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Rethinking Professional Development
Some ideas and resources on differentiating instruction for teacher professional development sessions.

Approaches - Varying Delivery, Format
Adults like diversity and opportunities to rethink ideas, so long as they are involved in the process and the delivery. Possibilities include:


 * **Make and take** - instead of a longer session, shorter sessions with multiple options that people can choose, e.g. - 1. how to create a rubric/table in Word 2. how to set up an [|iGoogle] page 3. how to create a [|Wordle] 4. How to start a [|Jing] - include a short handout on how-to for each and also include some possible educational uses. Have time for optional sharing and document people's suggestions for use of the product. About a week or two after the session, send a follow-up email thanking people for their time, and include a document with their with ideas from the session.
 * **Choices** - without deciding who is in initial, middle, or full integration stages, have people self-select based on the offerings. This probably means setting up the computer lab with varying self-paced options and circulating for support/troubleshooting. The options could be forms of the same project, just at different levels (teachers will recognize differentiated instruction techniques with this approach) - e.g., email everyday - email next level - email extras (with adults you want to choose identifiers carefully) - list what is covered for each of these options and have people go to the area and start
 * **Brown bag lunch/breakfast** - Drop in sessions before school or over lunch - model used any of these or something else.
 * **Kiosks of Practice** - During a faculty meeting, professional development day or other gathering, reach out to teachers using technology and ask if they might set up a table and a computer describing a unit they have which is infused with technology
 * **Study Groups** - Maybe once per month instead of having hands-on workshops, there is a study group instead with everyone bringing something they found and want to discuss - a link to an idea - perhaps you can send out the possible places to get ideas ahead of time, e.g., [|eSchoolNews], [|Edutopia], [|Classroom20], [|edWeek], [|TechLearning], [|Digital Directions] etc.
 * **Tech Moment** - Send a regular email with ideas for integration and times and topics for the next PD's. It can include maybe two or three links of general interest, e.g., Thanksgiving resources. Might include a **Did you Know?** sentence or two, maybe with a digital photo, or who is doing what in his/her classroom for tech integration. E.g., "Did you know? Mrs. Smith's 4th grade visited the Franklin Museum, virtually! They went online and learned about .... here's a link to what they did."
 * **Teaching Them to Fish** - This is more about teachers developing their own Personal Learning Network, sharing with one another, and creating a rising tide to float more boats. Each month one vehicle for their personal learning network/professional development can be introduced, e.g., joining [|Classroom 2.0], joining [|Twitter] and following people on [|Twitter] (after downloading the local client), becoming a member of a Wiki, starting a [|Delicious] account, etc.
 * **Drop-In Sessions -** Posted times for drop-in sessions with a specific set of make and take items as needed.
 * **Tech Support //IS// PD - if you don't touch the keyboard** - it can be your opportunity to teach, reinforce, amplify "just in time" when needed - when you respectfully guide your adult learners and remember that they want to be empowered and treated as equals.
 * Resources for Tech Integration - tools, etc.