Developing Effective Professional Leadership
EDLD 5389
Alternate PL- Call to Action
February 16, 2025
Alternative PL- Call to Action
Call to Action Video
My Why:
There have been many times when I have heard fellow educators mumble, “I would much rather be here with students today” during professional development training because professional development and in-service meetings all have similar ideas. To most teachers, professional development is an attempt by the administration to influence them and is a waste of time and money. We should be excited to have the opportunity to have time to collaborate with our colleagues on projects that we are working on for our students, but unfortunately, we all know that we are most likely going to be stuck sitting in training with an instructor who will go over PowerPoint slides, who doesn’t work in our building, work with our students, or work with the curriculum that we are teaching. Some professional development has been productive, but overall, there is a general lack of satisfaction with it This comes from how professional development is done.
We don't expect our students to learn that way, so how can we as adults be able to learn that way?
We need to make our PL time work for us instead of against us. We need to use what little time we have to collaborate wisely and with purpose. We are supposed to be here to help our students achieve their highest potential, but we are never allowed to achieve our potential by working together to make that a reality.
My What
I created a slide presentation to highlight the five principles of effective professional development, drawing on insights from the literature and emphasizing the valuable opportunities that could be lost without them. My goal was to reimagine professional development by focusing on Gulamhussein’s five key principles. The presentation stresses the urgent need to transform how teachers engage in their own learning.
My How
I designed my presentation with Canva, taking advantage of its visual features to create an engaging and powerful message. I structured the content around five key principles and emphasized the advantages of transitioning from a passive "sit and do" approach to a more proactive "go and show" model of professional development. Each slide was carefully crafted to highlight one of the principles, using a blend of compelling visuals and succinct text to ensure clarity and retention. I will also utilize speaker notes to keep the audience's focus on the message. Using the elements of Duarte and Sinkek, I presented each subtopic of my presentation with a little text as possible and utilized the speaker notes function to create the script that I would use to present the information.
References:
Andrews, T. M., Leonard, M. J., Colgrove, C. A., & Kalinowski, S. T. (2011). Active Learning Not Associated with Student
Learning in a Random Sample of College Biology Courses. CBE Life Sciences Education, 10(4), 394–405. http://
doi.org/10.1187/cbe.11-07-0061
Duarte, N. (2010). TEDx Talks. Nancy Duarte uncovers common structure of greatest communicators 11/11/2010 [Video].
YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=1nYFpuc2Umk
Duarte, N. (2009). What are some tips for presentation design? [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=hT9GGmundag
Goodwin, B. (2015). Research Says/Does Teacher Collaboration Promote Teacher Growth? Educational Leadership, 73(4),
82–83. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/dec15/vol73/num04/Does-Teacher-
Collaboration-Promote-Teacher-Growth%C2%A2.aspx
Gulamhussein, A. (2013). Teaching the Teachers Effective Professional Development in an Era of High Stakes Accountability.
Center for Public Education. Retrieved from http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/system/
files/2013-176_ProfessionalDevelopment.pdf
Sinek, S. (2018, January 10).Life Mentor. Simon Sinek - How to present properly(Part 5) [Video]. YouTube.
https://www.y outube.com/watch?v=msvmLlAkOno