WHY

Revolutionize Professional Learning

The Call to Action presentation was created to transform how we deliver professional learning in our district, making it more effective and empowering. We can no longer rely on traditional one-hour or one-day "sit and get" sessions for lasting impact. Instead, the presentation highlights five key principles of professional learning that shift us from passive sessions to active, engaging experiences, “Go and Show” (Galamhussein, 2013).  

The traditional education model no longer suits our rapidly evolving world. The issue is that we are not empowering our greatest asset, our educators and instructional leaders. A shift from a "teaching-based" to a "learning-based" approach is essential. To drive innovation, we must foster creativity in educators, create a healthy learning environment, and adopt a more effective professional learning approach.  The Transforming Learning presentation was designed to strategically raise awareness of the five principles of effective PD, encouraging elementary principals to reflect on current practices and take action toward a new approach to professional learning. The ultimate goal is to inspire leadership to adopt this new approach, positively influencing student achievement and enhancing academic coaches' and teachers' skills.

How did I create the Call to Action presentation?

Structure

The big idea that I want to convey our district leaders is the 5 principles of effective professional learning as the new way of learning for our district.  I built my presentation content around this idea.  As I planned the presentation, the word "Imagine" came to mind. I wanted my audience, elementary principals, to envision the future of professional learning. Following Nancy Duarte's presentation structure, I contrasted the current model with a vision of what could be, ending with an ideal situation based on the five principles of professional learning. I used this contrast to emphasize the benefits of duration, support, engagement, modeling, and context-specific learning.  I also applied Nancy Duarte’s Five Rules for Presentation(2009):

1. Treat your audience like a king 

2. Spread Ideas and move people  

3.  Help them see what you are saying

4.  Practice design not decoration

5. Cultivate Healthy Relationships 

Bringing it all together

While referencing previous and current ADL course readings and discussions I was able to create the script for the presentation slides.  I utilized my notes from the following resources to guide the storytelling, reflection questions and make a heart-to-heart connection with the audience:

• From The Behavioral Science Group, I used questions throughout the presentation to help principals explore their own motivations instead of lecturing them.

• In The Head Won’t Go Where the Heart Hasn’t Been, I used reflective questions to target the heart and appeal to principals’ values and emotions.

• My Promoting Alternative PL - Collaborative Discussion post provided contrasting ideas for the presentation.

• I referenced A New Culture of Learning to enhance my storytelling throughout the presentation.

I first created the skeleton of the presentation using Google Slides.  Nancy Duarte emphasized keeping your audience top of mind and that is what I kept saying to myself throughout the creation of the presentation as selected stories, wrote questions, and selected my references.  I spent several hours organizing and adding the references to the slide notes.  I began the fun part of the presentation by adding images from pexels, changing the font, and adding color.  After receiving feedback from colleagues and reviewing their sites, I made additional adjustments.  I also incorporated input from friends unfamiliar with the topic, which helped improve the flow and clarity of the presentation.  Lastly, to create the behind-the-story video I used Screencastify.    

Resources

References