Q. What is your experience designing and/or delivering professional development?
A. Throughout my career, I have been responsible for designing and delivering professional development for instructional peers as well as clerical staff, campus principals, directors, superintendent’s staff and school board members on a variety of topics. Some training regimens were determined by the campus' or district’s strategic plan and/or mission for that school year, some by an annual needs-based survey from faculty and staff and/or their supervisors, and others on observed trends in instructional and information literacy.
These sessions - generally delivered face-to-face - were designed for and delivered to large and small audiences (from 1-on-1 sessions to ones with 150 participants) on topics ranging from basic computer software and hardware instruction, web and graphic design, digital citizenship, research skills, integration of technology in instruction, instructional practices based on current research and trends in education, increasing student participation and active learning, learning styles, information literacy and digital citizenship, data analysis and application to practices, and standards analysis and course or curriculum development.
I have also collaborated with campus and district leadership to develop a calendar for professional development sessions, which was published in print and digitally quarterly at the campus level and by semester at the district level.
As Instructional Coach, I collaborated with department and campus leadership to develop sessions that met the needs of individual departments as well as sessions for the campus as a whole, then devised a calendar that worked best with the campus’ and departments' calendars. I also chairing a campus-based committee, the LASER Committee, which was charged with making campus-wide decisions regarding instructional practices and was a member of a district-level committee, Strategic Planning: Perfecting Your Practice, to design the training and mentorship of teachers with 0-3 years' experience, the district's academic and professional development calendar, and the design and implementation of the district's Teaching and Learning Framework.
During my time as District Webmaster, my department was instrumental in the receipt and execution of a community-based TIF grant alongside the City of Harlingen and TSTC-Harlingen. As a component of the grant, I was responsible for designing and providing training to community members to aid in developing their information literacy and basic computer skills.