Planning PD and Computational Thinking. Who would have thought that this is connected!

When I started my current position as an educational technology coach for primary school almost 3 years ago I thought I had an idea of how my work will look like. I had no idea. As coaches we are wearing many different hats and we are constantly learning.

Who would have thought that my colleagues and myself are planning a professional day which follows the principles of participants first, by teachers for teachers and learning as a social act like one of my favourite and mind changing conferences called Learning2? At the same time I’m doing the ISTE U course “An Introduction to Computational Thinking for Every Educator” and suddenly I see a connection between the PD Day and computational thinking.

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Planning professional development for teachers through the lens of computational thinking 

As an educational technology coach, I had the chance to attend numerous conferences over the  last few years.  

When teachers at our school go to conferences, the school ask them to implement a new idea, document and share it with the wider community. This year the sharing was happen at a professional development day organised by the coaches. My colleagues and I were very excited to organise a conference style PD day which is aligned with our educational technology vision

“Learning at GESS is enriched and fostered through the 21st Century Learning concepts and skills of critical thinking, collaboration, communication, creativity and digital literacy.”

 and the theme “Recreate together”. 

For the final assignment of the ISTE U course “An Introduction to Computational Thinking for Every Educator” I took the opportunity to look at the organization of the PD Day through the lens of the four parts of Computational Thinking.  

How does this look like?  

DECOMPOSITION

• Structure of the day

Time	What	Details	Room
7 – 7.45am	Yoga
7.45 – 8.30am	Coffee	Networking	Teacher Lounge
8.30 – 9.30am	Opening Session	Welcome Introduction / Announcements – Unconference  – Well-being Inspiration  2 Keynote Speaker a 15 min – Igniting Creativity  – Innovation and Entrepreneurship	Auditorium
9.30-10am	Break	Networking / Wellbeing Opportunities
10 – 11.30am (60 OR 90min)	Learning Workshops – Preschool &Primary – Primary   School – Secondary School  – Whole School	Participation 1. Design Together in EY classroom   2. Film Together   3. Draw together  4. Snap together  5. Jam together   6. Code together  7. Motivate together (in German)  8. Sketch together  9. Collaborate together! (Padlet)  10. Creating a new reality together  11. Film together   12. Sketch together  13. Collaborate & Ink together (OneNote)  14. Create and publish together   15. STEAM together  16. Making Thinking Visible  17. Create and share together (in German)
11am – 1pm	Student led Inspiration Stations	Inspiration  Swift, Spheros, Scratch, Minecraft, Cubetto, VR, Raspberry Pi	Multi Purpose Room
12-1pm	Break	Lunch / Networking / Wellbeing opportunities
1-2.30pm	Learning Workshops – Preschool &Primary – Primary   School – Secondary School  – Whole School	Participation 1. Design Together in EY classroom   2. Film together 3. Sketch together  4. Draw together  5. Let’s do “6 in 60” together  6. Code together  7. Motivate together (in German) 8. Personalised together 9. Creating a new reality together  10. STEAM Together  11. Create and publish together 12. Making Thinking Visible  13. Create and share together (in German)
2.30-3pm	Break	Networking Wellbeing Opportunities
3-3.30pm	Unconference	Participation
3.45 – 4.30pm	Closing Session	Celebration  – slide show with pics of the day Inspiration  2 Keynote Speaker Action (EdTech):  What is the call to action? What is your next step? (EdTech)  What are you are going to do to inspire the students?  -> Role of EdTech	Auditorium
4.30pm	Network		Rooftop

• Learning experiences 

-> Inspiration: keynote speaker, student led inspiration stations, wellbeing program 
-> Participation: workshops, unconference 
-> Celebration: social media (#GESSlearns), photos, network event 

• Coaching of the workshop leaders
  

• Workshop participants (inform, sign up, follow ups)  
  

• Communication with various stakeholders (leadership, workshop leaders, keynote speaker, marketing, …)
  

• Well-being (Catering, Appreciation workshop leaders, Wellbeing opportunities)

• Other requirements  

PATTERN 

Comparing previous PD Days at school and other conferences  

What made them so successful? 

What should rather be avoided? 

What should be done differently/similarly? 

What doesn’t make sense in our context? 

Successful conferences follow a similar pattern – the learning is personalised. Participants are first, it is organized by teachers for teachers, and it is understood as a social act.  

ABSTRACTION

What is unimportant/important for the PD Day? What drives the decision?  

The PD day follows the theme “recreate together”. Our goal is to inspire teachers, let them be active participates, as well as to celebrate together. 

ALGORITHM

The timeline for the project is a step-by-step description. We separated it in four phases, determined what we have to do, when it will be done and who is responsible for it.  

Phase	What	When
Phase 0	Research about meaningful PD opportunities for teachers Reflection on previous external and internal PD experiences	Mid of December
Phase 1	Deciding for the theme Creating the structure of the day Contacting possible keynote speaker	End of January
Phase 2	Finalising the participationthe teachers in the workshop Listing the requirements for the workshops Finalising the inspiration stations Room Bookings Finalising the wellbeing activities Setting up TEAMS as communication tools during the conference	Mid / End of March
Phase 3	Organisation of the unconference Service requests for rooms and equipment  Sign up for yoga  Last meeting with workshop leaders Detailed plan of the announcements on stage	1st week of April 2 weeks BREAK last week of April / beginning of May

The professional development day was a great success. Participants appreciated the preparation and their experience. Thank you everybody to make that happen.

At the same time I stumbled over the Shifting Our Schools podcast – Episode 80: The Questions I get asked as well as the research The Mirage, an in-depth look into teacher professional development and what does and what does not work.

The day itself might have been a success. On the other hand I’m questioning how much impact on teacher improvement does such a day really have? Any thoughts?