Offering Professional Development Based on Choice

Heather Zimmerman contributed this post. Click here to read more of Heather's thinking.

We all know how powerful choice is- whether that choice be in the classroom or for our own learning. Choice is the powerful tool that leads to ownership.  When I plan professional development sessions, I always try to keep in mind choice.  Sometimes that is easier said than done.  I find a few factors play a role in this problem: time and capacity.

A few months ago, my school’s curriculum and instruction team put together some literacy-focused sessions and people signed.  The time piece was not as much of a factor as the capacity piece.  We needed to make sure all of our instructional support teachers would be available to facilitate the sessions we picked (instead of being a part of collaboration at one of their many other schools). Of course, teachers would be powerful leaders for the groups too, but that depends if there is a teacher is willing and also has the knowledge in the area of focus.  The feedback after, from the sessions, was positive and people requested the format again.  There were some sessions they wanted to attend, but had to make the choice of which one.  It is important to know teacher’s time is well-spent.  

As I was sitting down planning my next professional development time with my school, I kept thinking about the focus and how choice would fit in.  The focus for session was to look at student writing. Everyone was to bring in writing samples from their classrooms.  We had done this a few other times using a protocol the district provided.  The protocol was optional, and so I began to think about what I might do instead, so I could tie in choice.  I know my teachers are in different places when it comes to looking at student work and even providing opportunities for writing in their classrooms.  I felt the protocol was not meeting some of their specific questions or needs for collaboration to help writing instruction.

I decided to create a list of different topics (with the help of blogger and co-worker Lisa Weiss), a general protocol, and have teachers pick the topic they wanted to focus on.  I am very excited with the list and see the potential for great discussions to happen based off what the teachers want to discuss.

Click here to view the survey.

Click here to view the protocol.

How do you provide choice within professional development?