Staff Development The Bridge Between Regular Day and Out-of-School Time Programs

1
Staff Development
The Bridge
Between the Regular Day Out-of-School Time
2

• 2004 NCEA Annual Conference
• Creating a Future Without Boundaries
• Carol A. Achziger
• Logan City School District
• cachziger_at_mlms.logan.k12.ut.us

3
Goals for Todays Workshop

• Share the working philosophy of bridging
  out-of-school time programs and regular day
  programs through staff development,
• Demonstrate how the principles of bridging can be
  applied to different situations, and
• Have fun through meaningful group discussions and
  demonstrations.

4
Instructional Program Alignment

• Any innovation you bring into the classroom or
  school to improve outcomes on student achievement
  presumes that there is already alignment of the
  standards, curriculum, instruction, and
  assessment. The innovation itself will not
  improve outcomes if alignment does not exist.
• - Lisa Carter

5
Why?

• Wanted to improve referrals to out-of-school time
  programs
• Regular day faculty wanted time to try out new
  methods
• Youth needed programs that were connected to the
  regular day but did not look like the regular
  day

6
What made us focus on training?

• The out-of-school time programs seemed to be the
  place to connect and meet all these needs
• We realized that staff from both sides of the
  fence had something to offer each other
• We knew we needed to bring these two groups
  together in a unique way
• Training became the logical place to bring
  everyone together

7
Understanding by Design

• Stage 1 Identify Desired Results
• Stage 2 Determine Acceptable Evidence
• Stage 3 Plan Learning Experiences Instruction
• Wiggins McTighe, ASCD, 1998

8
Understanding by Design
9
Identifying Desired Results

• Our desired results included factors for both
  staff and youth
• Based on creating lifelong learners and/or
  reawakening the lifelong learner
• Included an environmental scan of expectations,
  desires, and needs
• Varies from school site to school site and person
  to person

10
Examples of Desired Results

• Improve the instructional strategies teachers
  have to reach reluctant learners
• Improve students reading comprehension
• Improve the use of technology in the classroom
• Improve students writing skills
• Improve the connection students feel toward
  school and community
• Improve the relationship between teachers
  students

11
Establishing Priorities
12
Learning Experiences

• WHERE
• W Help students know where the unit is going.
• H Hook the students and hold their interest.
• E Equip students, explore the issues, and
  experience the ideas.
• R Provide opportunities to rethink and revise.
• E Allow students to exhibit their understanding
  and evaluate their work

13
Think-Pair-Share

• This is a great tool you can use to check
  understanding and to share learning
• Todays use
• Divide into groups of 2
• Think about how you could use training as the
  bridge between the regular day and
  out-of-school time programs
• Share your ideas with the other person
• Share your ideas with the larger group

14
Results of Think-Pair-Share

• Below is a list of the different ways
  participants determined how they could utilize
  staff training as the bridge between the regular
  day and after school.

• Create an exchange between regular day and after
  school teachers by sharing plans and
  observations.
• Have regular day and after school staff serve on
  committees together.
• Have regular day and after school staff create
  materials for students together.
• Train staff from both programs to use the same
  vocabulary.

15
Results II

• Have staff from both programs attend national
  training with a follow-up one year later.
• Have regular day teachers participate/teach some
  of the after school components.
• Utilize summer as time to have regular day and
  after school staff to plan together
• Develop leadership skills through on-going staff
  meetings

16
Results III

• Use volunteers and/or AmeriCorps members as a
  bridge between the two programs.
• Use local expertise (or regular day teachers) to
  lead after school staff training.
• Conduct a needs assessment of after school staff.
  See if regular day staff could help fulfill the
  needs.
• Use any grants that support after school programs
  as basis for communication. Ensure that everyone
  is clear about specifications to dispel confusion
  and direct training activities.
• Establish common goals so there is a single
  school culture.

17
Determining Acceptable Evidence

• How will you know you have achieved your desired
  results?
• It is no longer sufficient to assume strategies
  work without evidence of the work (remember the
  scared straight programs)
• Different types of data will help you to know
  your progress toward the results
• Knowing what evidence you need in context of the
  desired results helps to keep purpose and
  intentionality in your programs

18
Staff as Assessors Not Activity Designers

• Design assessments before you design lessons and
  activities
• Be clear about what evidence of learning or
  progress toward desired results you seek

19
Multiple Sources

• Think photo album versus snapshot
• Sound assessment requires multiple sources of
  evidence, collected over time.

20
Implementation

• Training for summer school usually involves 2 3
  days of work
• Introduces the concepts
• Allows time for hands-on practice
• Allows time for planning
• Training for school year programs usually
  involves 2 afternoons of training before school
  begins and 1 afternoon in the middle of the year
• Introduces the concepts
• Allows time to discuss concepts in site based
  groups
• Allows time to work with resources
• Allows time for planning

21
Training beyond Training

• We consider the time spent in the out-of-school
  time programs part of our training
• This respects each person as an expert
• Relies heavily on communication at each site and
  between sites

22
What does it look like?
23
Processing Time

• This is a great tool you can use to allow time
  for processing information as well as a
  transition to the next step
• Today use the Styrofoam cup to share your
  thoughts about some of the desired results for
  learning that you would have in your program
• Pass the cup to each person in your group.
  Without talking, alter the cup to represent your
  thoughts or questions
• When everyone has had a turn, then pass the cup
  again and allow each person to explain their
  thoughts
• As a group, select one person to explain the
  groups thoughts and/or questions

24
What are some of the tools we have created or
consistently use to support this process?

• School year planning sheets
• Reports of results
• Cohort discussion groups
• Books
• Multiple Intelligences by Howard Gardner
• Multiple Intelligences of Reading Writing
  Making the Words Come Alive by Thomas Armstrong
• Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom by Thomas
  Armstrong
• Classroom Instruction that Works by Robert
  Marzano and Deb Pickering
• Teaching and Learning reminders

25
Wrap UP

• Bridging works in different ways for different
  groups
• Based on desired outcomes
• Activities are designed around outcomes
• Is on-going everyone becomes an expert
• Promotes lifelong learning

26

• People do remarkable things we find heroes in
  unexpected places. Heroes in Education do three
  things
• Hold a belief that a person can learn (held by
  both the learner and the teacher),
• Provide time for practice that includes failure
  so we can overcome obstacles and have success,
• Practice and promote lifelong learning that
  creates generations of readers.
• Susan Zimmerman