Professional Development:

“Design on A Dime”

Laurice Garrett, Sabine Eggleston, JoAnn LewinEdison State College Ft. Myers, Florida

November 2, 2013 10:45 – 11:35

Session S155 Grand C/D

Our home institution:

We are soon to be: Florida SouthWestern State College

∞ Served 24,034 students 2011-2012

∞ Serves five counties

∞ Three campus locations and one regional center

∞ Programs: 17 Associate and 10 Bachelors Degrees

Edison State College

The West Point

Experience

Our Professional Development “Design on a Dime” involves

four main focus areas:∞A Community of Best Practices∞Adjunct Training and Development∞Peer Observations∞An Online Repository for Ideas

and a Place for Discussions

Community of Best Practices

What is a Community of Best Practices?

Groups of educators who come together voluntarily at least once a month. Group members are committed to improving their practice through collaborative learning (National School Reform Faculty, 2010).

A venue for “open sharing” and collegial conversations among professionals without fear of judgment or negative criticism (Spanneut, 2010).

An opportunity to “have robust conversations about improving teaching and learning that … ultimately lead to improved student learning” (Yendol-Hoppey & Fictmen Dana, 2010, p. 118).

What are the Intended Outcomes of a Community of

Practice?

∞Reduction in isolation of teachers.

∞Higher likelihood that teachers will be well informed, professionally renewed, and inspired to inspire students.

∞Commitment to making significant and lasting changes.

Sandra waves “hello!” from

our Hendry/Glades

campus.

∞Increased meaning and understanding of the content that teachers teach and the roles that play in helping all students achieve expectations.

(Some of the items are adapted from Hord, 1997)

Logistical Issues

∞Advertising∞How often do you meet?∞How to disseminate the information

from each session

Round tablediscussions

Agreements

∞Begin promptly. ∞Limit the time we meet to strictly one hour. ∞Only respectful behavior is allowed.

How can we learn from each other if we go in with closed minds? If necessary, we must learn how to agreeably disagree.

We primarily concentrate on topics in each of these

three areas:

∞Pedagogy/Teaching Practices

∞Math Topics

∞Technology

Pedagogy/Teaching Practices examples of topics covered

∞Learning Styles of Students ∞Engaging students∞Difficult/controversial topics∞Attendance∞Grading policies/Assessment∞Group work

Math Topics -examples of topics covered

∞Factoring∞Rational

Functions & Their Graphs

∞Logarithms

College PrepFaculty

Compares Notes on Mixture Problems

Technology – examples of topics covered

∞Use of classroom equipment, such as doc cams, SMART products, clickers

∞Effective use of calculators

∞How to post notes∞How to use online

resources

Sign In Sheet

Used to

Register

Participants

Example of a certificate issued for

Professional Development

How do we assess our

effectiveness in

Community of Practice?

The Best Things about OurCommunity of Best Practices

∞Collegiality∞Safe place to discuss areas of

concern∞Sharing∞Professional Development

Issues and Concerns:

∞Involvement of adjuncts∞Keeping it “fresh”∞Logistics

Adjunct Training and Development

Why create an Adjunct Training?

∞Smoother beginning of the semester

∞Lends consistency of instruction between full time instructors & adjuncts

∞Allows for greater collegiality

When do you hold an adjunct training?

∞Before the beginning of the semester-- Approximately 2 hours for each module, on a Saturday

∞During the semester around midterm-- An evening for about 1 hour

∞Course Specific ∞Syllabi

∞Calculators

∞Expectations

∞Final Exam

The Modules for the Training

∞ Classroom Technology

∞SMART board/ Smart Notebook

∞SmartView (calculator)

The Modules for the Training

∞ Classroom Technology

∞Sympodium

∞Document Camera

The Modules for the Training

∞Technology & Homework Delivery System

∞Features of the homework delivery system

∞Calculator features

The Modules for the Training

∞Course Administration

∞Attendance verification

∞Record keeping

∞Management system tools

The Modules for the Training

Payment for Completion

$50 per module for adjuncts

“College Service” for Faculty presenting

Example of a

certificate issued for College Service

∞Adjuncts feel included ∞Better prepared to start semester ∞Opportunity to share material and

knowledge∞Great collegiality∞Contact person(s) throughout the

semester

What worked well?

∞Each campus offering? ∞Single day option? ∞Evening option? ∞Webinar option?∞Funding?

Plans for the Future

Peer Observations

∞Suggested by one faculty member but not well-received by department members prior to our West Point experience

∞After West Point, the idea was reintroduced to the Math Department but not included in unit plan until 2011-12

∞Original Goal: 60% of all Math faculty (fulltime and adjunct) would participate

∞People liked the idea, in theory.

∞They were concerned about what would happen with documentation from the observations (i.e. – could the results from the observations adversely affect evaluation…who would see the documentation?).

∞Not everyone who did an observation took the time to complete the documentation.

∞Logistically challenging in that people teach at significantly different times/days, etc.

∞Participation is totally voluntary.

First “Forms”

∞Collected more detailed information

∞Required signature of both participants

∞Required feedback from both participants

2011-12 Results∞45.6% of fulltime faculty participated*∞12.5% of adjunct faculty participated*∞27.9% of all math department faculty

participated*

*A faculty member was counted as a participant if (s)he observed another faculty member or was observed by another faculty member AND documentation was submitted

Adjustments for the Second Year∞ The documentation form was condensed down

from three pages to one page

∞ Faculty were provided with an open/closed list in Excel so that they could search by course, by campus, by time, or by instructor to arrange for visitations

∞ Reminders were sent to faculty encouraging participation

∞At one department meeting, a few faculty members shared what they had seen when they did observations

∞Fulltime faculty were encouraged to observe adjuncts so that the adjuncts would more easily be able to be a part of the program

Samples from Completed Reports

Professional Development through Peer Observation

Instructor observed: __________________

Date of Observation: February 4, 2013

Course: MAC 1147

Concept/Skill/Technique Observed:

Composite Functions, One-to-One Functions, Domain and Range of Functions and of Composite Functions,

From my observation of this class, I will consider implementing the following idea(s) in my classroom:

1) Notes to have students immediately copy were posted on the side whiteboard. They were a review of the “Exponent Rules”.

2) Professor gave opening review practice problems from last Wednesday’s class math topics.

3) She gave a very good summary of the main points from sections 6.1, 6.2, and 6.3 on

a hand-out distributed to the students.

4) Professor kept the entire group of students actively working on “Composite Functions” and finding their domain and range through classroom activities.

5) She reviewed the definition of One-to-One Functions by displaying a power point slide.

6) As a part of her lesson, Professor questioned the students for a definition of Inverse Functions.

7) Professor continuously requested input from the students on all of the lesson’s math topics. She did an excellent job of randomly calling on various students by name and praised each one when the student answered correctly. If the student was unable to answer the question, she gave her or him hints and worked with the student until she or he answered the question accurately.

8) Professor explained to me that she liked using hand-outs and power point to efficiently make use of class time to share Theorems and definitions. I agree with her assessment of this practice.

In summary, Professor exhibited strong knowledge of the subject matter. She also engaged the majority of the students in the class discussions. Professor regularly involved critical thinking into her lesson.

Professional Development through Peer Observation

Instructor observed: _____________________

Date of Observation: _____11/5/12_________

Course: ________MAC 1105_________________________

Concept/Skill/Technique Observed:

___Continuation of the introduction of logarithims____________________

From my observation of this class, I will consider implementing the following idea(s) in my classroom:

Introducing Change of Base Rule at this point, instead of later, to allow the students to graph functions with a base other than “10” or “e”.

(Optional: A follow-up discussion was held on _11/5/12__)

Submitted by:

Professional Development through Peer Observation

Instructor observed: _______ ____________________________

Date of Observation: _____February 8, 2013________________

Course: _______MAT 1033__________________________________

Concept/Skill/Technique Observed:

____Find the equation of a line using the point slope form of the line___________

From my observation of this class, I will consider implementing the following idea(s) in my classroom:

__________ and I have similar teaching styles. I like the way she involves the student in getting example problems to work, by having them pick numbers or use a 12-sided die to select numbers. That would be something that I implement in my classroom exercises.

(Optional: A follow-up discussion was held on __________)

Submitted by:

2012-13 Results

∞57.9% of fulltime math department faculty participated

∞31.4% of all faculty teaching at least one college credit math class participated

What is the Future of Peer Observation?

2013-14

∞The department once again endorsed including peer observation in the unit plan

∞No changes have been made to the reporting form

BUT…

∞Responsibility for evaluation of adjunct classroom instruction has shifted to the department chair and fulltime instructors

∞Major concern that this will affect the collegial relationship that currently exists with PEER observation

From this fall...∞ Congratulations! You are the first to submit an

observation report. I'm sure there should be an award for this. I just don't know what it is yet!Thanks for your participation in this program.JoAnn

∞ JoAnn,I received my reward by observing another professional...and the discussion we had afterward!I helped her with some things since it is her first time teaching this course...so we BOTH benefited.

An Online Repository for our Ideas and a Place for

Discussions

We are in the process of creating an online repository of ideas and a discussion space. It is currently housed in Canvas, our online platform.

It Includes Sections for…

∞Course resources

∞Notes from Community of Practice

∞List of Professional Development Opportunities

∞Discussion Boards.

ReferencesHord, S. (1997) Professional Learning Communities:

Communities of Continuous Inquiry and Improvement. Southwest Educational Development Laboratory

National School Reform Faculty www.nsrfharmony.org

Spanneut, G. Professional Learning Communities, Principals, and Collegial Conversations. Kappa Delta Pit Record v. 16 no. 3 (Spring 2010) p. 100 -3

Yendol-Hoppey, D. & Fichtman, Dana, N. (2010) Professional Development: Building Expertise Within the Four Walls of Your School. Thousand Oaks, CA.: Sage.

http://www.csun.edu/~hcmth014/comicfiles/allcomics.html

Thanks for coming!

Please feel free to contact us with any questions and/or comments.

Laurice Garrett lgarrett@edison.edu Sabine Eggleston seggleston@edison.edu JoAnn Lewin jlewin@edison.edu

Edison State College8099 College ParkwayFt. Myers, FL 33906