Let's Get Personal: Personalized Professional Development

In my current role as an Innovative Learning Coordinator, I am responsible for working with teachers at seven different schools. At the beginning of this last school year, after reflecting on the previous year, I wanted to find a strategy for being able to effectively support each teacher.

With Personalized Learning being a major push in South Carolina, I wanted to model for teachers how they could implement the Framework for Personalized Learning that was created by the South Carolina Department of Education (@PersonalizeSC). To do this while supporting my teachers, I decided to attempt to personalize professional development.

Looking at the Framework, there are three main components- Learner Profiles, Learning Pathways, and Flexible Learning Environments- with Student Ownership spread throughout.

LEARNER PROFILES

I started by having each teacher create a learner profile. I had the teachers complete a Google Form with the Form Publisher Add-on to create an actual document with each teacher's profile. In this learner profile, we included information such as Name, Grade Level/Subject(s) taught, and even through in an option for them to include a profile picture. Each teacher had to select three goals to work on throughout the school year. To create these goals, teachers were provided with various infographics with ideas. These ideas came from a combination of 1) district initiatives, 2) school initiatives/goals, 3) teachers' personal interests. I also asked teachers to identify the best way for me to support them.

LEARNING PATHWAYS & ENVIRONMENTS

I was able to use this information to support my teachers at some of my schools. Other schools, I had to modify and adjust based on how this new strategy was received at the school. Some schools needed a more traditional setting for professional learning. For these teachers, I began using "Choose Your Own Destination" PD. For this, I created Google Forms that allowed teachers to select their paths based on their interest. They were able to select the topic and learn about the topic using whatever strategies work best for them. I included a variety of resources from articles to podcasts to videos to websites that just allowed teachers to explore and create on their own.

Check out this Wakelet with my resources from my presentation at ISTE19