THE Journal

Up Close and Virtual

• By Jennifer Demski
• 04/01/09

By adding web-based offerings to traditional in-person sessions, school districts can continue to provide support to teachers when face-to-face visits aren't possible.

ON DEMAND PD 360 offers
educators nearly 1,000 video
titles to help with classroom
strategies.

NO ONE ARGUES THAT every student's needs are the same, so why would we presume that of teachers? A one-size-fits-all package works no better for administering professional development instruction than it does for delivering classroom curriculum.

Lynn Heady recognizes this, and is using technology to diversify the learning opportunities provided to teachers in her district. Heady is the director of teaching, learning, and assessment at Williamson County Schools (TN). "We've got teachers coming in who are very young, right out of college, and we've got experienced teachers," she says. "We've got a tremendous continuum of needs for meeting their professional development goals. No one strategy can work."

That reality, coupled with the understanding that teachers are saddled with so many other concerns driven by No Child Left Behind and have little time for afternoon-long face-to-face sessions, has led administrators such as Heady to supplement the traditional workshops and seminars that make up their professional development programs with web-based instruction that is more conducive to a teacher's schedule.

One of the new tools Heady has put in place is an online video library from the School Improvement Network (SINET) called PD 360. Teachers and administrators are given access to the ever-growing, nearly 1,000-item library. Heady says the videos cover "everything from broad topics like assessment, instructional strategies, and time management to more specific things like reading or math content. Principals, teachers themselves-- anybody-- can go in and look up the materials that they need."

Included with the videos are segment-specific facilitator guides that contain discussion guides, journaling activities, and team-building activities, providing direction to a school's professional learning communities. For teachers viewing videos outside a group-learning setting, each segment comes with three questions to help them process the content, questions that challenge their understanding of how to put what they've learned into practice. A week later, follow-up questions are automatically e-mailed to them, and their answers are then sent to their professional development adviser, usually, according to Heady, the principal.

Chet Linton, CEO of SINET, believes the facilitator guides and follow-up questions are key. "We've learned that if teachers are able to think about what they've learned and how it applies to them, there is a greater chance they're going to try the material in their classroom," he says.

Heady says another important addition to the district's professional development program has been Peer Connection from PBS TeacherLine, a provider of online courses for educators. To tend to a faculty of 2,300, Heady enlists the work of 23 reading coaches, seven technology coaches, six curriculum specialists, and three new-teacher mentors. Peer Connection gives those coaches and mentors access to all the content TeacherLine has to offer, which they can then pass along to individual teachers to support them in improving their classroom practices.

"Our coaches go observe teachers in the classroom or do some joint teaching with them, and get a feel for what their individual needs are," says Heady. "Then they can go to Peer Connection's database, search for materials, and e-mail their teachers examples of exemplary lesson plans, or perhaps a video, enabling them to continue helping those teachers even when they're not there."

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