Planning The Alternative PL Assignment

Audiencie

For the development of this initial professional learning plan, the primary audience will be the Elementary and Middle School Two-Way Dual language teachers. The long-term plan is for classroom blended learning to spread across academic programs within the School District, and other Bilingual teachers to see this challenge successfully change the original professional learning experience.

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Collaboration and Cooperation. 

Collaboration and cooperation will be essential for the achievement of our project in this learning plan to be implemented and thus obtain the desired success. Due to the academic and instructional scheme and language learning in the world, we will need to help each other to understand how technological tools can be used to improve students' learning experiences. Early adopters will be essential as they share the stations they have already created and help new users on their new stations.

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Five principles of effective professional learning

In her work Teaching Teachers: Effective Professional Development in an Age of High-Stakes Accountability, Allison Gulamhussein outlines five principles for professional learning:

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• The duration of the professional development will be continuous so that teachers really have a full and sustained level of learning with various strategies and manage the implementation problem. This professional learning experience will be continuous for one year. Start with a full day session at Tech Academy in early June. In this time, we will discuss teachers' "Whys," provide background research on the effectiveness of blended learning environments, provide an opportunity for technology skills development with teacher trainers, and give teachers time to get started. Create your own seasonal activities. Weekly PLC meetings (Planning Learning Community) will begin in September and continue throughout the school year.

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• Support for a teacher during this stage of implementation and development will be a specific challenge of changing classroom practice. As the June Tech Academy session begins, teachers will be supported by early adopters of blended learning stations within each adaptation and run of the program. Early adopters will provide assistance and support based on their personal experiences with blended learning. They will continue to be available throughout the school year as coaches.

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• Teachers' initial exposure to a concept should not be passive, but should engage teachers through various approaches so that they can be actively involved in making sense of a new practice. When teachers attend the Tech Academy session that will serve as the launch of the Blended Learning PL program, they will be actively working at their own stations. During the change of classes, fellow teachers will experience the different changes within their workstations and will provide assistance to those teachers in the process of implementing the program, function, use, improvements and challenges.

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• Modeling is very effective in helping teachers understand a new practice. Starting in late October and running through November and December, new adopters will have the opportunity to observe classes of Two-Way Dual Language teachers who are early adopters of the blended learning environment and follow up with questions for clarification.

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• The content presented to teachers should not be generic, but discipline-specific (elementary and intermediate teachers) or very specific for low grade level (elementary teachers) (Gulamhussein, 2013). One of the most frustrating realities for many teachers is that professional learning experiences are rarely, if ever, specific to their discipline. In implementing this professional learning plan, the resources and strategies will be specifically related to our discipline.

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Resources and Media

As teachers undertake this professional learning experience, our most valuable resource will be agility and early adopter experience. Technology skills and knowledge of what works and what doesn't get you on the road for new users.

In June for the first launch meeting at Tech Academy, we will introduce the professional learning program with several slideshows, including some background and a testimonial of the success of rotating stations within a blended learning environment.