Poster Session

Feedback is always helpful when developing a professional development opportunity.  Ask your colleagues what worked (and possibly more importantly) what did not work during previous professional development sessions.  If this is a refresh of a workshop you have run in the past, you need to consider any feedback you have gotten.  If you do not have feedback to rely on, see if you can find others who completed the prior offerings.  While there will always be individuals who are never happy with a learning experience, any information will help you make informed choices.

The first consideration in planning is your audience. Before you can effectively set appropriate goals or objectives for your professional development, you need to identify your audience and any challenges they may face with completing the training. In general, you should ask yourself:

• Who is the target audience? The way you present material will depend on the audience. If you are developing for a group of elementary school teachers, you may shift your focus or include examples or hands-on activities that are more simplistic and relevant to lower elementary students. Whereas, if you are developing for a group of higher education faculty members, you may include more complex examples or hands-on activities that coincide with their experiences in higher education.

• What is their prior knowledge/experience with the topic? As educators, we know new learning builds on prior learning by helping students or participants make connections and extend their knowledge. While the target audience will not have identical prior knowledge or experience, in many cases, you can identify similarities that you can build upon. 

• How does this topic impact them? Providing your participants with relevance is essential; people are more engaged on the basis of their self-interest. If they cannot identify how the topic pertains to them, you’re likely to lose their attention quickly.

• What concerns or challenges may they experience? Anticipating possible barriers your audience may face helps you plan to diminish or even eradicate such challenges. A common example is finding time to complete professional development.

Odds are your audience is a mixed group of individuals.  They come from various backgrounds and have different levels of knowledge on the subject you are preparing.  You need to decide where the majority of your audience is before developing your content.  The Concerns-Based Adoption Model (Hall et al. 1973) identifies seven stages of needs for professional development, which range from those with no experience to those who are exceptionally experienced.

When building a professional development session, you should follow Doran’s (1981) SMART goal-setting model.  This model assists you in planning your process, it may inform your objectives, and help you get a feel for the scope of your workshop.

• Specific: Decide what you want to accomplish in your Professional Development session.  This should be as specific as possible.

• Measurable: What measurable goals do you have for the session?  How will you know if you have achieved the goals?

• Achievable: Set realistic goals for the session

• Relevant: Ask yourself, as you are developing, not only is the topic appropriate for the audience but also is each piece of information relevant to the audience and the professional development?  This will help you stay on track.

• Timely and Trackable: Set goals that make sense for the time available.

When applying SMART, these are questions you may ask yourself:

• Is this goal Specific – what specific actions will participants take?

• Is this goal Measurable – how will we know when participants have accomplished this?

• Is this goal Achievable – is it something participants have the power to do?

• Is this goal Realistic – knowing the content provided, do they have the ability?

• Is this goal Time-bound or Timely – when will they have this completed?

The reality is, content for professional development should always be based upon proven research that the methodologies being suggested are effective, a review of the exercise to ensure that it will make sense to participants, and that the training fits with the practices and policies within an institution.  In answering the SMART goals, you need to keep that in mind.  Ultimately, the goals of the professional development opportunity must include:

• Focus on narrowing the gap between actual and desired levels of achievement

• Involve stakeholders in identifying content and objectives

• Help participants understand the theoretical and practical aspects

• Include follow-up and support

• Be a part of a larger process for change.

When starting the initial planning phases of a professional development opportunity, it is important to connect the exercise to national, state, and/or district standards as determined by your institution.  Your institution may have a set of standards in place for you to follow (e.g., Common Core or C3 Framework), or you may need to determine what standards you will follow.  How your design will meet the standards must be clearly explained in the proposal (if required) and session summary (often via objectives) so individuals considering attending (if not required) have the opportunity to determine if the session is right for their needs.

Another option for standards comes from The National Staff Development Council (NSDC), which has a set of standards to assist with the designing of professional development.  Everything has a yes/no question attached to it.  Ideally, a professional development opportunity will answer yes to each standard.  These standards are meant to assist with the impact of professional development.  They provide a reliable instrument that schools may use to gain metrics concerning professional development and how well staff development is aligning with the standards.  In all instances, the learning opportunities and standards are meant to assess if the staff development is making a positive impact on student learning.  It is important to remember that when you’re designing professional development, you’re not just looking to positively impact one person but potentially an entire organization or institution.

As you are beginning to prepare your professional development, there are some things that you need to keep in mind.

• Think about how much material may be covered in the time frame you have.  This may dictate your model.  This time frame is the time that you have to work with individuals and how much time you have to develop.

• Determine how much time you have or will need for activities such as hands-on exercises, breakout sessions, or questions and answers.

• Any examples used should encourage audience participation and critical thinking.

• You should build time into the experience to collect feedback from participants; this will help you adjust the professional development opportunity for future iterations.

• You should create a presenter’s guide.  This guide will give you a reference for how long each session should take.  This will help you adjust, as needed, for time and help you stay organized.

Once you have set your goals and/or used the professional development standards, it is time to think about the best way to apply those goals.  There are several major models of professional development, and you have to consider which will be the most effective for your audience.  Remember, your audience may vary from group to group, even within the same institution, so you may need to prepare more than one type of professional development in order to best meet your organization's needs.

Statistically speaking, training with follow-up activities has the highest level of effectiveness if selected as the delivery method for specific or simple skills, implementation of a set of teaching strategies, or mastery of a classroom management skill.  Conversely, inquiry is preferred if you are trying to gain insight into how students learn.

You need to think about how much time is realistic for you to develop the experience.  There is (seemingly) never enough time to work on a project.  Consider how much time you will have to work through constructing the experience.

Do you have institutional support?  Having a partner to work with is always great.  While there is the concept of too many cooks in the kitchen, support will help you build your experience.  Sometimes, if you are given another person, even if it is someone you have to teach, as long as they want and are willing to learn and accept constructive criticism, it will help you complete the project.

If possible, bringing in experts is a great way to support your professional development experience.  These voices will supplement the experience and potentially provide a new angle you have not considered.

Clear objectives will help guide your choices.  Your objectives should be measurable to help encourage growth.  You will want to present the objectives at the start of your presentation. 

Consider using the higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy.

You need to plan ahead to increase your confidence.  A confident presenter is often a more effective presenter.

• Session Handouts: Handouts do not only cover the documents that you are giving the audience.  They also include anything the audience will need and any certificates you plan to distribute.

  • You should have your handouts prepared electronically whenever possible.  Over 60% of paper handouts are thrown away, so it is important to offer them electronically.  Additionally, if your handout is a cloud document (e.g., Google Doc or Office 365 document), your participants will always have the most up-to-date version, as your changes will automatically be made to the link.

  • You should provide access to the handouts prior to the professional development opportunity whenever feasible/possible.  This allows those who want to print the opportunity to do so and makes your presentation more accessible.

  • If your participants will need anything (e.g., paper, pens, markers), ensure you have an adequate amount prior to the exercise.

  • If you are providing participants with a certificate of completion or evaluation forms, these should be brought with you (again, digital is better to help conserve!)

You should always evaluate your professional development opportunity.  This will help you improve your delivery of the experience and help future iterations of the opportunity.

• Self-Evaluation: Focus on the workshop's intended goals and learning objectives and the efficacy of your presentation.  Were there any moments that stood out to you that you know you need to improve?

• Peer Evaluation: Having a trusted peer or colleague provide you with feedback will help you improve your professional development offerings.  They may notice things that a participant will not notice.

• Participant Evaluation: The participant evaluation should refer back to the SMART goals you identified.  You should inquire about the usefulness of the materials and the pedagogical methods presented.  Think about questions, you, as the presenter/facilitator want feedback on.

Offer your attendees some sort of incentive if you can.  There are many opportunities (from free to expensive).  Something as simple as a "Thank you for attending" email with your attendee's supervisor CCed acknowledges the work they are doing.  

Other ideas:

• Certificate of Completion

• Digital badge

• Course release time to complete the learning opportunity

• Institutional (school/district) recognition

• Free swag from vendors

• (you are only limited by your imagination)

Make sure you are advertising your event.  This may be via email, newsletter, homing pigeons, or word-of-mouth (use your imagination and think about how individuals at your school receive information best).  In many ways, advertising starts as soon as you start planning.  You want to give your presentation a title that makes potential attendees curious.  If you are offering an incentive, mention it in your advertisment.

Coordination:

When working with others, it is critical that you establish clear communication channels prior to the presentation.

• If presenting with a co-presenter, ensure you have viewed their presentation.

• If on a panel, ensure everyone understands the discussion order.

• If inviting an outside expert, ensure that they have the appropriate invite (e.g., Zoom link).

Presentation Skills:

You should never go into a professional development opportunity without practicing and thinking about how you will handle the situation if things go awry.

• Practice: Even seasoned presenters review their notes prior to a presentation.  If you know you are a nervous presenter, you need to practice.  

• Bring a hard copy of the agenda and handouts.

• Try to anticipate questions your audience may ask prior to the session; this will help you feel more prepared.

• Ensure you have a watch to keep track of time.

• If you are presenting with others who you are unfamiliar with, ensure that you ask how to pronounce their names and how they would like to be introduced.

Technology: 

• • Test any technology you are using prior to your session.  Ensure that you arrive early if you are working with a setup that is unfamiliar to you.

  • Encourage your attendees to use social media; provide them with hashtags to use.

  • Create your visuals clearly.  You should keep accessibility in mind when selecting your visuals.

Coordination:

• • If presenting with a co-presenter, ensure you have viewed their presentation.

  • If on a panel, ensure everyone understands the discussion order.

  • If inviting an outside expert, ensure that they have the appropriate invite (e.g., Zoom link).

Presentation Skills:

• • Practice: Even seasoned presenters review their notes prior to a presentation.  If you know you are a nervous presenter, you need to practice.  

  • Bring a hard copy of the agenda and handouts.

  • Try to anticipate questions your audience may ask prior to the session; this will help you feel more prepared.

  • Ensure you have a watch to keep track of time.

  • If you are presenting with others who you are unfamiliar with, ensure that you ask how to pronounce their names and how they would like to be introduced.

You've got this!

Believe in yourself (we believe in you!).  

Give yourself the grace and empathy you give your students and colleagues.  They do not expect you to present perfectly, so do not place that stress on yourself.

After your presentation, take a few minutes to yourself to celebrate.  A presentation is the culmination of a lot of hard work.  You have earned the opporunity to be proud of what you have achieved.

After the presentation (at the earliest, the next day), you should reflect on the experience.

• Review the feedback that your colleagues left you (but do not take it personally).  Their feedback is simply advice.  Do you know what the best thing about advice is?  You only have to consider it seriously; you do not have to take it.  Think about ways you might use the feedback to adjust your presentations to improve the audience's experience.

• Reflect on your experience.  As educators, we are often far more critical of ourselves than we would be to a colleague.  When you reflect on your experience, you should do so as if you are evaluating a colleague.

With this information, make adjustments to your presentation as needed.