Summary
The Leading Educators in Authentic Development (LEAD) workshop is a series of professional learning sessions that develop teachers’ skills in leading professional development at their school sites. This workshop features two sessions over a one-day period. This second session, Leading Educators in Authentic Development: Dynamic Delivery of Professional Development, focuses on facilitating in an engaging manner. Participants will brainstorm common facilitation challenges and identify possible solutions. They will then facilitate a PD session, detail qualities of dynamic facilitation, and reflect.
Essential Questions
How can LEARN support teaching and learning practices?
How can teacher leaders effectively use reflection to strengthen professional development and create lasting impact at their school sites?
Session Objectives
Analyze effective solutions for challenges in presenting and preparing for delivering PD.
Generate a personal index for elements of dynamic professional development.
Snapshot
Engage
Participants will reflect on their professional development facilitation experiences and get to know their fellow participants using the Magnetic Statements strategy.
Explore
Participants will brainstorm common challenges they face while facilitating, and discuss possible solutions using the Pass the Problem strategy.
Explain
Participants will attempt to facilitate a professional development session while fellow participants fill the role of common PD attendees.
Extend
Participants will use the Affinity Process to detail qualities of a dynamic facilitation of PD.
Evaluate
Participants will reflect on their own facilitation and the strategies explored throughout this session.
Materials List
Presentation Slides (attached)
Note cards or index cards
Plastic beach ball (or Qball)
Microphone / Qball
Chart paper (to mark stations for Magnetic Statements)
Markers
Pens and/or pencils
Sticky notes
Dynamic Delivery Chart handout (attached; one per participant)
Two Stars and a Wish handout (attached; one per participant)
Instructional Strategy Note Catcher handout (attached; one per participant)
Engage
30 Minute(s)
Begin by displaying slides 2–10 one at a time with the following Magnetic Statements:
I’d rather spend a weekend: at the beach, in the mountains, on the town, at home.
Favorite PD format: formal, informal hallway, target small group, virtual
The most effective PD format: (the same list as above)
I prefer… to get me through the day: coffee, tea, soda, or I don’t need caffeine.
Collaborating with my peers: makes a presentation stronger, takes too long, is unrealistic in a school setting, is painful and I would prefer to work alone.
More of: an early bird, all-day canary, night owl, perpetually exhausted pigeon
Tech is: a tool that enhances, is beneficial when used deliberately, more trouble than it’s worth, the bane of my existence.
I’d rather: go hiking, go to a museum, spend time with family and friends, stay home.
Ask participants to move to the letter corresponding to the statement they most agree with.
Each small group discusses why they chose that statement and summarizes their discussion to share. Designate one person per group to share what they discussed, then have the next group share.
Ask participants to move to another statement after each share-out. Use as many of the slide prompts as fits the time you have.
Share the title slide, essential question, and session objectives on slides 11–13.
Explore
45 Minute(s)
Show the video clip from The Office, “First Aid PD,” linked on slide 14.
After watching the video, participants will play a round of Pass the Problem. Provide each participant with note cards and writing utensils and display slide 15. On the blank, non-lined side of the note card, have them write one problem they think they might have in presenting a PD. Then move to slide 16 and have each person pass their card to the next person, who will write a solution to the problem on the lined side. Provide a minute or two between each pass, repeating the process until each card returns to its original owner, gathering multiple solutions for each challenge.
Explain
45 Minute(s)
Continue with slide 17. Provide a few minutes of thinking time on the following questions:
What were some of the major problems?
How could you handle this?
Hold a whole-group discussion.
Move to slide 18 to display the strategies and tech tools we’ve experienced in this session so far. Reflect on these in Hot Potato style. Have participants pass a ball (or a Qball) around the room (or in a circle) while you count down from 3. When you stop, the person with or nearest the ball must answer the question posed.
Use the following list of questions:
How would you use Magnetic Statements in the classroom?
How would you use Pass the Problem in a PD?
What is a weakness/problem of using Qballs for discussion?
What is a strength of the Hot Potato strategy for discussion?
Participants can also reflect using their Instructional Strategy Note Catcher handouts.
Display slide 19 and take a short break.
Extend
90 Minute(s)
Display slide 20 and ask for volunteers to be “presenters.” Give directions to “presenters” and “participants” separately.
While one facilitator is giving instructions to the volunteer participants (slides 21–22), another facilitator asks for six volunteer “distracters” who will act out in mild ways to simulate realistic presentation challenges. Everyone else will be “model” participants.
Brainstorm common distracter behaviors with the volunteer participants. Write each behavior on a note card, enough for each participant to get one card. Shuffle the cards and hand them out randomly to each volunteer. This is the behavior they will exhibit while the volunteer presenters are facilitating the 3-2-1 activity.
While giving instructions to the volunteer presenters (slide 23), explain that they will facilitate only the “Engage” section of the Owning the Learning PD, using the 3-2-1 strategy to introduce objectives. Explain that they can call freeze at any point to get support from you, or that you may choose to call freeze and give them tips.
Briefly display slide 24 to signal a shift in the topic. Volunteer presenters will use slides 25–30 to guide the 3-2-1 activity..
List 3 things you would Google.
List 2 things your students would Google.
List 1 way you could use student interest as a bridge to content.
Move to slide 31. Debrief how distracters were handled and discuss methods for managing audience distractions. What worked effectively in each scenario?
Briefly display slide 32 to shift topics, then show the Ferris Bueller’s Day Off video on slide 33 to illustrate an unengaging presentation style.
Then, display slide 34 and ask each participant to think of a memorable, dynamic speaker and what made that speaker dynamic. Participants write as many qualities as they can think of, one per sticky note.
Move on to slide 35 for the Affinity Process activity instructions.
Have table groups discuss similar answers and group similar sticky notes together to identify common qualities of dynamic presentations. Each table should look at the groupings they’ve identified and come up with a favorite sticky note to represent the idea of that grouping and place it at the top.
Then conduct a share-out using a Stand Up, Sit Down format (slide 36). Ask a volunteer at each group to stand as the spokesperson for that group. Then, rotate through the groups, with each representative sharing their grouping. Record these on the board as each one is mentioned.
When ideas are mentioned in their stack, the spokesperson puts those stickies in a discard pile. Keep sharing until all the group’s stickies are exhausted. The spokesperson will sit down when all their stickies have been represented on the board, even if another group shared the idea.
Display slide 37, explain the Jigsaw strategy, and distribute the Dynamic Delivery Chart handout. Assign a number (1–7) for each group to read the corresponding numbered section on the handout. Set a timer to discuss for 2 minutes. Each group explains what that area looks like in a dynamic delivery and shares with the larger group.
Evaluate
30 Minute(s)
Distribute the Two Stars and a Wish handout. Display slide 38 with instructions for the Two Stars and a Wish reflection. Ask participants to identify two things they do well when presenting PD and one area they would like to improve.
Share reflections within small groups and offer supportive feedback on achieving growth goals.
Finally, share the last of the strategies that have been modeled through this session on slide 39 and have participants reflect, using their Instructional Strategy Note Catchers, on how they could be used in their own classrooms and in PD they share with colleagues.
Follow-Up Activities
For a deeper dive into engaging presentation and supporting a school's improvement goals, be sure to use Leading Educators in Authentic Development: Supporting School Improvement, https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/professional-learning/4199. (This is not yet published.)
Research Rationale
Another key pillar of effective professional development is to include input, testing, and reflection phases along with instructional coaching and feedback. These phases further expand teacher competencies over long-term, process centered training, resulting in the further professionalization of teacher leaders (Behr et al., 2020; Curry et al., 2018). These teacher leaders can then offer training to peers and help further disseminate knowledge and develop skills across the organization, ensuring a sustainable professional development model that supports sustained whole-school growth (Behr et al., 2020; Curry et al., 2018). At this stage, the original trainers move into the role of instructional coaches and advisors who support the teacher leaders by answering questions and working through challenges they are facing with training their peers. Instructional coaches also protect the integrity of the training during this phase of implementation. This cycle repeats multiple times to develop a horizontal structure, which results in everyday actions occurring inside the classroom that reflect training and skill development, with support from teacher leaders who are supported by instructional coaches throughout the process (Behr et al., 2020).
Resources
Behr, J., Leidig, T., & Hennemann, T. (2020). Train-the-trainer. Professionalization for inclusion. Journal für Psychologie, 27(2), 6–28. https://doi.org/10.30820/0942-2285-2019-2-6
Curry, K. A., Mania-Singer, J., Harris, E., & Richardson, S. (2018). Teacher collaborative action research. Journal of School Leadership, 28(2), 173–201. https://doi.org/10.1177/105268461802800202
K20 Center. (n.d.). 3-2-1. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/117
K20 Center. (n.d.). Affinity process. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/87
K20 Center. (n.d.). Hot potato. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/4465
K20 Center. (n.d.). Jigsaw. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/179
K20 Center. (n.d.). Magnetic statements. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/166
K20 Center. (n.d.). Pass the problem. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/151
K20 Center. (n.d.). Stand up, sit down. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/1771
K20 Center. (n.d.). Timer [Webapp]. https://timer.k20center.ou.edu/
K20 Center. (n.d.). Two stars and a wish. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/83
The Office. (2015, May 8). First Aid Fail - The Office US [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vmb1tqYqyII
pmw8000. (2011. December 29). "Anyone, anyone" teacher from Ferris Bueller's Day Off [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhiCFdWeQfA