Professional Development Plan

Background
The Caribbean School of Excellence (CSE) is a high school with
trained teaching staff of 40 instructors and a student enrolment of
500 students. Instructors have basic competence in the use of
computers.
The age range for students at CSE is 12 18 years old.
There are 9 departments: Mathematics, English, Science, Modern
Languages, Business, Science, Arts, Technical/Vocational, and
Physical Education, each managed by a departmental head.
The school has just received approximately 500 tablet computers
through European Union funding. From a quality assurance review
involving stakeholder meeting and surveys, two of the main areas
which have been recommended for improvement are the need for
more scaffolding, and feedback provided to students.
With the acquisition of the tablet computers, the Principal has
identified these to be the primary focus for integrating technology
within instruction.
As a pilot, the Principal has suggested the Mathematics
department to be the pilot users of this recommendation to
improve scaffolding and feedback through the use of technology
using the tablet computers.
With the current pass rate of Mathematics being the lowest at
20%, the Head-of-Department of Mathematics has willingly
accepted to be a pilot department for this recommendation.
The Campus is fully Internet-ready with both wired and wireless
access and has adopted Googles G Suite for Education. The
Technology Leader is the lead person for training and is supported
by the Technology Assistant whose primary responsibility is
network administration and solving technical issues.
Need for Professional Development
Factors given for the poor performance of Mathematics range
from negative attitudes towards Mathematics by parents,
students and society to insufficient prior knowledge and
understanding.
Direct and Guided instruction are the predominant instructional
methods used for teaching Mathematics. Instructional methods
such as Discovery learning and cooperative learning are used with
the predominant instructional methods.
Given the under-performance of Mathematics, a series of
professional development workshops are to be conducted with a
focus on integrating technology within current instructional
methods to provide more scaffolding and improve formative
feedback.

Goals
The goals of the PD for instructors of Mathematics are to:
1. apply pedagogical principles in creating instructional videos for
scaffolding.
2. enable instructors to purposefully integrate technological tools
for scaffolding and formative feedback
3. apply Wiggins key elements of formative feedback using
technological tool(s)

Target Audience/Participants
The target audience will be 8 teachers of Mathematics at the
Caribbean School of Excellence.
Location
The training will be held using two modes of delivery: face-to-face
delivery in the eLearning Lab and self-paced delivery using
learning management system.

Trainers
The Technology Leader and the Mathematics Technology
Champion will conduct the training. The Technology Assistant will
assist participants (Mathematics Instructors) during the training
session and provide individual guidance to instructors who
experience any challenges.
The Technology Leader has a wealth of knowledge on how the
tools can be used to improve learning from a general viewpoint,
whereas, the Mathematics Technology Champion has a wealth of
knowledge on the subject and is keen on integrating technology.
There is a synergistic relationship between the Technology Leader
and the Mathematics Technology Champion who serves as a
subject matter expert (SME). This provides for greater contextual
knowledge and application of use of technological tools for
Mathematics.

Intended Outcomes & Learning Activities

Session 2: 60 minutes
Objectives: Know the interface of Explain Everything app for
Android
Create an instructional video using Explain Everything
Apply multimedia principles and guidelines in producing
an instructional video
Activities: Create an instructional video of 5 minutes or less
explaining a concept or solving a problem in
Mathematics
Session 3: 60 minutes
Objectives: Use Explain Everything features to share created
videos
Activities: Upload existing images into an instructional video
Export an instructional video from Explain Everything to
YouTube
Export an instructional video from YouTube to Google
Drive
Use Google Classroom to share a YouTube video with
students

Plickers
Session 4: 60 minutes
Objectives: Define the term formative feedback/assessment
Know Wiggins seven elements of formative feedback
Discuss how formative assessment can be used in
Mathematics at CSE
Activities: Discussion on application of formative
feedback/assessment

Session 5: 60 minutes
Objectives: Demonstrate the use of Plickers for formative
assessment
Activities: Discuss when use of Plickers cards would be most
practicable
Analyse respondents feedback from Plickers cards to
provide feedback during a class session

Nearpod
Session 6: 60 minutes
Objectives: Use basic features of Nearpod to include a
question in Mathematics
Activities: Add Content and Activities in Nearpod

Session 7: 60 minutes
Objectives: Simulate the integration of Nearpod during a
microteaching session to provide formative
assessment/feedback and scaffolding
Activities: Demonstrate a microteaching session using Nearpod

Session 8: 60 minutes
Objectives: Discuss the value of additional technological tools
that may provide scaffolding and formative feedback in
Mathematics
Activities: Demonstrate the use of additional tools currently used
by peers in Mathematics for scaffolding and/or
formative assessment

Obstacles
1. The room for training is not sound-proof and this may not be
the best environment to create an instructional video.
 This challenge will be minimized through the use of noise-
cancelling headsets when doing instructional videos.
2. Rendering time for videos on Android tablet computers takes
very long for videos over 5 minutes.
This challenge will be minimized by exposing Instructors to
the best-practices for producing effective instructional videos
based on Richard Mayers multimedia principles.
3. Some members of the Mathematics department are not
technology savvy and prefer not to use technology in their
teaching.
This challenge will be minimized by having the Technology
Assistant during and after workshops to provide
individualized attention.
4. Currently, there is no incentive to attend PD sessions.
A Certificate of Completion and Competence will be given to
participants. The Principal has indicated that these
certificates could be used as consideration for promotion.
The time for the PD workshops has been provided for by the
Principal to allow the Instructors to attend.

Evaluation
Pre-Evaluation: A technology skills survey will be conducted to
gather information on the current technology skill level of
participants and any familiarity they have with the tools.
Post Evaluation: An evaluation of the workshop will be done via
online survey. The survey will focus on the degree to which
outcomes were reached, its relevance and applicability within the
participants context.

Resources Needed
Hardware
 Android Tablet Computers
Projector
Interactive whiteboard
Participants BYOD
Software
Explain Everything app
Plickers app
Plickers cards
Nearpod app