What are Online Best Practices?

Online Best Practices: PD Support for Individuals, Schools, and Districts This presentation is made possible by Sylva Kezar who is the Southwest Region Program Manager of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD). At the beginning of the session, Sylva allowed each of us to introduce ourselves. What a great start! A great way to begin the networking process. *smile*

I am currently surrounded by different individuals from the education world. It is quite interesting how much education can be placed in one room with a facilitator who is an expert in bringing professional development to life. Sylva Kezar emphasized during this session that this is not a sit and get type of teaching and learning, and she wanted us to contribute our individual ideas (believe me, I have a lot of that! *grin*). She believes in changing the way we do things, especially for those educators who have been in the education business for years.

As part of the professional development world, professional learning communities are encouraged to establish collegial learning groups, teams, study groups, and support individuals who want to learn any time. We are asked to discuss at our tables the following questions:

• How do you presently differentiate professional development in your school or district?
• How do you use technology to support your differentiation?

All in the room are not shy in sharing their successes and challenges that they experience and continue to face in their respective school districts. One in particular, who is a doctoral student from Walden University (I want to enroll there! *grin*), shares that professional development for teachers should entail the true meaning of engagement, collaboration, and communication. Sylva adds that though we mentally know that, we continue to provide professional development that consists of big numbers of people in a room, sit and get style of presentations for 6 hours (geesh!!), high carb food (that makes everybody sleepy), not enough time for breaks, and lack of participation allowed from teachers (agree!).

Here is an interesting point. Whenever we are in the classroom and teaching our students, we walk around in order to ensure that students are continuously engaged in their lessons. Now, whenever we train teachers for their professional development, what do we usually do? Do we turn around and walk around to make sure that they are engaged? Or, do we stay behind a podium and continue to talk in the same spot where the microphone is.? Do we provide engaging activities that allow teachers to talk to each other, walk around, use their brains, and share ideas? Or, do we bombard them with our ideas and information for at least 4 hours of blah-blah-blah.

What is cool about ASCD? They are offering professional development in focus and in an online format. This means that educators can access videos, ebooks and downloads, book listings, periodicals, and information on conferences. These resources are available through membership that opens many doors of learning opportunities. Videos are targeted and provides useful information on different teaching strategies and methodologies that we implement in our education system (i.e. The Art and Science of Teaching, The Whole Child, Implementing RTI in Secondary Schools, etc.). As a Virtual School Developer, I need to brush myself up with these strategies and methodologies and find a commonality with the virtual learning environment that is being built for my district. I am excited to see how these resources will be able to support my own professional development that I can share with my online course developers and teachers to create better online courses.