March 1, 2001

Group 1:
Ashleigh
Gerald
Doug
Yvonne
Matt

Group 2:
Emily
Kay
Ryan
Kathryn
Joe

Group 3:
Christie
Henry
Jack
Andrew
Kevin

Group 4:
Chris W.
Chris C.
Kim
RJ
Roberta

7:00 p.m.- 7:10 p.m. Arrival and Check-In

7:20 - 7:30 p.m. TaskStream Q&A.

Make sure everyone has an accessible account. Please email me beforehand if you have difficulty accessing your account.

7:30 - 8:00 p.m. TaskStream--Mentoring and Groups

Make sure working groups are set up. Practice entering lessons and giving mentoring feedback.

8:00 - 8:10 p.m. Breaktime!

8:10 - 8:30 TaskStream

Practice rubrics and staff development.

8:30 - 9:05 Discuss the Linda-Darling Hammond Article

Professional development strategies that succeed in improving teaching share several
features. (Darling-Hammond and McLaughlin, 1995.) They tend to be: 
  • Experiential, engaging teachers in concrete tasks of teaching, assessment, and
    observation that illuminate the processes of learning and development; 
  • Grounded in participants' questions, inquiry, and experimentation as well as profession-wide research; 
  • Collaborative, involving a sharing of knowledge among educators; 
  • Connected to and derived from teachers' work with their students, as well as to
    examinations of subject matter and teaching methods; 
  • Sustained and intensive, supported by modeling, coaching, and problem solving around
    specific problems of practice; and 
  • Connected to other aspects of school change.

With the above strategies in mind, discuss the following as it pertains to your school site or district setting:

  1. Are these strategies being used by staff development personnel within your district?
  2. Is staff development inquiry based?  That is, do the participants examine the literature or question the formative processes when new curricular practices are adopted?
  3. Is staff development collaborative at the grass-roots level?  Is it a top-down procedure?
  4. Is there action research conducted into classroom and staff development practices that generates insight into best practices?
  5. Is there peer support and coaching following a staff development session or workshop?
  6. Is there an environment that encourages further inquiry into the dynamic processes of education?

 

9:05 - 9:25 Reports from each group on TaskStream & Discussion

9:25 Wrap-up!!!