This weekend I spent a lot of time in the car and listened to some great podcasts that made me think. One of the topics that kept popping in my head was meaningful professional development for educators. Sometimes we know what we need to work on to grow as a professional but don’t have the time based on federal, state, or even local mandates. That lead my thinking to Google’s 20% rule.
As today worn on I knew I needed to further developed the idea. I put out a twitter message to see if the idea had any resonance and I was encouraged to keep moving the concept forward. Which leads me to my first draft of a plan I will be presenting at our school’s last professional development committee meeting this school year in 2 weeks.
Please remember this is in draft form, any constructive feedback is appreciated.
Educational Professional Development Version: Educators have a pulse on the needs within a school and often they don’t get a chance to explore them for a variety of reasons. 20% of educators’ professional development time would be given to educators to further develop ideas, concepts, practices, or networks that may be outside of what the district is currently working towards. Our district has 10 early release afternoons and 2 of them would be dedicated for this purpose.
Accountability: Educators would submit a personal professional development plan on how they would use their 20%, expected outcomes, and resources required to complete the work. The results of their work would be shared with the rest of the staff at a future staff meeting, workshop day, or professional development newsletter.
Examples of How it Could Be Used: Site visit at an area school, self-study, integration time with specialists, innovative curriculum, methods, and/or assessment in the classroom, and more based on educators’ self interests.
Flushing Out the Particulars: Staff will be informed at the beginning of the year which early release afternoons would be dedicated as Googleized afternoons. A week prior to the event staff will submit a Googleized PD Plan addressing the following areas…
- How are you going to use the time?
- Why did you choose this topic/project?
- How will this translate in your classroom?
- Will you require any assistance from administration, the professional development committee, or specialists?
Googleized plans will be reviewed by the building’s administration and professional development chairperson. A week after the Googleized PD time educators will file a follow up of their work addressing the application to their classroom and the hurdles/barriers that need to be addressed.
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