Kristen Logan, an instructional coach at Sandhills Middle School in Lexington County School District Four, explores three different platforms that can support personalizing professional learning opportunities for educators.
The ASU+GSV Summit provides a powerful platform for progressive thinkers to network and create plans of action that they can take back to their field of expertise to positively impact our immediate communities and our world. The recurring theme of the ASU+GSV Summit was: how can we support students so that they grow up to be happy, successful citizens who have the skills to make informed decisions and communicate their perspectives in order to positively impact our society? All of the sessions provided opportunities for attendees to have valuable takeaways.
Microcredentials
As an instructional coach, I found the session titled Leading Educator Panel: Innovations in Professional Learning valuable. Four panelists- ranging from instructional coaches to curriculum coordinators, to district personnel- shared the innovative ways that their school, or district is changing professional development. Krystle Bassett, an innovation specialist from Juab School District in Utah, talked about her schools using BloomBoard as a platform for teachers to earn micro credentials. Teachers are able to “curate their own path,” says Bassett. Bloomboard gives teachers the opportunity to grow professionally, document artifacts of their learning, and earn badges, which represent the skills they have gained. Through micro credentialing, the structure of BloomBoard allows teachers to have choice in how they will grow professionally. An added bonus to micro credentialing is that teachers can include images of their badges on their email signatures. This acknowledges the skills teachers have mastered and helps other teachers know who to seek for help by looking at the badges of others.
Their partnership relied on a philosophy of "failing fast in order to learn quickly."
LEAP
Jessica Kertz, an assistant principal from Talcott Fine Arts and Museum Academy in Chicago, spoke about her school’s partnership with LEAP. She discussed how coaches from LEAP would meet with teachers and the administration to reflect on what is and is not working in their school. Their partnership relied on a philosophy of “failing fast in order to learn quickly.” This philosophy supports and creates an innovative environment where risk-taking is encouraged and where learning from hiccups quickly is an important part of the process. These meetings with LEAP coaches were open to the whole school, but they were based on interest. Through their partnership, Kertz said they had found that starting small was crucial to their success.
EdWeb
Jessica Langenhorst, a technology integrationist and instructional coach from Iowa, presented about how her district was “changing up professional development so it does not get old” for teachers. Through this changed perspective, teachers’ needs are being met. She mentioned, gone are the days where all of the teachers in a school building are being delivered the same professional development. Langenhorst shared the platform, EdWeb, that she uses to create personalized professional development sessions for her teachers. EdWeb is a platform where teachers can join or create learning communities that are based around professional topics of learning. For example, if a teacher wanted to learn more about implementing competency-based education, then that teacher could look for an EdWeb community to join, which would support her interest and desire to grow professionally. Langenhorst shared how as an instructional coach, she creates specific learning communities on EdWeb for her teachers to help them connect with others that are working on the same topics of interest or need. EdWeb is a platform that really broadens the networks of teachers who are collaborating to make the student learning process more effective.
Based on the Leading Educator Panel: Innovations in Professional Learning session, my personal takeaway involves a couple key questions that I want to pursue. How can I personalize professional development for my teachers through micro credentialing? What would it look like for us if we use CANVAS modules? How I can provide opportunities for my teachers to network with others who are working on the same work of personalized, competency-based education? What would I want my teachers to experience through some of those learning communities on EdWeb?
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