THE LEARNING LOOP

In a time when our lives continue to become more personalized - through custom ads, personal shoppers, and movie and book recommendations - our professional learning experiences for educators have not kept pace. In too many districts and schools, educators continue to participate in one size fits all "sit and get" professional development sessions. Explore innovative practices in professional learning to design more personalized experiences that empower educators to taking a standing role in their own growth. Together, we will apply the personalized learning principles of voice, co-creation, social construction, and self-discovery to design a personalized professional learning model for your intermediate unit, district, or school. Planning tools, models, and collaborative time will be provided, empowering you to put your plan into action.

School culture has a tremendous impact on leader and teacher efficacy and our responsibility as educators to be model learners for students. Examine the tenets of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making as key levers to create socially and emotionally inspired spaces where adults thrive. Diagnose your strengths and growth opportunities as a leader in each of these areas and develop an action plan to address areas of need. Topics include understanding oneself as a learner, keep yourself “whole,” sharing vulnerability, facilitating powerful conversations, and making constructive choices to grow as a learning organization.

Too often our work as district and school leaders gets caught in the day-to-day management of our buildings, and we miss opportunities for strong instructional leadership. Our buildings are well-run, but we lose our flow as true learning organizations. Reflect on the management traps that cloud your vision and inhibit your instructional leadership, including when and why such distractions occur. Collaborate with participants on strategies to regain focus as instructional leaders and sustain this focus over time without sacrificing managerial performance. Deepen your understanding of learning culture and explore opportunities to strengthen school/district culture in a way that contributes to continuous growth, including shared vision, systems thinking, mental models, team learning, and personal mastery.

Students with a growth mindset recognize that the brain is like a muscle that gets stronger with use. Accordingly, growth mindset-oriented students are more likely to interpret academic challenges and mistakes as opportunities to learn and develop. Such a growth mindset is also associated with mastery goal orientation – students motivated by a true desire to learn. Explore strategies for developing and sustaining a growth mindset in your students and staff members. Engage in productive struggle learning experiences to build resilience and collaborate on approaches to implement similar activities within your school community.

It can be challenging to engage in virtual learning experiences, particularly when we are distracted by other professional and personal responsibilities. Reflect on obstacles that have previously stunted your full engagement in virtual professional learning experiences. Consider how to prime yourself and your learning space to engage as deeply as possible in virtual professional learning. Identify personal learning preference(s) and how to leverage this in a virtual space. Explore strategies for remaining engaged during virtual professional learning experiences. Determine systems for extending the learning loop beyond synchronous virtual engagements, including action plans, accountability partners, and check-ins.