session77

Patricia O’Quinn Hester, Senior Executive Director of School Improvement and Professional Development & Terri Sessoms, Lead Teacher for School Improvement and Professional Development July 1, 2007 Model Schools Conference 2007 – Washington D.C.

Virtual Online Support for Retaining a New Generation of Teachers – Session 77

Johnston County Schools uses an innovative Internet approach to support 200+ beginning teachers and mentors. Instead of driving to meetings, novice teachers and their mentors participate in convenient monthly online collaboration. The real time Internet tool lists relevant essential questions with embedded Web resources for teachers to choose from based on their needs. Topics include rigorous and relevant lesson design, effective classroom management, importance of relationships for success, and becoming a reflective practitioner. Posted responses are used to provide immediate individualized support to help beginning teachers create success for all students.

Johnson County Schools, Smithfield, North Carolina patriciahester@johnston.k12.nc.us terrisessoms@johnston.k12.nc.us

What we used to do:
 * Monthly drive-in meetings on various topics to address the needs of teachers
 * Customer feedback – this is not working because:
 * Gas is too expensive
 * The schedule of topics is not relevant to my “real time” needs
 * I’m brain dead and too tired after school

What we know about our first year teachers:
 * Mentors and their ILT’s (initially licensed teacher) needed resources at their fingertips
 * This is the online generation
 * They needed support with first year issues
 * The steep learning curve they experience the first year keeps them from remembering to use the resources on our district web site

Research on first year teachers says. . .(millennials generation / product of helicopter parents – __Millennials Rising__)
 * They need a safe place to ask real questions w/pit fear of reprisal
 * They need collaboration opportunities to eliminate the feeling of isolation and borrow from each other’s ideas
 * They need to be able to see what other first year teachers think and feel
 * They need to have their needs addressed immediately (Fast Food Generation)
 * Their needs are individualized and should be treated as such
 * Mentors who are full-time teachers can’t do it all

Facts about national attrition rates. . . Ed Week, June 2007
 * National average for first year teacher attrition - 20%
 * Cost of attrition to US public schools - $7.3 billion per year
 * Increase of 17% attrition rate
 * 65% of teachers who leave say they were unable to balance life and work (meetings, lack of resources)

Recommendations (National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future)
 * Measure turnover and costs to district
 * Invest in a comprehensive induction program and monitor effectively

Layers of Support
 * 3 days of preservice induction
 * 10 days of orientations for lateral entries (not trained to be teachers, career changes)
 * School based orientation
 * School based mentors
 * M & M Meetings – mentor/mentee (monthly school based social/professional development) – help them to develop relationships to keep them in-district
 * Peer classroom observations and feedback (praise and constructive criticism)
 * BTI Lead Teacher Walk Thrus
 * Opportunities to observe other peers
 * Weekly contact w/school-based mentor
 * Moodle . ..

Professional development – Moddle is tool, essential questions guide the process
 * The monthly Moodle Responses provide an ongoing assessment of each first year teacher so we can provide resources to meet their immediate and individual needs
 * Topics are flexible enough so that first year teachers can choose what is relevant to each teacher that month

Why did we choose the Moodle platform?
 * Flexibility – may add or revise topics and resources any time
 * Choice – allows us to go ahead and post all the topics at the beginning of the year so teachers can choose what is relevant to themselves each month
 * Convenience – can be done from any location that has internet access or at any time of the day or night (asynchronous)

Moodle features:
 * Chat rooms
 * Online calendar of the first year teacher events
 * IM
 * Threaded discussions so they can piggyback off each other’s responses
 * Electronic bulletin board (open discussion)
 * News forum – announcements
 * Password protected – safe to ask questions
 * Resource uploaded can be: videos, websites, documents, presentations, activities

Administrative Features – Virtually support each teacher
 * Easy to enroll
 * Tracks participants and time spent on Moodle w/posted responses
 * Monitoring can be done from anywhere w/internet access
 * Can modify, add, delete, resources and/or topics anytime
 * Can delete inappropriate responses
 * Can determine which first year teachers need extra help by the level of their responses

Process
 * Once per month, the mentor and beginning teacher sit down to select a topics form “Becoming Our Professional Best” based upon the needs of the ILT
 * Then the mentor and ILT read the prompt and Essential Question which drives them to review the embedded web resources
 * Once the resources are reviewed, the mentor and ILT discuss their responses to the Essential Question. This is where the expertise of the mentor becomes “real”
 * The Essential Question drives the ILT to apply these research based strategies to his/her classroom
 * After the discussion, the ILT composed a response to the Essential Question
 * Once the ILT and mentor post their responses to the Moddle Topic Forum, other ILTs may read their responses
 * The lead teacher for beginning teachers reads the Moodle postings daily. This allows her to provide “just in time” assistance where needed such as web resources, professional library materials, classroom visit, etc.

Topics with Resources
 * Learning styles
 * Reflection time – professional standards
 * Time management – balance your life
 * Lesson design and Assessments
 * Classroom management – effective learning environments
 * Communication w/parents and students
 * ESL/LEP learners
 * Sharing best practices
 * Learning strategies – questioning techniques
 * Special Ed – modifications for learning
 * Behavioral disorders
 * Money – where to find it
 * Virtual social groupings

Results
 * 200-300 quality responses posted each month
 * Tightened connections and communications between mentors and ILTs
 * Feedback from principals, mentors, and ILTs has been very positive
 * Attrition rate has slowed

Principals, Mentors, and ILTs Say. ..
 * “These resources are so helpful”
 * Administrators want something similar for themselves to jeep them growing in the right direction
 * “I was at my breaking point and said so in my Moodle response – Terri was in my classroom the next morning”
 * “I like getting the help I need w/out having to drive to an after school meeting.”