Professional Development Flipped for Educators

In this article, the author Kristin Daniels, discusses the concept of Flipped Professional Development for teachers, an idea that was started in Stillwater, MN. As Daniels puts it, "flipped professional development has the potential to disrupt the way teachers learn and will accelerate innovation in education." The creators of this idea of Flipped PD, wanted to make sure they were going to use the teacher's time effectively and that what they were doing was making an impact. They didn't want to spend the time giving teachers professional development on how to use technology in the classroom but instead on "the development and implementation of curriculum and learning activities that are transformed by the integration of technology." Through this process, "coaches" are sent out to work next to the teachers throughout the design process. They begin by having a face-to-face conversation to discuss plans and goals. After that, the coaches send resources and other materials for the teacher to view before meeting in person again. At the next face-to-face session, the teacher begins to work on the project and the coach is there to support and guide. They finally work together to create an action plan and an end goal. The article goes on to talk about five different key elements that they have found to make this model of PD successful. These include:  planning and documentation, personalized digital content, regularly scheduled PD, personalization through coaching, and communities of learning. At the end of the article, the author gives her own advice, she says "provide teachers with the collaborative time, support and resources to create their own professional learning plan and best practices will emerge."

I found this article to be interesting for many reasons. First of all, I found it interesting how the creators of this Flipped PD point out that traditional PD does not give teachers the time to actually work, plan, and implement what they worked on. I feel that all the time with the professional developments I attend. I get great ideas but I just don't feel like I have the time to then implement what I have learned because of everything else I am required to do. I like the idea of a coach and a set schedule of meetings because then you have someone to walk you through the steps and get you to that end goal of actually implementing what you have learned. My district has started a Teacher University this year with many different PD courses offered after school in which we can attend and earn CPDU's. I feel we are on the right path to better professional development and the administration seeing that we need more time to actually work in our classrooms and implement what we are learning about.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2014-04-18-the-flip-side-of-professional-development