particular online unit was significantly shorter (3 weeks) compared to the first one (5 weeks), so a much quicker turn-around (my feedback on that can be found in my last online community posting).

In my first two parts of this series on blended learning, I went into each face-to-face workshop with specific lesson or goal to focus on:

From Planning for Hybrid PD (Part 1):

Lesson One: Begin a professional development experience assessing the background skills of participants.Ensure they are given the necessary tools, starting points, and resources to feel comfortable with what they are going to be doing, see the purpose behind what they will be doing, and know where and how they can get continued support. 

From Planning for Hybrid PD (Part 2):

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. Providing a safe environment where it is okay to try new skills and strategies and knowing it is okay to fail or struggle and that others are going though similar experiences, gives teachers confidence to try to change and improve their own practices. 

As I plan for this week's f2f, and reflect on Lesson One and Two, I think the important lesson to focus on this time around is making sure that the teachers are sensing how the skills and tools they are learning are relevant to what they specifically are teaching. After over two months of working on feeling comfortable with the tools, becoming familiar with the resources and how to access them, and really focusing on working together and supporting each other as they learn, I am sensing the need to narrow in on their individual students and classroom needs.  I have noticed in our discussion forums, several comments and reactions to the activities such as "I see how this would work great for the math content, but since I am not teaching that right now.....", or "these were great - I wish I had something similar to use for what I am teaching tomorrow..." or even "it seems like this takes a lot of time to make it fit into the topic I need, and I am not sure I have the time or that this will work for my students".

In all the research I have been doing on effective professional development, besides the importance of time and support, there is quite a bit of emphasis on relevancy and coherence to what the teachers are doing in their classroom.  If a teacher is expected to change their instructional practice, then the new strategies and tools need to be relevant to what the teachers are expected to teach.  The topics we have been focused on in the past couple of months are very specific math content that the district leaders mandated, but not all the participants are necessarily teaching those concepts at this time, which is where I am sensing some disconnect.  I believe we have reached a point where they have learned enough skills and made some great head way into how the integration of Sketchpad into math instruction is a tool that can help students explore, discover and learn mathematics, that we can start focusing on individualizing the content we use for learning.

The great thing is that I do have the tools and resources to support the teachers in trying to make this next face-to-face and online unit more relevant to the current topics they are teaching, which is not always the case for many professional development experiences.  Teachers are using Sketchpad LessonLink as part of this professional development, which is a searchable database of ready-to-use lessons for Sketchpad (these lessons are also available in separate resource modules).  My plan for this weeks upcoming face-to-face sessions is to really focus on allowing them to find activities that continue learning of Sketchpad skills, but that are specifically related to what they themselves are teaching in the classroom. After we do our debrief of the second online component and sharing out of what happened when they tried an activity in the classroom, we will spend some time learning some more software specific skills through model math activities, and then focus on relevancy.

Continuing the idea of collaboration and support, I plan to put them in pairs/small groups based on similar content focus and have each group focus on a math content they are covering in the next few weeks. Using Sketchpad LessonLink, they will find an appropriate lesson, and then, as a group, analyze that lesson and modify it to fit their students needs and skills.  We will then have share-out time, where each group will talk and demonstrate (via the Smartboard and Sketchpad) what they found, how it fits into the content they have to cover, and what they plan to do to integrate that Sketchpad lesson with their students.  This will then give us a starting point for our next online unit, where they will explore more about the related Common Core standards, work on learning the skills needed for the lesson, and work on actually implementing the lesson in their classroom and getting peer feedback.  I think by allowing them choice and focusing on content that is specifically related to their own classroom, they will hopefully start seeing the relevancy to their own practice and Sketchpad will become a more regular tool they consider when planning.

Lesson Three: Make the activities and learning relevant to the teachers every-day teaching practice.  By providing activities that focus on learning the skills, how to integrate technology appropriately, and also cohere to the specific content and curriculum the teachers must follow, it is more likely that they will begin to change their own practice.  If they can see the relevancy to their own daily experience, they are going to be more willing to implement new tools and strategies.

Planning for Hybrid PD - Comfort Level and Confidence First

I am going to spend a couple days with teachers this week introducing them to Sketchpad, Sketchpad LessonLink and online learning.  We are starting a 7-month long hybrid professional development experience designed to provide long-term, sustained learning for integrating technology into math instruction. This means once-a-month get togethers to collaborate and share the experiences and student artifacts of what happened in the classroom as they implement lessons, and then month-long online components designed to continue the collaboration and learning of both the software and instructional strategies.  I am excited about starting this, and find myself going over and over all the things I know are needed.  The research I have been immersed in lately, as well as my own personal experiences providing professional development for teacher over the past 18 years, has given me much food for thought and experiences I think will go a long way in helping me provide an experience that will support these teachers as they begin their journey of implementing Sketchpad into their instruction.

For our kick-off meetings this week, I want to really focus on helping these teachers feel comfortable in the learning environment we are about to start. I think that is the most important thing as we begin our journey.  There are time constraints that don't make the first face-to-face ideal, so how do I work around that and make sure everyone leaves with the confidence they need to start their first month of online learning?  They are new to everything - not only the software, but the online learning environment, so the focus in our first face-to-face is to really make sure they feel comfortable with how to get in the online course, access the online resources, and know how to start with the software.  Quite a bit to accomplish in a three hour meeting!  But...if they can leave feeling that they know how to begin, where to get the resources and access everything, then I think we can spend our first month actually learning.  If they leave feeling overwhelmed by the technology and access components, the learning of the software and strategies will become secondary or frustrating.

Lesson One: Begin a professional development experience assessing the background skills of participants.Ensure they are given the necessary tools, starting points, and resources to feel comfortable with what they are going to be doing, see the purpose behind what they will be doing, and know where and how they can get continued support.

What REALLY happened in a 2-hour Technology Professional Development

In my posting on Wednesday regarding a 2-hour Sketchpad workshop I was doing, entitled "How to do a 2-hour Technology Professional Development" , I listed four basic things that in that short amount of time would be important to do: Inspire, Relate, Practice, Support.

Let me now share the REALITY of what happened in my 2-hour workshop.  Already, not an ideal situation with only 2 hours.  However, it gets worse.  Those of you who are teachers and have attended any professional development will be able to relate to this: the 2 hours turned into 1 hour and 15 minutes because the district whole-group session prior to the break-out sessions didn't end on time - so good-bye 30 minutes.  And then, of course, all break out sessions were told to end 15 minutes early so participants could fill out evaluations.  So...down to 75 minutes.....to train teachers on Sketchpad.....with the expectation they will start using it after the session.

Ha!

But, the show must go on with the same four focus points still necessary. Key here was to read my audience and focus on their needs and what was going to be the most useful to them in this short window of time. Flexibility is a requirement for any technology presenter and I tried to be as flexible as possible with my goal to have these folks leave with the desire to try Sketchpad in their classroom. Below is my synopsis.

1&2) Inspire and relate - time crunch here, so I decided these two objectives could be combined.  I did a quick survey of subjects taught.  Since geometry was the big winner, I did my favorite intro to Sketchpad, using a simple triangle that shows off many of the dynamic features of Sketchpad to explain how the use of Sketchpad provides the ability to construct infinite examples of a construct in order to develop definitions, collect data, and help students make numerous discoveries. It seemed to do the trick. Here's an abbreviated version of what I did:



3) Practice. The first activity ate up about 20 minutes of my 75 minutes. I wanted to make sure they got their hands on the software, so with them all on computers, we opened up Sketchpad and went to the Help menu and opened up the Learning Center.  They explored the videos, sample activities, and tutorials and then actually did one of the tutorials, Dynamic Algebra, so they could play with Sketchpad tools and see how the tutorials could help them and their students not only learn the software but learn math content.  The plan was to let them play and explore and then be aware of all the built-in resources to continue learning and to have ready-to-use lessons.  However....as I walked around, I heard some grumbling and frustration.  Here is where, as a presenter, you have to read your audience and be flexible.  Turns out, the consensus of the room was they felt they could play and go through the tutorials on their own, and they would much rather use their limited time in the workshop to know how to get lessons.  So...change of plans!

4) Support. The software has built in lessons, but the district had also purchased for the teachers the online curriculum, Sketchpad LessonLink.  Originally, I knew I wouldn't have enough time to really explore this with the teachers, but based on their feedback, it was lessons they wanted to leave with, and...thinking about the short time I had, if I really wanted them to USE Sketchpad, I needed to leave them with a way to get even more beginning activities that they could implement right away and build on their knowledge of Sketchpad while still having dynamic activities. Hence, we spent the last 35 minutes of my short time with them walking through Sketchpad LessonLink, how to search for activities by content and skill level, save them, and create a student web page.  And of course, most importantly, where to get the tutorials/videos on how to do this!!

When time was up, I think most people left feeling they knew how to find a lesson and get started with their students.  Will they all do it?  Probably not....75 minutes is not enough time to convince teachers to try something new if they don't feel comfortable with it.  Will some of them start using Sketchpad? Yes...I think so...and those few will hopefully share their experiences with others and it will become viral.

The lesson here, for any professional development, whether 2 hours, 75 minutes or the preferred way - long term over months - is to have a plan, but to be flexible and willing to alter that plan to meet the needs of your participants. Because ultimately, you want your participants to leave a professional development experience thinking "I could do that"....if not, then you have wasted your time, no matter how long you had.