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Identify the part(s) of your plan you were able to implement (given the nature of leadership work, your project may actually continue beyond submission of your Capstone Portfolio).

I was able to implement all of the steps of my plan. My plan was to create teacher teams to lead professional developments in ELL training using the SIOP method and visible learning. The first step was to contact my principal and advocate for the different trainings. Then connecting and asking other teachers to join the team. We were able to create 3 different professional developments: an ELL training in November, a continuation of ELL with an introduction to Teacher Clarity in January, and a Teacher Clarity (Visible Learning) training in April. I was able to lead the team by developing meeting times and connecting teachers in their learning. During the planning meetings, my administrators allowed me to be the overseer. This year I laid the foundation for more teachers joining the teacher leader side of professional development, and next year I look forward to more professional development planning.  Do Artifacts 1-9 show the process of creating each training. 

Do Artifacts 1, 2, and 3: Organizing emails and presentation for our November PLC. This presentation was made asynchronously by our teacher team that was in charge of the SIOP training. 

Do Artifacts 4,5, and 6: These are some of the many emails sent to the teacher team to develop our PIR day professional development centered on ELL trainings and introducing teacher clarity. Artifact 7 is the schedule for our PIR time in January. 

Do Artifact 8 and 9: Email sent to the staff about our PD in April and the presentation that was made synchronously and asynchronously with the Visible Learning team. 

How successful was your action plan at addressing the challenge?  

My plan was successful since I was able to form the teacher groups that led the professional developments. The first success came from forming the ELL team to give training on the SIOP Method. I believe we were successful since a lot of teachers learned other methods to help ELL students and found out about resources our district had. The second need of getting more people involved in leading professional development was met with success since we had two teams with several members who had not presented to the whole staff before. In Do Artifact 13, my presenters for the April session were praised for their good work and ideas.  

Which stakeholders and association practice or program were impacted?  How do you know (site evidence)?

All our certified staff had to be at each professional development. I conducted a survey through google forms for each presentation.  In Do Artifact 10, I asked about methods they can use and using pictures to connect to academic language was mentioned several times in the responses. This was one of the main focuses of our SIOP Method presentation. In Do Artifact 11, I asked about understanding of teacher clarity and most people had the beginning level of it after the January intro. When I asked again after the April training, the majority of teachers could explain why teacher clarity mattered and how it impacts students as seen in Do Artifact 12. Do Artifact 13 is important because it gives another reminder that teachers appreciate the small group format and having different leaders present who have never led a professional development before. 

Do Artifact 10,11,12, and 13: Various questions from the google forms. All of these questions helped us reflect on the PD presentations. 

How were your four chosen competencies used in the implementation of your project?

The foundational competency of Exploring and Challenge Inequity was used in this project because I had to recognize my skills were limited. Especially with the SIOP method I needed to rely on other teachers to lead the professional development and lean on administration to approve our ask of this needed training. It also reminded me that other people have important insights and voices that need to be heard.  Since the first professional development was focused on ELL and the SIOP method, the training itself explored and challenged inequity. It reminded all of us that students come from different places and cultural identities that may put them at a disadvantage.  This project confirmed that teachers liked hearing from new presenters who they might have had more in common with.  The Instructional pathway competency that influenced this project is Facilitating Collaborative Relationships. I moved into a leadership role of helping teachers by empowering them to become teacher leaders in professional development trainings. The trainings were based on their discussion and what they decided to implement. The two overarching competencies are Continuing Learning and Education and Technological Facility. Continuing Learning and Education influenced this project because I facilitated meetings where teachers discussed and designed learning opportunities for other teachers.  As a team, we spent hours researching and discussing best practices for student learning including the SIOP Method, teacher clarity, universal accommodations and several other topics that we hope to keep researching and presenting on in the coming years. Technological Facility was a needed competency since I had to communicate with my team through email and it allowed us to be successful collaborating synchronously and asynchronously. I used google slides and google sheets to help with our collaborating. 

What obstacles, if any, did you encounter?  How did you address them?

Time was definitely the biggest obstacle. After I got approval from my principal, I only had around a month to get the professional development for the ELL training accomplished. I was also challenged with members not being able to meet regularly due to other obligations. This means most of the presentations were built asynchronously. Time also affected how much information the teams could share. There were a lot of well researched methods and tools that we could have presented on, but we only had 5 hours combined for the 3 presentations during the year. In the future, the teams would like to look into book studies for those teachers wanting to continue their learning. 

Given the outcomes, describe any changes you might make to the Capstone Project’s action plan.

I think a change I would make is staying with only one topic in a year. Our team had a good start with the SIOP method and other ELL topics, but then I formed another team for the April professional development since those teachers had just gotten back from their trip to a Visible Learning Conference. I hope my school gets to revisit both of these topics and take them to a deeper level this next year.  I would also want to make sure every department was given a chance to have a member be represented on a professional development team.