Promoting Alternative PL

Link to Call to Action Video on ePortfolio

This video is intended for the campus leadership team and professional development committee at Round Rock High School (RRHS). The message in this video is about changes that should be made to make professional development at RRHS more effective. The audience is encouraged to change professional development to improve student outcomes. While our campus has made some positive changes in recent years, such as involving teacher presenters and enabling teachers to choose workshops during breakouts. However, there are still elements of ineffective professional learning that exist. This is evident by the persisting negative attitude of campus staff towards professional learning. Some quotes included in the presentations are based on the sentiments shared by campus staff. These feelings are not unique to our campus as evident in The Mirage study conducted by TNTP (2015). It is likely our campus is also experiencing “marching in place” when it comes to teacher improvement. In order to improve student outcomes, especially for our special populations we must make professional learning more effective. Effective professional learning enables more effective classrooms.

To structure the proposal for changing professional learning, I identified three main areas for improvement and solutions to improve it at our campus. These included making development activities relevant, long-term, and engaging for teachers. These three ideas are rooted in the 5 principles of effective professional development determined by Gulamhussein (2013). I restructured these principles to support the three solutions for improving professional learning. Gulamhussein’s first two principles connect to the need to change stand-alone workshops into long-term initiatives. The long-term nature recommended in my recommendations includes supporting teachers through the implementation phase of initiatives. The third and fourth principles relate to engaging teachers when presenting them with new ideas. Lastly, the fifth principle is about making professional learning relevant by being specific to the discipline of teachers (Gulamhussein, 2013).

When creating my slide deck on Google Slides, I incorporated presentation elements from Phillips' (2014) TED Talk on effective slide decks. I used contrasting colors and animation motions to help the audience think about the current state of professional learning versus what it could be. I narrowed the recommendations to three memorable takeaways to help the message stick with the audience. The dark slides tell the story of the current ineffective professional learning, while the light slides explain how professional learning can be improved. When ineffective methods are mentioned they transition from the left, making the audience feel they are looking backward on a timeline. In contrast, the solutions for effectiveness are animated to transition in from the right as though the audience is moving forward on a timeline. The presentation method of switching between the current state and what could be is inspired by Duarte’s (2010) theory of effective storytelling in presentations. The story told in my presentation is that the current state of professional development is ineffective due to the lack of relevance, short-term nature, and lack of engagement. I address each quality individually to briefly explain small steps that can be taken to transform professional learning into effective methods that improve classroom outcomes. The three key points in the story are easily memorable so the audience can use them to realize the potential of effective professional development.