Using Technology to Enhance Professional Development for Teachers

1. Using Technology to Enhance Professional Development for Teachers Presenters: Brian Field – Beresford School District, South Dakota Trinell Bowman – Maryland State Department of Education Traci Dami – Collier County, Florida Lisa Lepic – Pearson (moderator) June 20, 2011 CCSSO 2011 – National Conference on Student Assessment

2. “My teacher is the only reason i started liking social studies because she spends a lot of time explaining each section and giving us activities on it to help us understand it. I have never understood social studies before but now after she made it clear to me, i started to get interested in it…” --Sally’s blog on http://cnnstudentnews.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/27/coming-up-teacher-appreciation-week/

3. Professional Development Objectives • Train highly effective teachers • Provide teachers with resources and tools for the classroom • Increase communication with teachers, students, and parents • Diagnose student needs and engage them in the classroom • Increase student achievement Technology can help achieve the above goals

4. Using Technology to Provide Teacher Evaluations and Feedback Brian Field, Superintendent Beresford School District, South Dakota

5. Beresford School District • Rural school district located in southeastern South Dakota • K-12 student enrollment of 650 students • 3 schools—K-5, 6-8, 9-12 • Student make-up • 95% white • 26% free and reduced • 12% special education • 10% Title I

6. Our Challenges • No consistency in conducting teacher observations and evaluations across district from classroom to classroom or school to school. • Our three principals each did their own thing in their own way.

7. Our Challenges • No uniform system to track observation data on teacher performance over time to see what teaching and student learning patterns and trends existed in our district • Individual teacher • Grade level • Curriculum-wide • School-wide • District-wide

8. Our Challenges No program that would allow us to improve feedback and personalize professional development for individual teachers or set priorities for district professional development.

9. What we needed? • Develop consistency in the collection of teacher performance data through observations. • Improve the feedback process so that feedback was immediate, specific, on-going and growth-oriented for our teachers. • Principals to make the best use of their time by cutting down on the amount of time it took them to provide quality feedback and evaluations to our teaching staff. • Provide our teachers quality coaching linked to personalized professional development.

10. Our Solution • Find a product that would help us improve the quality and quantity of teacher observations and evaluations in our district. • Develop customizable, online observation and evaluation rubrics for our district. • Provide quality coaching and personalized professional development in our district. Our solution was Teacher Compass.

11. Is a customizable, online tool for collecting and analyzing teacher observation data with accuracy, ease, and efficiency. • Makes it easy for supervisors to provide targeted feedback and personalized professional development plans that increase teacher effectiveness.

12. Rubric 1 • District Adopted Teacher Evaluation Instrument with our nine standards, supporting performance indicators, and performance rating scale. • Formative observations—identify individual teacher strengths and target areas for improvement • Ongoing, objective feedback, coaching, and opportunities for growth • Informal drop-in, walkthrough, and look for observations • Summative evaluations—teacher competence in relation to our performance standards and indicators

13. Rubric 1 Standards Demonstrates effective planning skills Implements the lesson Uses appropriate instructional strategies with students Employs appropriate student assessment techniques and provides students with feedback Organizes students for effective instruction Ensures student time on task through appropriate classroom management Accommodates the needs of students Demonstrates effective interpersonal relationships with others Fulfills professional responsibilities

16. Rubric 2Formative Observation • Effective Instruction Vocabulary and Feedback to Teachers • Knowledge • Motivation • Transfer • Practice • Reinforcement • Retention • Attribution • Lesson Design

19. Rubric 3—21st Century Teaching and Learning Practices • Instruction—Student-centered learning • Stimulation—Multi-sensory • Progression—Multi-path • Media—Multimedia/technology utilization and integration • Work—Collaborative • Delivery—Information Exchange

20. Rubric 3—21st Century Teaching and Learning Practices • Learning—Active/exploratory/inquiry-based learning • Questioning/Thinking Skills—Higher-order • Response—Proactive/planned action • Context—Authentic/real-world context • 4 C’s—critical thinking and problem solving, communication, collaboration, and creativity and innovation

21. Rubric 4—Differentiated InstructionBased on the Work of Carol Tomlinson • Guidelines for Teachers • Clarify key concepts and generalizations • Use assessment as a teaching tool to extend instruction • Emphasize critical and creative thinking • Engaging all learners is essential • Provide a balance between teacher-assigned and student-selected tasks

22. Rubric 4—Differentiated InstructionBased on the Work of Carol Tomlinson • Components and Features • Content • Several elements and materials are used to support content • Align tasks and objectives to learning goals • Instruction is concept-focused and principle-driven • Process • Flexible grouping is consistently used • Classroom management benefits students and teachers

23. Rubric 4—Differentiated InstructionBased on the Work of Carol Tomlinson • Components and Features • Products • Initial and on-going assessment of student readiness and growth are essential • Students are active and responsible explorers • Vary expectations and requirements for student responses

24. Our Implementation • Consistency • We now have an all-in-one tool used by all three of our principals so we have consistency across our schools and district. • Formative observations • Informal classroom drop-ins/walkthroughs/look fors • Summative evaluations

25. Our Implementation • Time Savings • We now have an easy to access online system to track our observation and evaluation data, including suggested comments for feedback aligned to our performance indicators and effective instruction vocabulary. • Evaluations are much easier to create and more accurate as we have on-demand access to current and past observations.

26. Our Implementation • Improved Feedback on Teacher Performance • Our principals are better able to provide world-class feedback and coaching to individual teachers that is geared to improving their overall effectiveness through the use of our effective instruction vocabulary. • Immediate • Specific • Consistent • Growth-oriented

27. Our Implementation • Create Observation and Evaluation Reports • We can generate observation and evaluation reports with accurate and organized performance data based on formative observations, drop-ins, walkthroughs, and summative evaluations, including recommendations for professional development to improve teaching and learning.

28. Our Implementation • Analyze and Report Trend Data • We now have immediate access to current and past observations, making it much easier to create customizable and usable reports. • We have the ability to identify, review, and understand individual teacher, grade level, curriculum-wide, school-wide, and district-wide patterns, trends and performance over time—identifying strengths, progress and areas for growth.

29. Our Implementation • Personalized Coaching and Professional Development • We now have the ability to customize professional development to our individual teacher needs. • Plans are differentiated based on individual teacher strengths and areas for growth. • Personalized professional development has a much greater likelihood of increasing teacher effectiveness.

30. Professional DevelopmentTeacher Compass Assessment Classroom Climate Classroom Management Content Knowledge Instructional Delivery Instructional Planning Professionalism On-line library of PD can be filtered by category Video clips of educators sharing and modeling effective practices and strategies Learning log questions for reflection Makes learning more effective, convenient, and sustainable

33. Instructional Strategies that Motivate and Engage Segment 1—Instructional strategies and classroom management Segment 2—Active engagement and relevant instruction Segment 3—Differentiation strategies that enhance motivation and engagement Segment 4—Cooperative group strategies that enhance motivation and engagement

34. Cooperative Group Strategies that Enhance Motivation and Engagement

35. Contact Information Brian Field Superintendent Beresford School District Brian.Field@k12.sd.us 605-763-4293

36. Using Technology to Deliver Professional Development Trinell Bowman, Program Manager Maryland State Department of Education

37. 37

38. State of Maryland Demographics • There are approximately 850,000 k-12 students enrolled in Maryland Public Schools • Each year 4,700 to 4,900 students take the 1% assessment, the Alternate Maryland School Assessment (Alt-MSA) • There are about 700 teachers who administer the Alt-MSA each year.

39. Our Challenges • Lack of resources available to local school district staff due to budget cuts • Lack of understanding of content knowledge • Disconnect between instruction, assessment and IEP

40. Our Solution • Use technology to create a consistent message for all teachers, administrators, paraprofessionals throughout the State. • Online modules are designed to do more than outline steps for alternate assessment. • Online modules delve into the thought processes used by successful teachers.

41. Priorities of Online Modules and Implementation • Maximize efficiency in classroom • Access grade-level content • Understand content and State standards • Select Mastery Objectives (test items) • Create artifacts that align to Mastery Objectives • Provide links to websites and resources

42. Overview Module • Overview Module provides theory behind standards-based instruction and assessment. • Introduction • Preparation for Alt-MSA • Planning Efficient Classroom Instruction • Planning for Assessment • Summary

43. Content Modules • Content Modules takes a Test Examiner through the process of completing the following tasks: • Selecting the Mastery Objective (MO) • Gaining Content Knowledge • Developing Artifacts and Adjusting the Level of Difficulty • Using Prompting • Planning Classroom Instruction • Completing a Lesson Plan • Connecting Functional Life Skills

44. Content Modules • There are many resources and take-a-ways throughout the Content Modules such as: • Sample Lesson Plans • Sample Artifacts • Artifact Checklists • Content Glossary of Terms • Questions to Consider on Various Topics • Helpful Websites • Helpful Hints When Teaching Certain Concepts

45. Preparation and Technology Considerations • Generally it takes a teacher one hour to complete each module. • Some school districts have made the Online Modules mandatory for teachers who administer the Alt-MSA. • The following browsers are supported for the Online Modules: • Safari 2.0 and higher (Mac) • Firefox and higher (Mac and Windows) • Internet Explorer 7.0 and higher (Windows)

46. 46

47. 47

48. 48

49. 49

50. 50