Chapter 4: Ongoing Professional Learning
Teachers at SSCS are given the opportunity to build both face-to-face and online Professional Learning Networks (PLNs) that meet their individual needs, interests (e.g., content areas, curriculum constructs – e.g., rotation station blended learning), and abilities.
Each faculty meeting and “staff development day” is used to collaborate on ways to leverage iPads to engage students in authentic learning experiences that are engaging and aligned with state and national standards.
All secondary teachers at SSCS engage in a summer training on Schoology.
Additionally, teacher-leaders (who have been trained through ISTE’s Verizon’s Mobile Learning Academy) offer district supported, after-school one-on-one tutoring for teachers as well as monitoring PLNs within Schoology on topics such as: using an LMS effectively, “how to effectively flip”, “blended learning versus technology enhanced instruction”, data driven instruction, and Digital Citizenship.
Tom Yorke (English teacher and technology coach at SSCS) describes how as a “trail-blazing” one-to-one district, SSCS has learned from mistakes and sought guidance as opportunities have come available. 
Through their experiences, Mr. Yorke says SSCS has an organic approach to technology integration that supports specific, individual teacher’s goals as well as the district’s general vision; with each goal, plan, and decision centered on students being more engaged in achieving greater depth and breadth in an education that centers around their learning needs.
In the interview below, Mr. Yorke gives an overview of SSCS’s intentional, personal, and institutional approach to professional development.
With the guidance of an Instructional Consultant from ISTE, SSCS has adopted the questionnaire below as a self-assessment tool. This questionnaire will be distributed twice a year (once at the start of the school year and once at the end of the school year) to all stakeholders (students, teachers, BOE, and administration). The data that will be collected will then be curated and used to make district-level plans for continued improvement. (NOTE: This process was initiated this year, but only involving the Technology Committee.)
