Planning for Hybrid PD (part 6) - Sharing and Collaboration

I am preparing for my final face-to-face meeting with the two cohorts of middle and high school math teachers I have been working with the past 6 months.  We will still have one more online component, which ends in June.
I am a little sad about the fact that our journey is coming to an end, as it has been one of my most rewarding professional development experiences, in large part because I was able to really get to know these teachers both personally and professionally and actually see the progression of change and confidence as they learned and integrated Sketchpad into their mathematics instruction.

A quick recap of the five previous face-to-face lessons, or focus you might say:

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.

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.

This face-to-face each participant will actually be sharing a Sketchpad lesson they did with their students, focusing on why they picked the lesson, how it addressed both their curriculum and Common Core State Standards (a focus of our hybrid PD), and what they might have done to modify or enhance the lesson to address their students needs. Each person has 10-15 minutes to basically show us what they have learned about both Sketchpad and integrating technology.  As you can imagine, there is quite a bit of nervousness around this, which I have sensed in the online discussion forums.  I find this both humorous and sad. The fact that teachers who face a roomful of middle school and high school students on a daily basis for hours each day are scared and nervous about presenting a 10-15 minute demo for their peers is really funny and unbelievable. But, it's sad that teachers do not feel comfortable to share their teaching expertise with colleagues who will not only learn from it but will also share their own expertise. Perhaps that is a sign of what we don't do right in the teacher profession - share and collaborate as a regular component of continued learning and improvement.

Which brings me to my sixth and final lesson, or focus, for face-to-face professional development:

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.

Not enough time or opportunity is given to teachers to model for each other and to share and explore new strategies and skills in a collaborative, supportive environment, and it is so crucial to improving practice. Just as our students learn from their peers, so do teachers, and it is important to be able to share and present and get feedback from others in order to make improvements or consider alternatives.

My hope is that these presentations, hard as they may be for a few of the participants, will open the door to the next phase for each of them to become a model of technology integration in their own schools.

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

Follow-up On Planning for Hybrid PD (Part 5) - F2F Feedback

Just a short post today to provide some feedback from my most recent face-to-face with my two blended PD cohorts. Last posting I discussed the focus, listed here:

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.

Things went pretty well - we had our customary share out at the beginning, where there was some nice conversation and suggestions for helping integrate Sketchpad into lessons. There were some teachers who shared really fun experiences with their students and then some teachers are experiencing real frustration with trying to integrate the technology into their classrooms, from classroom management to access to computers. It was really empowering to hear the suggestions of things to try from others.

Modified "Hikers" Sketch to help with vocabulary and understanding question

What I really found to be positive, even though they were experiencing some frustration and some 'flops' of things they tried, they are not giving up - they are looking at ways to do things differently because they have seen the spark of engagement in their students, the excitement in learning math differently and the amazement at the conversations the students are having about math. In fact, if I had to sum up their frustration and lack of integration at this point, it is NOT because they don't want to and aren't trying, it's because they are faced with things out of their control - access to computers, access to the software (the IT folks still not supporting them and actually loading the software...after 6 months!  Yikes!) and class size and administrative pressure to "stick to the pacing and stick to the curriculum" and "keep your students quiet".  Seriously...no wonder they are frustrated!

The rest of the sessions I modeled some lessons and we really focused on what changes might be needed or things we could add to help address students needs, such as vocabulary (adding pictures to a sketch), types of questions, hiding components until they are needed, etc.  It was fun - lots of give and take and we learned some Sketchpad skills as well, such as controlled animation. I feel the teachers are contributing their own thoughts, taking things that fit their needs, and then going back to their classes and lessons and concentrating on what is going to work for their students.  Couldn't ask for more than that.
 
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

Hybrid PD - Online Community Development Pt. 4 - Student Focused!

I am in the midst of the fourth online unit with my two teacher cohorts, part of the long-term Sketchpad PD we have been engaged in since December 2011. So far, we have had four face-to-face get-togethers and four online units, which have varied in their length. I have been sharing what I have noticed these past several months as well as the planning I have done based on the feedback and interactions from the online units(see the series listings at the end of this post).

What has really struck me, this month in particular, is the focus of all the participants on their students.  I know it seems obvious that a teacher would focus on their students, but what I mean is the actual thought behind what they are teaching, how they are teaching, and how that impacts student understanding. This long-term PD has  focused on technology activities, the math content, the pedagogy, and the Common Core standards, and how all of these components fit together to help students learn and, more importantly, understand the math concepts. I have noticed the teachers are really thinking about what their students need and how they can help address those needs using technology.  Thinking about possible misunderstandings or ways to help students who are struggling ahead of time.  There is a real focus on preparing lessons that challenge students, help them visualize and make connections, and dare I say it - even struggle to reach understanding.  Here are a few comments that exemplify what I am talking about:

"Right away I had thoughts of how if presented the opportunity to explore things like this in partnerships, kids would actually help each other correct things that don't work.  Working together to get through a difficult problem might actually lessen their frustration and help them persevere in solving it. I think as a classroom teacher its also important to have a set of clear classroom expectations and guiding questions ready because I also see kids getting off task from the objectives of the lesson if they become too frustrated. Asking questions that reflect on the objective of the lesson or asking them about using what they already know allows them to correct their own mistakes without telling them it didn't work."

 "I like the fact that Sketchpad allows for a lot of mistakes. If you don't like what you made, oh well, you open a new sketch, just like that. Students experience failure in a gentle way, and build their success little by little.I have noticed that students are not afraid to ask their peers for help, and peers are confident enough to walk to their peers' places and assist them."

" I have found that whenever you get away from the norm of instruction and into investigation and exploration, much more learning takes place. Students are allowed to make mistakes and fumble through the activities and that is where the learning takes place. The key for the students is the motivation to persevere the the mistakes and roadblocks to get to an answer."

 While the teachers have been learning Sketchpad and learning how to integrate the technology effectively and appropriately in their classes, I think where I am seeing the most eye opening change is in their learning about their students. They really focus on "what do my students need, where will they struggle, and how will I help them get past that struggle to true understanding?" They are not focused on giving students the algorithms or the answers, but rather on "how can I help them get to their own understanding?"  This alone seems to be a reason to promote long-term professional development with teachers. Time to learn, practice, reflect, analyze student work, and get feedback from peers seems to really provide teachers with insight into their own teaching and a willingness to try new things.

For the other posts in this series, click the following 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 
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