As I have been working on the components of my innovation plan, Making it Count-Blended Learning in Professional Development, I have been thinking about what teachers want from their professional development (PD). I primarily have anecdotal evidence to suggest that teachers’ favorite parts of PD are the hands-on, interactive aspects. Then I realized that I have actual data!
At the end of each PD event that I facilitate I ask the attendees to fill out an evaluation about the event. The word cloud you see here shows the most common answers to the question, “What did you feel was most beneficial to you?”
I am very pleased to see that learning is the most used word in my PD evaluation feedback. My goal is, of course, for attendees to learn about the program and how to utilize it. I hope that they walk away with good information and have made meaningful connections to the other areas of reading instruction. I was also happy, but not surprised, to find that other common feedback included games, practice, lessons, activities and modeling. These hands-on experiences really are the best parts of PD. I am hopeful that implementing blended learning in PD will allow for opportunities to do more of what teachers really enjoy and find beneficial.
Facilitation Innovation 