UMELA Session 1 Notes
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Today’s updated agenda, AM
 Welcome back, “Gots & Needs”, reminders of ground rules, and other announcements
 Case discussion: Teacher leaders in mathematics
 District team reflections
 Designing professional development
Today’s updated agenda, PM
 First Glance – PD Book
 Vehicles
 PD Strategies
 Your professional development design
 Zoom (movie) + Reflections
“Gots” from yesterday included…
 Got ideas, framework, specificity around the practices and actions of leadership
 Got a better personal use value for the practices of leadership
 I got to be here with people who do work like I do, because I thought I was the only one
 I paid attention to what Kathy & Susan did and learned some new facilitation techniques
“Needs” from yesterday included…
 Personal comfort (Kleenex, lunch options, etc.)
 I need a lot more info – will send notes, gather more info, create a webpage & listserv
 At www.leadershipchallenge.com, more information, research, and student tools for LPI
 More time for more reflection individually and with table  adjusted today’s agenda
 More time to reflect with and develop actions within their teams and across teams
 More clarity on directions – please provide before we move
 Reaction to the decision on the in-the-moment decision to re-group in the final activity
 Need a reminder of the norms (“ground rules”) – now posted on the wall
Which norm will you work on especially hard today?
 Challenging ideas – keep asking questions, and figure out how to do so in an inquiry way
 Share talk time – not just don’t talk too much yourself, but get quiet participants to join in
 Everyone has expertise – I should share my perspective even if I don’t feel like an expert
 Conversational protocols can be important to use in groups, even if simple or informal
Goals for Day 2 – shift from leadership in general, to specifically supporting teacher leadership
 What’s needed for effective teacher leadership?
 What are the elements of effective professional development?
 Understanding of PD strategies and purposes
 Framework to connect PD to outcomes and student learning needs
 Reflect on application of new learning to your own work
 Network with others, explore resources
Slides in binder have been reorganized and modified, but final slides will be emailed later.
(Tab 2, Page 11 and Page 40 for the case)
Reorganize – find your winter partner. Read and discuss the case. Pay attention to 2 themes:
1. What is the expertise needed by math specialists? What must they know & be able to do?
2. What are some of the ways district leaders need to support teacher leaders in their roles?
Then assemble in table groups (3–4 pairs) and identify a facilitator and a recorder.
After reading, as a whole group, check in with a few questions:
 Can someone summarize what happened in this case? Who are the people?
 What is the central problem in this case?
 Are there other dilemmas? What are they?
 What do you believe are the issues that contribute to the central problem?
Discussion:
Lack of clarity around the math specialist role – there are ten specialists in all and four speaking
Questions about expertise from teachers and discomfort from the specialist
Some teachers do not buy into the program – encountering resistance
Disconnect between Bob and his vision, and the realities of what’s going on in the buildings
(different views, different interpretations of what they thought was agreed; disconnect)
Specialists struggle with “How do I build relationships with teachers in my new role?”
Each table picks 1 character in the case (Faith, Jackie, Zoe, or Bob), and discuss these questions:
 What is your character’s view of the math specialist role?
 Identify 3–4 phrases your character might use to describe the math specialist role.
 What concerns does your character have about how the role is being carried out?
 Select 1 quote from your character that illustrates his/her perspective on the role.
(Use some mechanism to ensure that every character is selected by at least one table group.)
Faith (page 46):
 “We have to concentrate on [helping] the teachers who want to make changes”
 “I think we did sign on for leadership responsibilities”
 Jim Knight – “light” (drop in) and “heavy” (cycle of support) coaching – challenge?
 Feels her job is able to enable teachers, but not to motivate them
 Honoring the diversity or continuum of opinions and definitions of the role
 “We each just do it differently, according to our different schools and… situations”
 She’s visionary, takes her job seriously, task-master – defined her job herself, and
narrowly and very context-dependent; flexible but maybe not efficient or consistent. Her
definition of support is “only for the willing.” “No one” will change because we say so.
 Concern – dissonance in the room, dealing with it by staying focused on her circle of
control and interpreting the job in the way she chooses so she feels she’s doing it well
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Can read the “ignore those attitudes” in at least two ways… one more positive, one less;
She could be making her decision out of a positive intent (“modeling the way”?). The end
of that quote is genuinely positive.
Systems thinking literature teaches us that we can’t ignore our resistors. What if she were
in a school where the amenable teachers weren’t numerous enough to keep her busy?
Worried about what the teachers feel, rather than what the students need.
Is this a function of where you are in the job, the expertise and tools you have, context?
What about Bob? What is he doing to help support – other than giving them more work?
Faith needs support from Bob on how to deal with resistors (CBAM – don’t just treat the
symptom, but get to the root); she may not yet have skills to do anything but ignore. Her
behavior and definition reflects a rather shallow understanding of change.
This group needs some inspiring of shared vision, or maybe modeling the way to norm.
Each group reports on character, using phrases identified to describe their view, concern, quote.
Other groups – what do you think your character would agree with? And disagree with?
Jackie (pages 42–3):
 Didn’t understand Paula’s role; felt she was intrusive (imposing on her space) and didn’t
build a relationship. Questioned her expertise and authority, her credibility.
 Sees math specialist as pushy – teachers see their room as their sanctuary, personal space.
Also considered her a “know-it-all.” Concerns about her own autonomy, exacerbated by
her own recent change in grade levels. Concern about confidentiality and trust – I told
Gail in confidence and then she went to Paula; if Paula had come to Jackie, or asked Gail
to mention to Jackie first, it might have gone better.
 “Intrusive”; “Not clear about role”; “She wants to change my teaching practices at her
pace, not my pace”
 Concerns: Clarity of role, pacing, her expertise, her motive – like the Sister Act, “I know
you’re a ringer… you’re here to take my job”
 Quotes: “I haven’t seen her on this side of the building… what’s she supposed to be
doing anyway? I don’t like feeling pressured to make changes in my teaching.” and “So
do you think Paula is the expert in this building?”
Zoe:
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View of specialist is to focus on outside-school activities to avoid messing with anyone’s
classroom; only work with teachers who are receptive, again to avoid messing with their
classroom. More comfortable in this arena; not comfortable going into classrooms
Has been able to build relationships though.
Not comfortable with the role of expert, especially when coming from outside school into
the classroom. Doesn’t feel like an expert.
When teachers needed help when she was present, she kind of left it alone – “Who am I
to tell you what to do?”
Expert?, after-school, don’t rock the boat, role of people-gatherer
Concerns: Lack of clarity in her role, title sets her apart, little feedback means a bit lost
“It’s like walking on a crate of eggs” – “Teaching is our primary job… I’m not sure [the
support] is appreciated anyway.”
Bob:
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View – he begins by quoting (what he feels is) the “company line” – but he is changing
and growing through this very conversation, or at least he’s becoming aware and shifting.
“We never intended for you to be seen as experts”; “Hmm… I didn’t realize that”
Concern: His cheerful face was now looking distressed. Through this reflective
conversation with his specialists, he realizes that the demands of the position have shifted
both in his own head and in the schools – realized there hasn’t been open conversation
about the change, and specialists haven’t been given definition, support, tools to navigate.
“I wonder if the expectations for the specialist role have changed over time.”
When there’s no clear (formal?) definition, each person defines things their own way.
Like to provoke looking at the situation from the character’s point of view; low-inference, lowjudgement analysis of
It’s our responsibility as leaders to establish this shared vision – not just on the grand scale, but
also on the day-to-day. Another key idea is to embrace the diversity you have, and to give the
staff roles that suit their strengths and skills. You have to define and help people with this, or
they will define it themselves, and it may not be in the way you had hoped.
How can you clarify your own role? Do you have the expertise you need? Where can you get it?
[An idea that didn’t come out: Change implies discomfort for all involved, and we can’t just run
from that. We can’t be worried about what the teachers feel, rather than what the students need.]
Now, let’s have every group take a similar look at Paula.
 “I’m still struggling” – “I guess… I certainly don’t consider myself the expert”… not
“comfortable” with being seen as the expert. Also, “my school is such a mixed bag.”
 Seeking direction – demonstrates that she has followed prior advice (demo lessons).
 Needs clearer role, and to understand different teachers’ situations and needed responses.
 We have questions about the role of the instructional leader at the school level – has he or
she clarified the role of the specialist and/or provided Paula with support and definition?
Needs transparency (from the jump – selection – and the role and responsibility) too. Bob
can only do so much for Paula from “afar.” There needs to be coordination of both levels.
 Be explicit about part of the job of the specialist being to know each teacher, find the
entry point, and build relationships. There are different identities the coach can assume
(parent, friend, expert, coach …); does she understand the varied approaches, and is she
intentional about which one she uses in each of these cases? Aligning approach to need.
 Did she volunteer or was she appointed? Connected to perception as expert vs. resource.
There’s so much in this title, and none of them feel right – coach, specialist, expert. This
is one symptom of the underlying issue of clearly communicating expectation of the role.
Cases can be useful because they can be very close to real life. Have you met these people, seen
these people, been these people in your own situations? These are wonderful people, and it is our
job to help them.
What is an expert?
What are the different kinds of knowledge a teacher leader must possess? (What’s your
knowledge packet? What’s the knowledge you want your teacher leaders to know? Map.)
 Being a source for quality resources – know what they are and where to find them?
 Content knowledge – deep knowledge
 Pedagogical content knowledge – Standards, instructional strategies (how to teach), how
to use formative assessment, how students learn and common student struggles, ways to
examine student work and student ideas, model lessons
 Knowing what works – both research and practice
Great teachers may have all this… but there’s more such that great teacher may be novice coach
 Adult learning
 Change agent
 Strategies for adult collaboration – building teams, co-teaching, peer observation, etc.
 Support to “do” the role – including clarity of the role
Window of Intentionality framework (Tab 3, Page 8): We’re after doing and knowing…
Don’t know
Know
Can’t do
Miracle
Theory
Can do
Magic
Intentionality
Work with teachers to surface and reflect on their own practice, as well as improving that
practice. How much do we expect coaches and teacher leaders to know, and how much to explore
with their teachers? It depends; we’re all on our journey, and only know what we know today.
Knowing and being able to do may happen in either sequence. (We should appreciate the theory
and the magic and even the miracles too – they all represent some progress.) Relying on the
theory of research is good to provide support and grounding for your ideas so it’s not all resting
on your charisma or authority (not only your “pet project”).
Some summaries are particularly helpful in math education:
 Research Companion to the Principles and Standards
 AAAS Benchmarks have a whole chapter on mathematics
 Mathematics Curriculum Topic Study
 EDThoughts (Eisenhower National Consortium)
Summaries may be better than papers for some audiences and interventions.
Can’t lose sight of the kids – can be a more powerful motivator than research on its own. Affirms
and confirms the research in a very concrete, narrative, personal, persuasive way. It’s also a real
motivator, and a starting point for building relationships and common vision.
Just defining the role and having these qualities of a good coach doesn’t mean that they
necessarily know how. Need specific strategies, actions, moves that a coach can do to promote
each of these ways of developing teachers.
One particular challenge is the transition from the teacher to the coach role in the same school.
(Often this goes with experienced teachers’ resistance to shifting to a new role as a coach, so we
only get less-experienced teachers into that role.) We’re trying to put a coaching function in
place into a culture that doesn’t understand how to relate to these people. We also need to work
on that – we need to put a different frame around leadership in the school if we are going to
achieve our goal of making everyone a leader.
If we were really doing this right, we would have a role in place to coach and develop coaches
too. We need a systemic coaching model so that everyone is approaching the challenge in a
consistent way.
[Break for 15 minutes, and regroup into district teams.]
Reflection and district brainstorming
Now we want to take this to the “so what” – how do we take this back to our own practices and
situations, and how do we think about the work we are doing. How do we share this with teacher
leaders and how do we, as “supervising leaders”, help them to develop knowledge and skills?
Quick write (3 minutes): Jot down some notes on what you have learned so far this morning on
Question 3: What did I learn about expertise needed for teacher and other school leaders to lead
reform?
Use these questions to guide discussion in your district teams (initially, for 15 minutes):
 How will we take what we are learning back to our own districts?
 What people should we share information with?
 How can we support improvement initiatives that are planned or underway?
 What challenges in our district could this leadership group help to address and how?
This is an awareness-raising, synthesizing conversation. We do not expect you to complete this
discussion or make action plans – given our overall goals, we are limiting time even though it
may feel short.
Liked Robin’s comment about the intentionality of how they used research with teachers –
starting with and connecting to student tasks and student work, before giving them a paper to
read. Rather than theory up in the air, it was using it in a practical way. Teacher leaders are often
in the day-to-day and want to connect them also to the research “out there” – but Mila actually
meant trying to promote personal research and inquiry among teachers and coaches. How can we
organize training? Another powerful way would be for us to develop our own abilities to
research and to share this knowledge with one another.
General trend of working on this ourselves – how do we think about professional development
for the world we can control, and for the district leaders who work in our own office. How do we
refine our own skills in doing PD, doing research, being in touch with important ideas in the
field. How could we share this? Start by reporting out at a staff meeting, but could we get a
couple days (perhaps not all at once) to spread the knowledge so that everyone in OMS is
thinking about this. It could be very powerful to take it from our small team to the larger team. It
might also be helpful to do peer observations (of PD) with really constructive dialogue
afterwards. We want to make our own practice less private and get more feedback ourselves.
Creating a safe space for collaboration can be a positive feedback loop. We should be holding
ourselves to the same standards and thinking about how we can be consistent (just as reflective,
for example) in our own practice with what we expect of coaches and of teachers. So much of
our work is telling schools how important PD is, and then we don’t get PD ourselves unless we
go to great pains to seek out PD outside of our teams. Even if “we did this once” that’s not
enough – it needs to be refreshed, and given the revolving door we have (and will always have)
is even more crucial. The use of the case was a good example – start from the perspective of each
character, rather than labeling or judging; would have liked to take it another stage, though,
which was to think about, as a group, how to meet their needs. Make the standard approach of
the coaches an inquiry, collaborative approach – with us, with each other, and with teachers.
Know that your research question may evolve, and it may not be answered the way you want.
What may be missing is learning – we spend so much time doing that learning is crowded out.
How do we fit this into the structures and constraints that exist? How can we as a team bring that
experience back? How do we create professional learning experiences for our staff, to model the
change we’d like them to start working on as well? We may have to make time to engage in
some of the same activities that we did today – it is challenging, but powerful, because it made it
personal (for example, the connection to culture, expectations, and your students and their
achievement). We can’t expect change without going through the process – we have to make it a
priority; otherwise it’ll just be another conference that we attended.
We fundamentally believe that PD is not a one-day thing; it should be not only deeply immersed,
but also ongoing. What do we need from the leadership in terms of time and resources?
2-minute warning: Identify 2 critical topics to follow up on/continue discussing with your team.
 List recommendations for OMS staff and
 Specific plans within our own specific projects
[Stand and stretch, physically and mentally]
Inputs to professional development design (Tab 3, Page 15)
What skills do teacher leaders need? What skills do we need? How can we support development
of both of these? Professional development is one avenue. Let’s discuss considerations for design
of professional development, starting at an awareness level for now. From Designing
Professional Development for Teachers of Science and Mathematics, chapters 2–5.
 Knowledge and beliefs – research-based knowledge, and guiding beliefs – our beliefs
about effective teaching and student learning, and our knowledge of the research, will
affect our design – what we know and believe will influence what we know.
 Context – what specific factors, information, and influences of the place we live will
affect the design and implementation of the PD
 Critical issues – think about what most PD providers will face at one point or another,
that affect effectiveness, success, sustainability – equity, content, time
 PD strategies – What are we going to do? Different kinds of learning experiences that
address teacher and student needs through time.
Develops into four bubbles, with checklists for each.
Knowledge and beliefs about…
 Learners and learning
 Teachers and teaching
 The nature of the discipline(s)
 Change process (individual and organizational)
 Effective professional development
Context
 Students, teachers, practices
 Resources
 Families and communities – support, involvement, advocacy
 Organizational culture and structures
 History of professional development (what are teachers used to? what will they think?)
Critical issues
 Equity, professional culture, leadership
 Scaling up, building capacity
 Public support
 Supporting standards
 Evaluating professional development
 Finding time – how can you work within the available time, or change the system
Basic components of PD design
 Set goals
 Plan
 Do
 Evaluate
 Commit to vision and standards
 Analyze student learning and other data
To make sense of all this, let’s create a model for PD design (not how it is, but how it should be.)
“Questions about the content (we just discussed)? Questions about the task (we’re about to do)?”
[Lunch; return delayed by locked room]
Presenting various models of the PD design process:
Chicago – the “layer cake”
 The foundational layer are the vision/standards – they may change, but shouldn’t often.
 Over that lays a common layer of evaluation and reflection that all the action rests on.
 Green light in the center: a cycle of data  goals  plan  do; a spiral going forward
 Inputs are present for all the stages of the process
Austin, middle-school version (built on a model developed by teachers):
 Vision built on constructivist beliefs about learning for teachers as well as students
 Context reflects many learning opportunities and “channels” or avenues/routes/paths
 Critical issues are teacher turnover/mobility (teachers develop, then go to suburbs),
school-level conception/belief system about PD, and historical view of PD as “training”
 Strategies intended to work within existing Professional Learning Communities
Atlanta – the “umbrella” model
 Ongoing math/science initiatives and coaching model are the overarching “fabric”
 Knowledge and beliefs drives vision
 Along with data, establishes goals
 Then, act: plan and do, using strategies
 The stem of the umbrella, holding everything together, is evaluation and reflection
Pittsburgh – the “road” and the “star”
 Pick a card for a “critical issue” – teacher buy-in, low scores, etc.
 Occasional mountains are potentially larger obstacles
 Context is the five-point math proficiency model (K5 / pentagram)
o Productive disposition – effort-based learning – at the top, always mindful of this
o Conceptual understanding
o Strategic competence
o Procedural fluency
o Adaptive reasoning
 Put on an easel because they are parts of a circle or cycle… largely due to teacher
turnover, we’re never done, and never at just one level of differentiation.
 Pittsburgh Promise: college scholarship program for students in grades 9–12 with Cs
(funded by $100 million endowment from University of Pittsburgh Medical Center)
Washington, DC – process of steps, but in a cycle
 Considerations/inputs are focused on the planning stage, because that’s where we enact
 Critical issues for the specific audience and context of each school and teacher
 Look not only at student learning as data, but at actual student work
 Want to evaluate not only student work, but whether and how the system is working
San Francisco – the “face” or “whole child” model
 Inputs are present at every stage
 The eyes are the district vision and the math department vision
 Underlying principles that drive the vision are Teaching Standards and rigor,
engagement, conceptual understanding
 Cycle of inquiry goals  plan  do  evaluate; looking at teacher practice and student
learning is at the center
 Evaluation bottom line is “Does it transfer to the classroom?”
Austin, high-school version – the “wheel”
 Data is at the heart of the cycle
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Goals and vision (intertwined)  Plan  Do  Evaluate
Inputs come in “where the rubber meets the road”
Spokane/Denver – the “3D”
 Context  Critical Issues  Strategies
 Data  Goals  Plan  Do  Evaluate
 Cycle of stages can be entered at any point and may go in either direction
 Washington mathematics standards have changed each year for the last three
Common themes
 Very similar cyclical visions of the work
 We like to think that there’s a finish line to cross to meet with success, but it seems like
we will keep going. Remember, change is a process, not an event – must continue.
 How can we serve new people, while we continue serving the existing people as they
develop and their context and visions change? Continuous, ongoing adult learning.
 Distinction between the hamster wheel and the bicycle wheel – are we moving forward?
 The cycle means that it’s extra important not only to build knowledge centrally, but also
to build capacity at individual schools so that this can be leveraged and sustainable.
Think about how veteran teachers can contribute, how they can be school-level leaders.
Have to have a plan for everybody
 Because of the cyclic nature, it seems like there’s no one clear starting point; depends on
your context. For example, needn’t start with vision if it’s stable and doesn’t need change
– decide “where are we right now?” and enter the cycle at that point.
 Another pattern is links to the larger system – have your own vision, but also connect it.
This may complicate our lives, but can also make us more effective. Share resources; the
more connected and linked you are, the more likely it will be sustainable.
 Interesting discussions of evaluation – paired with reflection, broadening its domain; the
process and the transfer are foci as important as the traditional targets of evaluation.
Whether we are evaluating or looking at the data, should know what to look for and at;
and also, when to look at it – doesn’t make sense to look when we’re “done” but should
be an ongoing process at every stage. Evaluation is important to adjust from feedback,
even between iterations of the “same” session.
The model from the third edition (in process) of the book – current thinking, not final thinking
(same as the model from the second edition, just laid out differently). Note that inputs enter at
key points in the process: knowledge and beliefs/critical issues  vision, context  data, and
strategies  plan. But note that those arrows can go in both directions, and that’s just when the
inputs are the most critical, not the only time they matter. Don’t take this as “the right answer.”
The process of designing your own model forces you to think about how each of these pieces are
critical, and also when they are the most critical – and also gives you a deeper awareness and
concern than you would just by seeing the model they designed. “What do we need to think
about doing, and what do we need to think about while we are doing?” Order less critical.
What are the organizational structures and cultures to be aware of while doing this work? Some
of the work on job-embedded professional development ran aground or backfired because the
underlying familiarity wasn’t there – teachers weren’t used to working together, no protocols
were in place, and so on. We need to pay attention to these aspects of culture to inform design.
(What do teachers know how to do? What are they used to doing? What should we address?)
And culture and structure may not only inform the assessment of current context, but may also
influence your vision and goals. (This plays out in many different places in the framework.)
Structure means things like schedule (“Is there free time for PD?”) and organization-chart stuff
(“Who are the leaders? Who do we need to convince to execute our plans?”)
How are we doing this in our professional development planning? What sense are you making?
What is the reality in your district – how does it fit your model, and how doesn’t it? How to fix?
 How do we go from “knowing they should be there” to actually making them happen?
 Are we explicit about our goals (to participants in professional development)? Are the
goals very specific or broader? Articulated goals can be curriculum-specific but reflect or
connect to larger ideas of good pedagogy. I also “milk math content as much as I can.”
 All of this implies that there’s consistency… in the “solar system” we’ve described, we
aren’t taking the comets and meteors into account. Frequent projects thrown at us from
outside and we often need to work around this.
 Are there common tools or structures that we use for professional development? This
would promote consistency and quality and also reduce work and anxiety. We could
really use a framework that specifies the strategies and structures and their rationales.
 We should articulate our processes in part so we can share them, and improve them, but
also just so we can get it out of our heads, onto paper so we can step back and look at it.
 I don’t think that in practice, we’re thinking about the vision of the office or of the district
when we’re planning individual sessions or series of professional development, except a
bit implicitly. Is there a way to use the evaluations to concretize this – what would this
look like if we had done an optimal job? We don’t have to start from scratch.
 One of the takeaways we discussed before coming here was trying to define what good
PD is. There’s a common vision for the work of the whole office, but we didn’t have
much voice in that. Do we have a common vision for good PD? We may have spoken
about pieces of this idea, but we’ve never sat down and developed this common vision.
There’s a lot out there which we don’t often look at enough. Also, the mission and role of
the office has evolved and now PD is part of our ambit – initially that was left to outside
providers. At the high school level as well, we didn’t realize that standards for PD were
important until we saw we weren’t happy with the PD we were getting from providers.
 Being explicit is important not only to our own work, but also to our teachers. We need to
not only create and communicate the vision, but also communicate and live it.
[15 minute break]
First Glance activity with Designing PD book
With an elbow partner, open the book randomly and put a post-it on the page. What do you see?
Get a feel for the layout by these samples. Examine and discuss your samples with your partner
as you go. Do this six or eight times. Let’s take ten minutes to just explore.
Share:
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Page 36 – learning is a process of change, and how people learn new information depends
on how it relates to what they already know. We often talk about wanting to create
cognitive dissonance in PD to get people to change – but without support, the easiest
response to a new idea that creates cognitive dissonance is to reject the new idea!
The bullets we saw have been expanded into entire sections in the book.
You can read this book in any order, though you may want to read Chapter 1 first (it has
the “Cliff’s Notes” version of everything we learned). (The real short versions are in
Book 3 of Leading Every Day, starting on Day 9 or so. These are worth using to let
people dip a toe into the water and give them a “taste” of these ideas.)
Page 57 – a table laying out questions to ask to get a better handle on context.
We’ll get deeper into chapter 5. The later part of the book (chapter 6) tells the stories of
the programs examined to write the book.
We’ll now shift from the overview to a more in-depth examination of professional development
strategies – when would I use coaching? when would I use case studies? And so on.
Vehicles activity (Tab 3, Page 1)
Most PD reminds me of a Corvette because…
 It’s fast – now you see it, now you don’t (quick fix)
 You sit really low and you can’t see the big picture
 It makes a statement, or is prestigious
 You have great expectations… has lots of potential that you can never use in real life
 It’s expensive – the mid-life crisis (again, a quick fix for a larger problem)
 Can only fit a few people – who gets to go, may not address everyone’s needs
 It’s more fun if you’re driving
 It’s very uncomfortable
 It needs maintenance or it’ll depreciate
This is a short activity to engage us and get us thinking – perhaps because the question is weird.
Sharing out:
Minivan:
 May not be comfortable for everyone
 Can fit a lot of people in
 Can move a lot of people to the same place
 May not be the most efficient
Prius:
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It’s environmentally friendly
It’s little but you can get a lot out of it
It’s in high demand
It’s adaptable
It’s suitable for diverse drivers
It comes from a credible, dependable source
’98 VW Beetle
 It keeps coming back
 Classic and therefore powerful
 Backwards design
 Serves as a catalyst
 Name signifies reliability
Jeep Cherokee
 In rough terrain, can switch into four-wheel drive – rugged
 Has a long history – originally designed a long time ago
 Good bones – crash-worthy… it’s a life-saver
Saturn
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Basic, no-frills, day-to-day get-there, get-back
Pretty efficient
Not specialized – a general vehicle
Standardized – started with “no-haggle pricing”
The “designed by the people” car
But now, it’s changing to meet the needs of its audience
Pricey to maintain and keep up
Model “T”
 Very innovative… for its time
 Moves people, sometimes slowly
 Like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang… sometimes it can fly
 Others say it’s really antiquated
 Stripped down to be mass-produced and available to every person
Debriefing the “vehicles” activity
 Different vehicles have different purposes, advantages, and disadvantages – need to know
the purposes and intended outcomes before you can select the appropriate design
 PD programs usually require multiple strategies to address everyone’s needs
 Student learning is our ultimate destination (outcome) – there are many ways to get there.
Let’s dip into the Strategies chapter (page 111) using a card game. In groups of 2 or 3, examine
the cards for the eighteen strategies in the book. With the note-taking sheet, look at the cards and
share: what do we know about the strategy, when and how have we used it, what is the purpose
of the strategy, what else do we want to know about them, how might we use them?
(Another way to use the cards is to look quickly at all of them and sort them into piles that folks
are comfortable with or want to know more about, and organize the in-depth activity differently.
But the real idea is to get people to understand that the activities should be matched with the
purpose of the PD to maximize the likelihood that we actually change classroom practice. “How
should we combine these strategies to meet our purpose?” Think about the alignment and the
possibilities; get planners to consider more options for this practice-based PD. No more “round
up the usual subjects.” “How’s that working for you?” – worth trying something else.)
Curriculum alignment and instructional materials selection
 Reminds us of the Japanese practice of “studying the instructional materials”
 In our context, (core) instructional materials have been suggested already
 Also give a resource on alignment: Guide to Pacing and Standardized Assessment
 Fitting the instructional activity to the topic and materials is also something on this theme
 Anticipating the skills and potential difficulties of your students and adapting materials
 Is this part of the planning process, or part of PD? CPS PD model for CMP teachers…
 In the context of a managed curriculum, want teachers to understand structure & rationale
Demonstration lessons
 Part of lesson study process; this is used in some “PD model schools” (like NTA)
 Different from in coaching context – not 1-on-1
 But may still be focused on trying a new practice, on a key or hard topic or approach
 To show exemplary lesson, or to use the “observation cycle” to catalyze discussion
 May want to go into the demonstration lesson with a specific question or focus
So, why do you think we just did that activity? (Time is precious, so why spend it on this?)
 Engaging with the strategies – pushes us to the concrete and closer to plan of action
 Makes us think about PD in many other models or designs, broaden our horizons
A clarification on page 113 – different strategies may fit into or ride on vehicles and mechanisms
– the strategies are clustered around common assumptions and so provide a framework, but these
clusters are flexible. There may be new strategies; keep thinking about fitting strategies to needs.
Consider different options to achieve our outcomes – not “go around in (the same) circles.”
Think about teacher learning outcomes from the strategies – which can be really helpful to think
about which of the strategies we should even be considering. (Certainly, we should be matching
the outcomes to the teachers’ current situations and their needs.) See pages 114–5 for the lists of
the outcomes and the purposes of the strategies – can also help clarify staff roles and work.
Outcomes
 Content knowledge
 Pedagogical content knowledge
 Building a professional learning community
 Developing leadership
Purposes
 Develop awareness
 Build knowledge
 Translate new knowledge into practice
 Practice teaching
 Reflect on teaching and learning
May need to choose different strategies at different stages of the change process (establishing
purpose, initial use, deepen content and pedagogical content knowledge, mechanical use,
examining student work, routine use). These stages can help you scaffold and sequence thinking
about meeting all teachers’ needs at each point in your program. (See Tab 3, Page 10.)
Now, in district groups, let’s think about some questions. What strategies are you using for your
current professional development? What do you expect to happen as a result? Does this connect
to your design framework – are your strategies actually helping you get there? What more would
you like to learn; what additional or different strategies might help you (and why)?
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What outcomes are you expecting? (Distinct from what we want?)
What strategies would you like to explore? For what purposes? With what outcomes?
Defined at high school desired outcomes of content learning, pedagogical learning, data use, and
collaboration/teaming. We also defined criteria – active, sustained, collaborative, differentiated.
We should choose strategies with an eye both to the purpose/goal and to the current situation of
each teacher. Even after pinning down those starting and ending points, there are still multiple
paths to get there. In a large district, things are hard to manage but there is the luxury of offering
multiple pathways so we can differentiate, if not individualize, the strategies.
At OMS level, who is the audience we want to focus on? Let’s talk about city-wide specialists.
Which learning outcomes are the most important for them? Transitioning from being an effective
teacher to also being an effective coach. Probably want to make some assumptions to focus our
work. One reasonable assumption is that their math content knowledge is satisfactory; even if
concerned about this, we’re probably more concerned about other domains like coaching moves.
One area of concern is the knowledge not of the content, but of specific curriculum (structure,
routines, organization, approach, extent). We may need to build pedagogical content knowledge
as well – for example, “What is so hard about fractions? What errors do students usually make,
and what do those errors tell us about their understanding?” On the PLC front, both being part of
a community themselves, but also how to create a community (this also links to leadership).
Wrap-Up
How much content have we engaged with today? Too much!
Let’s make reflection homework – Tab 1, Day 2–3 learning goals, second and fourth questions
Tomorrow we will have a chunk of time to think about our projects for the Leadership Academy,
and these reflections will be helpful in refining your thinking in that respect.
We finally wanted to leave you with a bit of a silent slideshow that we like to use to help people
broaden their perspectives and keep an eye on the big picture… lessons?
 Don’t make snap judgments
 Step back and take a look at the big picture
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Context matters
As you go, please share “gots and needs” again.
Tomorrow we’ll start at the same time and end at noon. The closing activity will be some
evaluations; at about 10:30, we’ll start working on our professional project plans. To help you
think about this overnight, we’ve laid out some packets with your application essays that you can
review and bring with you tomorrow. The framework that might be the most helpful to you
might be to pull key stages out of the professional development design process (goals, actions,
context, evaluation, and so on). Again, this should be about your work, not an “add-on” – to
enhance the work you’re already doing (or that the district is already doing).
Some logistics – Those of us who have time before we leave will have lunch in the same place. If
you need shuttle service to DFW, then make those arrangements with the hotel early in the day;
the airport is only about 10 minutes away. Know your terminal (not just airline); security has
multiple aisles and short lines so it should be pretty quick. You can also print your boarding pass
at the kiosk near check-in or with the concierge. Everyone can stay checked in to your room until
1 PM; after that time, your key will no longer work. You can check out in the morning and leave
your suitcase with the bell desk, leave your packed suitcase in the room until lunch (or, go to the
wire and try to pack at lunchtime). You can pack Leading Every Day and the LPI workbook; just
bring the agenda binder and the Designing PD book tomorrow.