"The mission of Sanford Inspire is to empower educators with research-based knowledge, tools, and practices, so that they can inspire students to achieve academically and socially." The program partners with K-12 school districts to ensure that all classrooms have an inspirational teacher to guide students in the learning process. There are eighty-four (84) research-based training opportunities available through the Sanford Inspire program which are categorized within five domains of practice:
Welcoming Environment
Components of Inquiry, Differentiation, Elements of Delivery, English Language Learners
The curriculum is composed of on-demand modules which range in length between 30-60 minutes and can be completed asynchronously (anytime/anywhere) with computer and internet access. Upon completion of each course, teachers receive a certificate which can be applied to their state certification renewal requirements. All educators are welcome to access this amazing resource for ongoing professional development and can do so by clicking on the following URL: modules.sanfordinspire.org/ "Sandford Inspire is made possible due to the generous funding from the Denny Sanford Foundation. Mr. Sanford knows first hand the powerful and lasting impact of inspirational teachers. His investment supports the continued development of innovative resources that are improving outcomes for children" (Sanford Inspire Implementation Manual). The teachers at ASU Prep are grateful for these tremendous learning opportunities to increase their knowledge, pedagogical practice, and ability to inspire students. To learn more about the Sanford Inspire Program, please watch this video overview.
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Recently, ASU Prep Poly Teachers participated in an innovative, two-day STEM training entitled, "How to 'STEM' Your Classroom." The STEM Training focused on teaching methods for inspiring students of the future and allowed teachers to explore numerous digital tools (e.g. Google Expeditions) for creating engaging learning experiences that promote critical thinking and problem solving. Participants were introduced to the engineering design process immediately and had to put it into action by creating the tallest spaghetti and gumdrop structure. As part of the activity, groups had to respond to a problem and identify constraints, brainstorm ideas, create design plans, budget for and gather needed materials, construct their building according to the plan, and revise their plans as needed. It was a great way for teachers to work collaboratively while using their brain power to solve a problem! During the session, teachers defined STEM in their own terms and learned about the six essential elements of a great STEM Lesson according to educator Ann Jolly:
In addition, participants had the opportunity to explore STEM proficiency standards and various infusion approaches (cross-cutting, standards based, and thematic). Finally, teachers were introduced to several tools for assessing STEM projects. As the culminating activity, teachers created a STEM-infused lesson plan to implement in their classrooms. It was an amazing experience filled with collaboration, information sharing and brainstorming, and fun! Check out the picture gallery below!
Courses vary in length from 3 - 18 hours, and teachers can earn Continuing Education Units (CEUs) to apply toward their teaching certification renewal. Most courses are offered in an online, asynchronous format so that teachers can complete the class when it is most convenient for them. Additional course titles will be added each month, and it is anticipated that this course library of PD offerings will grow exponentially in time! Current courses include:
ASU Prep Professional Development Series: High Yield Behaviors “High Yield Behaviors” are behaviors that facilitate a high level of student engagement in the classroom and promote critical thinking and problem-solving at a deep level. ASU Prep offers this Professional Development opportunity that spotlights seventeen (17) High Yield Behaviors to facilitate increased communication, collaboration, synthesis, and learning transfer in the classroom. In addition to the online modules, participants have the opportunity to join learning communities within the district to share insights and research related to the High Yield Behaviors. The seventeen learning modules are housed within Canvas Learning Management System (LMS), so teachers can access the content at a time and place that is convenient for them. These High Yield Behavior courses are regularly updated to reflect new research and best practices in the classroom. The benefits of participating in the High Yield Behaviors Modules are numerous and include:
Components of a High Yield Behavior Module: Each of the seventeen (17) High Yield Behavior Module includes the following elements:
At ASU Prep, we are committed to growing our teachers as leaders. Although we are a lean organization, we are greatly resourced with a talented, innovative, and caring staff of teachers who serve as leaders across many areas on our campuses. Our Investing in Innovation (i3) Grant has allowed us to fund a network-wide Technology Integration Specialist to help lead some of our priority initiatives for using technology to connect teachers, families, and students. Planning ahead for the future at ASU Prep after the grant, we committed to the sustainability of our projects---our students deserve it, and our teachers are ready! That is where our Teacher Technology Leaders (TTLs) come into the picture. They are our new model for Tech Integration Specialists located right in the heart of the schools. While ASU Prep will continue to provide network-wide educational technology support, it will do so in part by shifting edtech expertise to our school sites. The 2016-17 school year is the first year of the TTL program. Over the course of the first semester, there were two TTLs, one on each of two of our campuses is Phoenix and Mesa. They helped lead professional development (both in person and through our online PD platform), mentored new teachers on the tools we use for family communication, built new tools for improving use of benchmarks data for instruction, and gave great feedback on how we could continue to grow the TTL program. This semester we added two additional TTLs to specialize for elementary and secondary programs. We have ambitious plans for summer professional development offerings. We also are looking forward to beginning our own series of edtech mini-conferences that will begin as programs to support ASU Prep teachers, but that we can see being open to supporting teachers in our neighboring districts. The immediate impact of this shift from delivering our edtech centrally to the schools is increased teacher buy-in to explore, learn about, and use technology to deepen student learning. Our teachers self report feeling more supported to discover and learn innovative tools to support their practice and their students. Do you have questions about how to build teachers as technology leaders? Do you want to collaborate through virtual participation in our ed-tech mini-conference or learn more about online PD? Email [email protected] to keep the conversation going! Over a very short and ambitious timeline this past spring and summer, ASU Preparatory Academy developed a blended learning model to start a new school in a small community. With two successful brick-and-mortar schools, we had great philosophy and culture elements in place, but the blended model was a new opportunity for us to offer optimum environments for students. Through this project we learned many things, but there are five aspects in particular we find valuable to share: Curriculum: When building your blended curriculum, recognize that it can be beneficial to find a flexible format. For ASU Prep, we use the Cambridge International Curriculum, which doesn’t have its own online courseware. Thus, we developed our own materials "mashed-up" with some digital resources offered by third parties. Look for partners that allow you to be flexible with the content to meet your needs. Additionally, look for curriculum choices that give students opportunities for personal choice. Design: We created a blended school environment in a space that was designed for hotel conferences. All choices that we made with furniture and technology served the greater purpose of creating blended learning ready classrooms. For example, all desks easily move. Adequate power is available throughout the room for student laptops. Rather than invest in board space, we invested in technology tools for sharing screens digitally. Teachers don’t have desks, and there is no clear "front of the room." This helps both teachers and students understand the differences in a blended learning model. Scheduling: Think outside the traditional bell schedule structure in addition to the grade level structure. Our juniors and seniors blend together for all courses, even when the content is different. Through small group, targeted instruction, students can be in different classes in the same classroom but still have high teacher and peer interaction. For electives, use digital curriculum to allow for more choices for students. Think about ways that students could benefit from Learning Lab or Independent Learning off campus because of the availability of their coursework online. Learning Success Coach: Students are experiencing a different type of learning environment, and the staff that support them must think outside traditional roles of schools. At our blended learning campus, we have a small staff but high number of course offerings thanks to partnering with Florida Virtual in our first year. We utilize Learning Success Coaches to help students be successful in online coursework, to engage families, and to provide general life coaching and college preparation support. Professional Development: Since teachers are heavily engaged in the LMS (learning management system) as the platform for our blended learning environment, we try to offer many just-in-time online resources in the LMS to continually advance our teacher professionalism and leadership. In addition, the flexible student scheduling with Independent Learning off campus opens additional time for teacher collaboration on site. Finally, in the first year of our blended learning program, we were able to develop the role of a Subject Matter Expert Mentor Teacher who was 50% engaged in digital curriculum development and 50% engaged in helping to manage all the new learning and teacher professional development on site. Are you interested in starting a blended learning program at your campus? We would love to talk more about the successes, lessons learned, or professional development resources. Contact me at [email protected] to innovate together.
Students, given voice and agency, surprise us in ways unimaginable. When ASU Preparatory Academy, through our i3 Grant, was able to acquire new technology for our campuses, we knew that we were going to provide training and support for the device rollouts. Beginning with our first graduating class, students were ready to take the lead on a number of the projects related to rolling out new devices.
The ASU Prep students created their own group called Tech Prep U. These students became the technology leaders on campus for both teachers and peers. The mission of this group is to help their peers to improve technology skills in order to be ready for college. The group passed from one generation to the next, or from the graduating seniors to their underclassmen sophomores and juniors. This collective group of students helped teachers in the classroom, assisted preparing devices over the summer, joined the quality assurance review of digital courses, and supported younger students in after school programs. ASU Prep was better because of these young adult tech leaders. Yes, the campuses improved because of these projects. However, the even more inspiring aspect was watching how the fruits of the i3 Grant changed these students. The personal development and growth among these students, who sometimes felt out of their element in traditional classroom settings, were incredible to witness. Here is an interview with a former Tech Prep U student who shares about his growth as a leader in this program. Interview with Matt from ASU Prep on Vimeo. Are you interested in starting a Tech Prep U program at your campus? We would love to talk more about the successes, lessons learned, or professional development resources. Contact me at [email protected] to innovate together. Reflection Not Perfection: How Technology at ASU Preparatory Academy Supports Teacher Growth1/17/2017 Welcome to the first post on our ASU Preparatory Academy technology and digital learning blog, called "ASU Prep Innovate." In this blog we will share about the ways we are using technology to support both teacher and student growth. A few years ago, ASU Preparatory Academy received a federal Investing in Innovations (i3) grant, which has helped us to progress our dream of creating technology-rich learning environments. When focusing on technology and education, we begin and end with a focus on the students. After all, increasing the college-going outcomes for students is why we are here. But ASU Prep's goals for i3 also extend to our families and teachers. We believe that it is the partnership of students-teachers-families that creates a positive trifecta on educational outcomes. Today's blog will highlight the recently launched ASU Preparatory Academy High Yield Behaviors online course for teachers. Our ASU Prep teachers and leaders live out the mantra, "Reflection not perfection." This means that we strive to embody a growth mindset not only with our students but in our own professional practice. The i3 grant helped to provide the resources to develop online, personalized professional development that allows teachers to reflect and grow anytime, anywhere. The ASU Prep High Yield Behaviors are 17 behaviors that form the teacher walkthrough and evaluation protocol. Following the inquiry cycle practice used in our learning communities, or clusters, on campus, each module begins with research and a video model from one of our own ASU Prep teachers. Next, teachers engage in discussion with colleagues surrounding the research and model before getting ready to put it into practice. The module ends with an artifact submission and mentor feedback. Many of the artifacts are in fact videos of teachers demonstrating the High Yield Behavior, which only continues to build our on demand library. All teachers reflect on how the High Yield Behavior supports student outcomes. Our goal is to continue to develop ASU Prep created online professional development to support the growth of our staff through a customized learning experience. Are you interested in speaking more about the High Yield Behaviors at ASU Prep? Or maybe you want to view the courses more in depth in our LMS. We would love to talk more about the successes, lessons learned, or professional development resources. Contact me at [email protected] to innovate together. |
AuthorJohn Sharp is the ASU Preparatory Academy Director of Curriculum and Professional Development Archives
May 2017
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