What a journey this year has been! Reflecting on a project is such an obvious piece of the innovation process, but one that is so easily overlooked. Once all is accomplished, high fives are given, and we congratulate each other on a job well done. That seems to have been the norm in my seven years as a classroom teacher. I appreciate that the Applied Digital Learning program at Lamar University not only recommends we reflect, but builds in time and opportunity in which to do this crucial part of our project.
My original plan involved better supporting educators using the Waterford Early Learning programs in a blended model. While I still feel that this is my stretch goal, I quickly learned that some of the main characters in my project (my colleagues) needed to improve their own skills before being able to pass that knowledge to our partners in the classroom. This led to a switch from my innovation project being one that focused on Waterford’s external partners to one that focused on building capacity in my internal partners.
After identifying this shift, I read these perfect words from Sinek (2014), “When we believe that those inside our circle will look out for us, it creates an environment for the free exchange of information and effective communication. This is fundamental to driving innovation…” I coupled this with a focus on COVA, empowering learners through choice, ownership, voice, and authentic learning (Harapnuik, n.d.). With a new focus, a deeper understanding of my why, and a realistic view of what could be accomplished during our fiscal year, I got to work.
Steps to Success:
Conceptualization: Planned to use a blended learning approach to support teachers using the Waterford Reading Academy program. Adjusted my approach to first serve internal partners and help my team learn to become more Coachable & Approachable to better serve our external partners.
Proposal & Planning: Created a Proposal Letter to explain my plan to Partner Services leadership team at Waterford.org. This allowed me to better express my thoughts and share my Implementation Plan.
Research: Investigated learning approaches and best practices to the professional learning in my Literature Review. I continued to learn & research how my WIG and stretch goals fit in with my Innovation Plan
Promotion: Produced the first episode of The Empowering Learners podcast with my team. I’m especially proud of how we were able to weave 3 separate but related topics into an interesting, entertaining, and informative media piece.
Learning Design: Organizing ideas in a constructive and intentional way will be key to efficiency and effectiveness for any project. I learned to plan using the Understanding by Design, UbD, template (G. Wiggins et al., 2005) to craft and organize my plans and processes. By incorporating assessment via Fink’s 3-column table, (Fink, 2003) I was better able to evaluate needs, resources, and return on investment.
Execution: I will guide my team through the process using a 4DX model as described in The 4 Disciplines of Execution (McChesney et al., 2016). Since introducing this model to my team, I’ve been involved in two district meetings where WIGs were introduced and produced.
Ongoing & Continuous Support: Circling back to my plan to assist educators, I was able to craft an Alternative PD plan (Gulamhussein et al., 2013) that involves both creating capacity internally and moving partners “Beyond the Headphones” in their classroom implementations.
Current Status:
Introduction to my plan occurred during my leadership retreat in November 2023. I explained my plan, shared what I’d created so far and the timeline. We hashed out some options over lunch and decided the greatest roadblocks would be location and time. My VP shared that my team had spent $0 on professional development and expressed that this was actually a concern we needed to address. Once I knew my fellow directors and Vice-President were on board, creating an outline, timeline, and continuing research fell into place.
Leadership Introduction & Initial Planning: November & December 2023
Team Introduction & Communication Phase: January 2024-April 2024
Implementation Phase 1 (virtual learning): Summer (May-July) 2024
Implementation Phase 2 (Job Embedding Coaching): SY 2024-2025
Evaluation & Reflection: July/August 2025
Org-wide Update: October 2025
What is working?
I’m so encouraged by colleagues’ excitement and experiences, so far. I started by introducing the plan to my direct team of 6 consultants. What I observed and learned is:
Social Learning: Each colleague enjoyed learning with others who have shared experiences vs. being sent to a solo workshop
Modeling and Observation: We model and observe for teachers, but we want to show the best model for each situation. By teaming a newer consultant with an experienced one, they learned from each other and improved the experience of our educator partners.
Team Building & Trust: Knowledge and skills are being strengthened, as are relationships. As a team of remote consultants that usually work in silos, collaboration is increasing, and trust is shown as colleagues refer each other to fellow “specialists” in certain areas of our work.
Empowerment and Confidence: When I presented colleagues with the idea of a virtual Summer Learning Series, many teamed up or offered topic suggestions I’d have never thought to address. They knew this was a low-risk task on their part, but high-gain event for colleagues. No one was voluntold to do anything, and they’ve embraced this style of learning with and from each other.
What could be better?
Presentation Style: I’m seeing most learning sessions designed for talking at colleagues vs. hands-on. There are ways to have stronger interaction even in virtual settings, so this could be another opportunity for support and learning.
Structured Choice: While I’m impressed at the topics presented, there are some very important ones that are being neglected but need to be addressed. This tells me my team doesn’t see it as a need or doesn’t have the confidence or skills to share. This may also reveal a blind spot that no one realizes are issues, or colleagues just don’t know what they don’t know. I will discuss this on my next leadership team call and possibly ask Directors to lead those specific sessions.
What have I learned?
Perspective Matters: Learning opportunities others see as priorities were not on my radar. Hearing from colleagues has made the difference in knowing what they need.
COVA is still New & Uncomfortable: Experienced and novice consultants alike wanted specific guidance, just as I had in the beginning of my COVA experience.
Practice what we Preach: We ask teachers to trust us with their limited professional learning time. We strive to do all work during our sessions, so teachers leave with all tasks completed and no “homework.” Many of our internally led sessions require post-tasks instead of a hands-on approach during the learning session.
Promote & Communicate
I first introduced this project to my leadership team, then my direct reports, and finally the greater team of 26 consultants. They understand we are working to be the best, most creative and knowledgeable team we can be for our school partners. They also know our team spent $0 of our L&D (Learning & Development) budget last year, prompting our need to get more creative in how and why we learn. Our Sr. VP approves of my plan and has shared it with other departments. We are now talking about cross-team training opportunities. I did have to clarify that this teaching and learning plan was a part of my larger innovation plan that will impact external partners. Perhaps, a next step or new version will involve inter-team planning and collaboration, but for now, my focus is intrateam.
Future Improvements
Provide some Structure: I may have needed to model a learning topic prior to releasing my team. While I wanted them to use tech tools, best practices, and COVA, I could have set a better example and modeled more, up front.
Continuous Learning: Offer follow-up sessions, coaching, or mentoring to support initial learning event. For example, we learned about the data points within our program. A follow-up session modeling a conversation with teachers and educators would be beneficial.
Integrate Problem-Based Learning: Use real-world problems and scenarios that participants can work through together, promoting critical thinking and practical solutions.
Where do we go now?
Upon reflection, what I’d like to improve and correct are baseline items that can be better. The reality is that each district, school, and educator partnership is different every year. My goal is to continue the PL Summer Learning series and further grow our knowledge base and resources bank. I’m excited to continue my research into ways to reach and address gaps on my team and across my organization. I plan to dive further into the Action Research model (Mertler, 2016) to execute and evaluate programs.
Looking Forward:
Future Innovation Projects will benefit from my knowledge of what’s worked and what needs to be refined or enhanced. I’d ensure there was more structure and more time built in for the direct instruction with partners. Job-embedded coaching will be a must, whether the environment is a classroom or school board meeting. All learning opportunities will be more hands-on and less sit & get. I will be clearer on my expectations and possibly model the level of interaction I anticipate occurring during learning sessions. It may take years to fully know how internal professional learning will impact our external partners. While this is happening, I’d like to talk more with our internal leadership about planning for inter-team professional learning opportunities. All departments support the Waterford (2024) mission to “combine the science of learning, the power of mentoring, and the promise of technology to build family and community partnerships that deliver access, excellence, and equity in early education for all children.” Therefore, it will help us to learn and understand how all pieces fit together.
Sources
Fink, L. D. (2003). Creating significant learning experiences: an integrated approach to designing college courses. http://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BA61809053
Gulamhussein, A., Center for Public Education, & National School Boards Association. (2013). Teaching the teachers. In Center for Public Education.
Harapnuik, D. (n.d.). It's about learning. Retrieved July 5, 2024, from https://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=6991
McChesney, C., Covey, S., & Huling, J. (2016). The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals. Simon and Schuster.
Mertler, C. A. (2016). Action Research: Improving Schools and Empowering Educators. SAGE Publications.
Sinek, S. (2014). Leaders eat last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t. Penguin UK.
Waterford.org. (2024, June 26). About Waterford - leadership, mission, values and careers. https://www.waterford.org/about/
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