Hank Wortley

04/09/2016
EDAD 695
PGP Reflective Essay

Professional Development/ Curriculum

Standard 1 of the ELCC states that, Graduates of the program are building-level
educational leaders who have the knowledge that promotes the success of every
student by ensuring the management of the school organization, operation, and
resources through monitoring and evaluating the school management and operational
systems; efficiently using human, fiscal, and technological resources in a school
environment; promoting and protecting the welfare and safety of school students and
staff; developing school capacity for distributed leadership; and ensuring that teacher
and organizational time is focused to support high-quality instruction and student
learning. The components of this project focused on the researching, developing and
conducting professional development sessions as well as a technology integration
professional development plan for SJHS for the next academic school year. This project
allowed me to collaborate and work closely with the digital integration specialist for the
southern region of Horry County Schools, the curriculum coach at St. James High
School, as well as, the Middle and High School Science Curriculum Coordinator for
Horry County Schools. Prior to being asked to develop and teach professional
development sessions, I was a member of the blended learning team, which focused on
integrating technology into small group instruction within my classroom. This small

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group of teachers was hand selected by the curriculum coach for displaying their
expertise in the area of integrating small groups and technology into their classrooms.
The first portion of the project consisted of developing and teaching two
professional development sessions during the professional development workday
focusing on interactive note-booking for Biology teachers as well as an introduction to
Google Classroom for those individuals that are new to using technology in the
classroom. These sessions were offered in a single day with ten people attending the
first session on interactive note-booking and thirty-five people for the Google Classroom
session. The preparation for the note-booking session included preparing a PowerPoint
presentation along with activities and take-home materials for each of the teachers
attending the workshop. The session included rationale for using the notebooks in
Biology classes in effort to increase scores on the state end of course exam. It also
included note-booking examples as well as lessons for the teachers to take with them to
implement in their own classrooms. The second professional development session that
was taught, was an introduction to Google Classroom for those individuals that are not
as tech-savvy as others. It included a step by step tutorial for creating a class, uploading
documents and using it as a discussion forum for their classrooms in an effort to reduce
the amount of paper that is used within the classrooms. This session was taught at the
remedial level due to the high amount of teachers that are hesitant and afraid of using
technology within their classrooms.
The second portion of the PGP project consisted of planning various professional
development sessions as well as developing a professional development plan for SJHS
that focused on technology integration for the following academic school year. Before

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planning the professional development session, a survey was created and sent out to
teachers to gather feedback on their visions of ideal professional development sessions.
The rationale behind the survey was to provide teachers with professional development
sessions that they feel would be most beneficial to them. After compiling the data, it was
presented to the curriculum coach and the blended learning team in our monthly
meeting. At the meeting, the blended learning team was given the task to choose a topic
from the survey to present as a mini-work shop at the last professional development
session of the school year. A majority of the sessions that teachers chose to present
involve technology applications and programs that were mentioned in the survey and
they are masters at using. I was elected to develop a professional development session
around integrating EdPuzzle into classrooms, as well as, how to integrate the tool into
any lesson and any classroom. For each block, teachers who are not on the blended
learning team will have the opportunity to sign up for various mini-sessions for their
planning block with the notion that they will bring some of the tools back to their
classrooms. During their planning blocks, it is required that each teacher attends two
mini-sessions to fulfill their professional development requirement. These mini-sessions
will serve the purpose to not only serve as a pilot for the implementation of the
technology integration long range plan, but will also allow teachers the opportunity to be
exposed to some of the items that will be introduced in the professional development
plan for the following school year.
By completing components of this PGP project, my beliefs and assumptions have
considerably changed in regards to the role of a curriculum coach within the school
setting and their importance to the overall academic performance of a school. Through

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completing his project, I know have a new appreciation and understanding of the
rationale behind professional development sessions that are created for teachers to
attend. With technology at the forefront of education, it is imperative that educators of all
experience levels integrate technology into their lessons, regardless of their content
area. I assumed that the curriculum coach at a school was responsible for helping the
teachers with classroom management and various other entities with teaching that they
are struggling with. I have no idea that the root of professional development came from
the school itself, rather than someone within the district office. The long range plan that
was developed for SJHS was based on a needs assessment and survey results
conducted from the staff. By compiling a list of professional development needs directly
from the staff, it allows the curriculum coach to work with district specialists to
coordinate meaningful workshops for the teachers to attend.
As a result of completing the tasks within this PGP, I have gained an immense
amount of insight into the very time consuming, yet essential process of managing the
professional development schedule and opportunities of teachers within the school and
district. The amount of planning, coordination, and research that is done in order to
create meaningful workshops which teachers will take away items and/or activities to
implement within their own classrooms. I have also have experienced firsthand, the
meaning of the phrase, educators are life-long learners and that it is important that we
are on the cutting edge of the latest and greatest technology and learning tools to
supplement learning and effective school management. By offering the opportunities for
teachers to learn how to integrate technology, they will feel more confident in making
the transition to digitalized learning. This PGP project has really confirmed my interest

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in becoming a curriculum coach within a high school before transitioning to an assistant
principal or principal position. As a result of my working on this project and leading
professional development sessions, a window of opportunity has been opened and I
have been invited to write the Biology Curriculum Maps and District Pacing Guides for
the new Biology Standards that will be implemented in the 2016-2017 academic school
year.
If I were to encounter a project like this in the future, the only item I would change
while carrying out the project would be to accompany the principal and curriculum coach
to district level curriculum and instruction meetings, also known as A-Team meetings,
This would give me the experience of attending district level planning meetings to learn
strategies and tools that other schools are implementing through a collaborative
learning experience across the district. It would also provide me with the experience in
networking with other high schools in the areas to exchange ideas with and develop a
pool of resources to pull from if necessary.