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Identify the part(s) of your plan you were able to implement.

I have successfully helped plan and implement four professional development workshops for music teachers around Montana. We are in the process of continuing to plan three different workshops for this upcoming year. This could not have been done without the help of the board members of Big Sky Kodály and the generosity of many presenters in donating their time to help our professional development get off the ground and running. Below are some examples of our workshop flyers over the past year (Artifacts #14-#16).

How successful was your action plan at addressing the challenge?  

I would say my action plan was very successful. My team and I have successfully ran four different professional development workshops for music teachers around Montana.  We are still learning and will continue to try and make our workshops relevant and bring in more music educators, but for now, I think we are off to a great start! 

Here is what some music teachers have said about the workshops over the past year: 

"A full-day workshop can be exhausting, but I wasn't tired at all at the end of the day!  You were all just so fun to work with -- thanks a ton for your energy and ideas."

"Thanks for coming everyone, it was a lot of fun.  I used some of your materials today in class and they were big hits!"

"A smaller online workshop worked great for me! I didn't have to leave the house and it didn't take up all of my day."

From seeing these types of responses, it seems like the workshops were a success. Teachers were excited and reenergized with new ideas to bring into their classroom. 

Which stakeholders and association practice or program were impacted?  How do you know?

From the surveys collected after two of the workshops, there was evidence that music teachers were interested in more professional development opportunities in the future (Artifact #12 and #13 in the Design Tab). During the workshop everyone seemed to be engaged and really excited about the opportunity to learn new things that can be taken back into the music classroom (Artifact #17).  We also had about the same number of people attend the in person workshops, which is not the outcome I was hoping for, but I did noticed some were returners from the previous workshop and others were new to the Big Sky Kodály workshops (Artifact #18)! It was great to see that we were reaching other teachers and not just the same ones over and over. It was also interesting to see that even though it was smaller in number of attendees, the online workshop was almost all new people attending a Big Sky Kodály workshop and I noted that so many of us in that workshop lived in all different places around the state! It will be interesting to see if our online attendance goes up this year, as many of our workshops will be online. 

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 every teacher deserves relevant professional development. A big challenge that came  up is the size of the state and figuring out how to reach different music teachers in different parts of the state that might not be in the know about the professional development that is being implemented. Another way it was used is by understanding that not everyone is willing to travel for professional development. This, in turn, made my team and I come up with ways we could include these people by offering our workshops online and in person and also have a full online workshop. The Instructional pathway competency that was apart of this project is Coaching and Mentoring. I have moved into a leadership role of helping provide opportunities for professional development and creating opportunities for music teachers to learn and grow, and possibly meet other music teachers that could be mentors to them in the future. The two overarching competencies are Continuing Learning and Education and Communication. Continuing Learning and Education was at the heart of this project, because the main focus was to bring relevant professional development to music teachers around Montana so they can continue learning things that will benefit them in their classroom and help them be more prepared in their teaching. If we can provide these things to music teachers in Montana, then in turn, their students will benefit from their continued education. Communication is also a huge part of this Capstone, because to have people attend professional development workshops, there needs to be communication in many different ways. I needed to communicate with the Big Sky Kodály board to figure out all of the steps and tasks putting on a professional development workshop takes. I needed to figure out how to communicate with music teachers around the state to make them aware of the professional development and communicate after the workshops to learn what music teachers in Montana are interested in learning in the future and what we can do to improve our workshops. 

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

During the workshops, we did have some technical problems, which I think lead to some people not attending our other workshops. We addressed this by getting feedback from the online group chat during our workshop and implementing the changes at the next workshop. We also had someone running and checking in on the online format to make sure people can hear, see, and are able to ask questions. I am hopeful that we now have these things worked out so it will be a more positive experience for online attendees. 

Another obstacle that I encountered was some of the board members of Big Sky Kodály and I don't see eye to eye on everything. From what I learned from TLI, it was a bit easier to put myself in their shoes and try to think outside of my box and be open to their ideas and thoughts and remember that we all have a common goal.

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

Overall, I think my Capstone Project turned out to be very successful. Given the outcomes, one change I would have liked to make is coming up with more creative ways to reach many of the music teachers in different districts around the state. I would have liked to send postcards with our upcoming workshops for the year out to every music teacher in Montana and I am hopeful that I can implement this in the future. I hope I will have the opportunity to continue to reach new and returning music educators and that I will be able to come up with or learn about other ways to communicate across the huge state of Montana.