In our district, we have a rule never to mandate anything. It's our secret to organizational change. We respect that teachers are passionate about their classrooms and as a tech coach, my role is to help teachers reach their fullest potential. The truth is what I bring to the table is much less important than when I bring it. Teachers are not always ready for a shift in their pedagogy during a Fall break session, or a meeting during their planning period. If teachers are going to own their classrooms, they must own their PD. This is one possible explanation on why Twitter is so popular with educators.
Teachers can go to Twitter or YouTube and learn fantastic things, but neither of these directly improve the culture of my school district: this is my job. By creating and curating a "hub" of videos and digital resources and aligning to the rubric that we use to evaluate our teachers, we not only provide a vision for an outstanding cohesive educational institution, but provide the resources for teachers to consume when they are ready for a shift of instruction. No matter the trigger, when a teacher is ready to learn more about PBL or Flipped Classroom, they have access to the same resources and experiences the teacher across the hall did months earlier. The creator of these resources is someone they personally know and have access to. This often leads to increased cooperation and collaboration and our staff feel they own their excellence.
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Michael Schurr