The Concern
This school year optional PD attendance has been down...way down...as in practically nonexistent. It was time to put on my thinking cap and focus on solutions instead of roadblocks. I knew whatever I came up with needed to be of benefit and interest to both our techie and not as techie teachers and that time (or the lack there of) would be a huge factor in both participation and my ability to manage it. Optional PD attendance might be down, but my calendar stays full. Unfortunately, all I seemed able to do was scratch my head and think in circles.
The Epiphany
The light bulb finally popped on while attending a session at our state technology conference about school based PD. Scott Rhymer, the principal of Mauldin High School, shared how he and his team transformed PD at their school. During his presentation the idea of sponsoring challenge boards began to take shape.
The Outcome
I created three boards focused on assessment and reflection. Dig Deeper lists challenges that encourage teachers to use familiar tools in new ways. Ready, Set, Grow challenges not as techie teachers to observe a techie peer effectively integrate technology AND challenges techie teachers to reach out and mentor not as techie peers. Try Something New includes challenges that encourage teachers to employ a new strategy or tool. I marked the challenges with gold, silver, and bronze medals to make it easy for teachers to find challenges that matched their beginning of the year self assessment results. The competition ran for a nine weeks and teachers were placed on teams by departments. Participants completed an exit ticket for each challenge to earn points for their teams. My incredibly supportive principals bought breakfast biscuits for the winning team and the person with the highest score. I plan to create new challenge boards for this quarter.*My fellow tech coach, Lindsey Insalaco, customized the boards for her elementary teachers and used the SAMR swimming pool theme instead of the Olympics. Her challenge boards look great!
