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MC: School Leadership - Session 9 - Holding Effective 1:1 Meetings

1:1 meetings are quiet, yet focused, collaboration sessions for employees and supervisors to connect. They provide the chance for you to hear directly from your employees, as this is their time to share. As a supervisor, it’s important to create a space for this. In this course, we will explore various formats for meetings and communication to make the best of both your time as well as your teacher’s time.

MC: School Leadership - Session 8 - Managing Effective Meetings

How many times have you sat in a meeting that could have been addressed by a memo or an email? Time is a valuable commodity, and we need to ensure that the way we ask people to use their time is effective and sustainable. In this session, we are going to share various ways of running an effective meeting, getting the best out of each participant, and how to best manage expectations.

MC: School Leadership - Session 7 - Conducting Effective Observations

Many effective coaches and leaders use observations to collect data, later utilizing them as a vehicle to deliver usable and sustainable feedback to their direct reports. What makes a good observation? What do you look for, and what do you do as a leader to coach teachers? This course will share various practices and techniques to support the growth and development of teachers and staff through observations.

MC: School Leadership - Session 6 - Creating an Effective and Sustainable PD Plan

Identifying and planning professional development can be one of the most challenging tasks we have as leaders. This course will share methods of using student data, the school improvement plan, family engagement, and several other sources to create a professional development plan to support your staff and school community.

MC: School Leadership - Session 5 - Goal Setting for Instructional Coaching

Goal setting is an essential part of every coaching relationship. In this course, we will discuss how to set S.M.A.R.T. goals – Specific, Measurable, Attainable (or Actionable/Assignable), Realistic (Relevant) and Timely goals for teachers. We will also explore P.E.E.R.S. – Powerful, Easy, Emotionally Compelling, Reachable, and Student-Focused goals to give you different methods for development.

MC: School Leadership - Session 4 - Creating a Culture of Feedback

We hear the word feedback used every day, but how do we create an environment that welcomes feedback as a part of the culture of learning? Effective collection and the use of feedback tells your team that you genuinely care about their wellbeing and work performance. This course will share various methods of incorporating feedback as part of your school or district culture. We will also demonstrate multiple methods of delivering feedback and ways to ensure that feedback is being implemented with fidelity.

MC: School Leadership - Session 3 - Building a Culture of Collaboration and Learning

Collaborative learning requires active and meaningful participation from members of our teams. It’s important to create a safe and supportive environment where our team members feel comfortable expressing their opinions, asking questions, contributing to planning, engaging in problem solving, and sharing their experiences. In this course, we will explore various strategies to build relationships with your team, create a space for collaboration, and develop a team vision.

MC: School Leadership: Session 2 - Defining Yourself as a Leader

In this second session of our Leadership Microcredential we will focus on the characteristics define you as a leader. We will explore several types of leadership and diverse ways to help you have a genuine and clear understanding of who you are, what you know, and how to understand your own tendencies and strengths. We will also discuss how to use this knowledge to develop as a role model and leader in your school community.

Coaching for Instructional Success

We often think of coaching as something that teachers and leaders get when they are struggling. Athletes at all levels receive coaching to continue to improve their skills. Educators need the same. In this session, we will begin to explore the world of instructional coaching and ways to embed best practices into your observation, coaching and teaching routines.

Domains of Digital Learning

Explore the three domains of digital learning: wellness, competency, and creativity as a framework to design instruction, demonstrate learning, and assess understanding. Create authentic opportunities to capture student voice, make thinking visible, build student agency, and reimagine what post-pandemic publishing looks like. Participants will use resources and collaboration to rebuild intentional, engaged, student-centered, and social-emotionally guided learning. This session looks at the components of digital citizenship as a wellness model, identifying tools and strategies to amplify all voices, provide authentic choices, and ensure that all learners are empowered to create their own content.

As a Digital Learning Coach in Walpole, Massachusetts, Jed Stefanowicz provides job-embedded professional development and instructional coaching for academic technology. Through conferences, workshops, and coaching, Jed aims to engage and build staff/student digital learning capacity, keeping the focus on practice over product. As a 25 year elementary educator, speaker, blogger, and current Massachusetts Teach Plus Policy Fellow, Jed shares his passion for effective tech integration to transform teaching and learning, creating engaging and equitable digital learning environments and experiences that activate, innovate, and motivate digital learning. He is the Author of “Take AIM at Digital Learning: Activate, Innovate, Motivate” and “Impact to Influence”.

Moving From Consumption to Creation

We often discuss engagement and students' active role in learning. If you looked at the classroom of the 50s, you would see desks in rows, a teacher in the front of the room doing most of the talking, books out on the desks, and students consuming the lesson. Should schools in 2023 follow this same model? The answer should be a resounding, very loud NO. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. In many of today’s classrooms, we continue to teach by delivering information that students are expected to consume. We can change this! This session will focus on tools and strategies to create active thinkers and learners.

Matt Joseph is currently the Director of Evaluation, Supervision, Mentoring and Hiring in Brockton Public Schools. He is the CEO of X-Factor EDU and the author of several books. He has held many positions in education from classroom teacher to principal; this has given him insight into how best to support teaching and learning. He writes articles for national publications and is a frequent speaker at state and national educational events as well as the president-elect of MASCD.

Storing Technology Safely Over the Summer

Ever encounter battery-related issues with your devices at the start of the school year? We know how frustrating it can feel when your technology won’t hold a charge or function the way it used to when you return back to school in the fall. Join us for this end of year session as we share recommended steps to prepare your technology for storage over the summer.

Designing Teacher Workshops to Support Teacher Growth

Professional learning should reflect the kind of learning we want to see for our students. Join us for this course as we share best practices for administrators to support teachers’ growth. We’ll explore strategies for engaging adult learners in training workshops and the impacts of different workshop approaches.

Using Google Forms to Drive Instructional Decision Making

Join us for this course to explore how Google Workspace can promote learning and support data-driven instruction (DDI). Google Forms is one of the many tools out there that can help you gauge students’ pre-existing knowledge, identify misconceptions, and so much more. In this course, we will explore how you can use the features within Forms to create engaging lesson activities for your students and promote student growth.

Administrator Track: Assessment & Student Data

Join us as we explore assessment tools and share best practices for assessments in the first course of our administrator track. Whether you are looking to enhance the formative or summative assessment taking place in your school, we are here to assist as you support your teachers in creating high validity data collection that will guide future instruction and promote student growth.

Beyond Seat Hours: Models to Encourage Action and Involvement in Professional Learning

Teachers are active learners. It’s part of the job and in their nature. Covid highlighted the great lengths educators go to find resources and better educate themselves so they can best serve their students. Self-directed, personalized learning -- which we say we want for students -- is sometimes overlooked in the professional learning space as there is a push for "seat hours." How do we change this rhetoric so teachers can spend less time sitting and more time doing? Join Michelle Blanchet from The Educator's Lab as she discusses what self-directed professional learning looks like for teachers and how your school might create a space and tools to support it.

EdTech Essentials: Assess with EdPuzzle

In this session Monica Burns, author of EdTech Essentials will introduce the benefits of formative assessment with digital tools. Participants will explore how digital tools provide a special benefit for students as they increase student opportunities (frequency) and options (choice) to share their learning. This session will focus on formative assessment best practices and how to check for understanding using the resources within EdPuzzle.

EdTech Essentials: Assess with Nearpod

In this session Monica Burns, author of EdTech Essentials will introduce the benefits of formative assessment with digital tools. This session will focus on formative assessment best practices and how to check for understanding before, during, and after instruction using the interactive presentation tool Nearpod.

EdTech Essentials: Curate with Wakelet

In this session Monica Burns, author of EdTech Essentials will introduce the idea of curation and the role of an educator as a curator. Selecting “just right” resources for students is an essential practice for educators to help make sure the needs of all students are addressed.  In this session, we’ll explore how to pull together resources that connect to curriculum goals while supporting the needs of all students with the free tool Wakelet

Evaluating ELA Lessons Using PICRAT and SAMR

Are you looking for unique lesson ideas that incorporate technology? In this session, we'll explore an ELA lesson and share tips for selecting a technology tool that is going to help you transform your lesson. We'll dive into the PICRAT and SAMR models for technology integration to help you assign a level to the tools you are considering. We'll also use these guidelines to evaluate technology integration. With this new knowledge, you will be able to evaluate your own lessons and ensure that you are creating valuable learning tasks and activities for your students.

Evaluating Science Lessons Using PICRAT and SAMR

Are you looking for unique lesson ideas that incorporate technology? In this session, we'll explore a science lesson and share tips for selecting a technology tool that is going to help you transform the lesson. We'll dive into the PICRAT and SAMR models for technology integration to help you assign a level to the tools you are considering. We'll also use these guidelines to evaluate technology integration. With this new knowledge, you will be able to evaluate your own lessons and ensure that you are creating valuable learning tasks and activities for your students.

PD Design Elements: Engaging Teachers in Professional Learning

Good pedagogy is a critical component of learning -- regardless of age. If we want to design professional learning that is effective and makes an impact on student outcomes, we must ensure we’re engaging our adults in the same way we would any student. Presented by Michelle Blanchet, this module discusses the role of the facilitator in creating meaningful learning experiences for our educators. It includes some basic design elements that make for engaging professional learning so you can create greater impact for both teachers and students.  

Michelle is an educator striving to improve how we treat, train, and value our teachers. After ten years of experience working with young people, she founded the Educators’ Lab, which supports teacher-driven solutions to educational challenges. Michelle earned a master’s in international relations from Instituto de Empresa in Madrid. She has taught social studies in Switzerland and the U.S. and has presented at numerous events, including SXSWedu and TEDxLausanne. Michelle is a part of the Global Shaper Community of the World Economic Forum. She has worked with organizations like PBS Education, the Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning, Ashoka, and the Center for Curriculum Redesign. 

EdTech Essentials Part 3: Assessment and Goal Setting

Join educator, author, and speaker Monica Burns and the OTIS for educators team for part three of this three-part webinar series that will explore essential EdTech topics alongside actionable tips and favorite tools. Learn about the “value add” of using digital tools for assessment and collaboration with students. In this session, you’ll explore the tools and the strategies for checking for understanding and supporting students along with how to set professional goals and identify next steps for the upcoming school year.