The field of education is always faced with challenges, the new task on the horizon is finding teachers. Where are the good teachers? Teacher preparation has shifted from traditional college classrooms to online programs and alternative routes to certification. Educators are entering the field from other disciplines bring expertise, but often lacking effective strategies. This poses a new challenge to district and school administrators. With declining enrollment in education programs, the recruitment pool is very shallow resulting in changes to the way staff is developed. Intentional interventions must be made in order to create the staff your organization needs.
Diversifying Professional Development
This sounds like a daunting task that is almost impossible, but technology creates several opportunities for effective training to take place with supporting documentation. Flipped Learning is best defined by providing content prior to a lesson taking place, then performing tasks during class time. It’s time to flip professional development. Apps such as Edpuzzle and PlayPosit create a number of opportunities for educators to get a visual of various strategies. Videos allow educators to see what a strategy looks like in action while hearing the steps to fulfill that strategy. These apps allow administrators to embed questions for documentation and can be used for discussion during meeting times. Flipping PD frees up time for teachers to actually plan how to implement a strategy rather than just hearing about a new strategy.
Search for the hashtag
Twitter is used for a number of things, but Twitter for PD? Education professionals share a plethora of resources online. Simply search for a hashtag such as, #flippedlearning, and articles, blog posts, videos, etc. populate the screen. Education companies, technology coaches, authors and principals are just a few of the types of professionals that are available to follow on Twitter. This social media site can provide awesome resources for professional development, it’s for more than ruffling feathers.
Take a Blended Approach
Professional Learning Communities (PLC’s) can be found within every school throughout the United States. Blended learning combines face to face interaction with online content, let’s apply this to professional development.
Late Arrivals
Every year due to a number of different circumstances teachers start after school starts. They’ve missed the typical beginning of the year meetings and simply tossed into a new environment without any orientation. In order to properly train all staff, district’s should be developing their own teacher academies. Utilizing tools such as Google Drive is a quick way to share information with all staff members, new and returning. Planning is imperative for these types of strategies to be effective. Better use of in-service time is a must and each district must clearly communicate organizational norms for new hires. It’s imperative that districts and schools shift the way orientation takes place, modeling business best practices.
Ditch the Favorites
An unfortunate reality with supervisors is that sometimes personal preferences cloud judgement. It’s very difficult to recruit talent, it’s time to separate job performance and personality. In the ideal situation, supervisors can like every employee and every employee like them however that’s not always the case. Be willing to recognize the positives that individuals bring to your organization even if their not the individuals that you would invite to dinner.
Staffing is becoming more of a problem for the field of education. Technology creates opportunities to personalize professional development as teachers are personalizing lessons for students. When recruiting becomes a challenge, roll up your sleeves and get to work on training.
