Rethinking PD...

Kristen, 

You give great voice to the difficulty of PD as something that continues to be "done to" teachers.  It would appear that learners of all ages develop some degree of resistance to the learning process when experiences are not designed to genuinely appeal to their motives and purposes, and where there is no meaningful choice structured into the experience.  Part of what's so exciting to me about the vision of YouPD Challenge framework is that it organizes us into purposive, opt-in, aspirational communities.   Implicit here is a design principle that potentially resolves the tension between the need for focus, as your reference to Schmoker aptly emphasizes, and the need for choice on the part of the learner.  I'd like to think that a well-designed challenge space could accomplish both.   Clearly defined, problem and product-based outcomes that nevertheless have multiple solution pathways to spur the creativity, passion, and agency of teachers as problem-solvers.

It's actually in part from a struggle with the radical freedom of learning formats like EdCamp or the use of PLNs via Twitter (both of which I love) that I also believe YouPD offers something new...something that is perhaps more sustained, focused, and outcomes-oriented.

Cheers,

Andrew

In response to Dave's prod that we need to rethink how teachers demonstrate learning and get feedback from their PD experiences:

Part of what the "YouPD Hack" attempts to do is provide a medium through which a teacher can demonstrate learning around a particular skill or competency.  Hacks can serve as a free-floating way of showcasing of one's own problem-solving or assimilation / adaptation of a technique, OR they can be the structured culmination and assessment of having taken a YouPD Challenge...i.e. serving as the demonstration of transfer that Dave is referring to.   The fact that they must be presented and packaged in a way that someone else can understand and potentially adopt is a way to drive the teaching and learning conversation towards making EXPLICIT much of the TACIT expertise and insight that teachers develop.  I believe this is a core competency the profession as a whole needs to develop in order to make real progress.  Doug Lemov begins to do this in his book, "Teach Like a Champion"...I believe all teaching professionals should be able to speak metacognitively about their solution strategies.   This competency is also at the heart of the National Board Certification Process - demonstrating self-critical, reflective problem-solving ability-- effectively treating each adjustment of course in one's practice as a mini-action-research project -- articulating a problem, trying a solution, attempting to dispassionately judge its effectiveness, adjust course again. 

We've been abreast of the DML competition for some time, and actually applied to their general Round 1 call for applications back in early November.   Here are the two applications we submitted:

• YouPD Entry
• Olympus Academy (one of our transfer schools -- designed for over-age, under-credited student populations)

The separate teacher badging bracket came as a bit of a surprise to us, and we suspect it was not originally planned but emerged as a result of the number of entries in the general round that came from communities interested in badging teacher competencies.

We're repositioning and re-submitting to strengthen our original application, so we'd love folks to contribute ideas.   Our general strategy is to point to two areas in which YouPD can establish itself as a badge-earning community:

1. YouPD can access the wealth of internal expertise and the reach and diversity of its existing educator network. As a leader in school innovation in NYC for close to 25 years with a network of over 2000 practicing educators within the NYC public school system (where school-level autonomy reigns supreme), New Visions has developed a wealth of experience-informed professional learning frameworks that have later been adopted by NYC schools and other cities, such as the inquiry team model.  We are currently positioned in a state that is out front in adoption of the Common Core standards, and already have over a year of on-the-ground experience with building communities of practice around building and implementing Common Core aligned middle and high school curriculum.   Lastly, we run a STEM-focused new teacher residency program that has developed extensive frameworks for understanding the developmental arc of new teachers.
2. We are an "open network" with a commitment to open source tools and methods of organizing knowledge sharing.  Our Knowledge Base represents an early (circa 2006?) and unique platform development investment for the sake of publicly sharing the intellectual property of our schools with the larger K-12 space.  We have a history of bringing the best ideas from educators across the country (and across industries) to strengthen our own thinking and envigorate our network of professional learners.   With that said, we are intentionally seeking thought leaders from within communities of 21st century educational practice to serve as challenge designers and facilitators within YouPD.  Any badging framework we devise needs to be informed by the emerging sector of classroom-level innovators who are ahead of any institution in defining "what works."  We believe that the mixture of our institution's gravitas and experience in the school innovation space, alongside our ability to convene disparate segments of the grassroots teacher-leader community, positions us well to create a teacher badging ecosystem that is both outwardly credible and authentically engaged with the difficult, nuanced, and emergent work of teaching.

Would love additional thoughts vis a vis the DML challenge.  We're very excited to be in the space, doing the right work, at the right time.  We hope you are too!