Fed Ex Day - Spicing up PD

I keep telling the teachers in my district that they should start a blog to keep track of what's working and how far they've come.  I guess I should take my own advice and consider posting more often.

Last week was a first for our school district.  After a few emails and conversations with administration, I was able to get the okay to use one of our staff development days as a "FedEx Day".  Basically, teachers are allowed to work with anyone, on any topic they wish, as long as they deliver something in a 24 hour period- a product, an idea, etc.  (These types of learning opportunities have also been called "Genius Hour" or "Google 20%").  I wanted a fresh idea to bring to professional development.  My idea and information came from this blog:  Fed Ex Day

It was really interesting to see the level of discomfort from some teachers.  The response was mixed at first, but after having them fill out a survey of how the day went, the response was overwhelmingly positive.  I had them post their idea or product to Schoology (we have a tech integration course set up, since our district uses this LMS).  Here are some ideas they came up with:

• P.E. team looked at bringing in a new winter activity like snowshoeing for students

• Science created a google document that lists all the activities they do with their students to make sure they aren't doubling up and are meeting all the standards
• Our music department created a Facebook page in preparation for their upcoming trip.  The students will be outside the state, so they wanted to keep parents updated and share pictures.
• Our social workers worked together to share ideas from a website they had found

• Math teachers created a template for math vocabulary flashcards to be created by students and shared in grades 6-12

These were just a few of the great things that happened at JCC that day.  Of course, this blog would not be complete without mentioning some of the challenges we faced.  For beginners, I wasn't sure whether or not I should give them examples of things they could do.  Some thought they could just work on those "daunting" tasks they never seem to have time for (like grading papers and organizing Schoology resources).  I wanted it to be more than this, so I tried to steer them in the right direction.  Another complication was when a team would come up with a list of things they wanted to do, but then didn't know how to divide up to do it.  They simply thought that having that list was all they "needed to do", and wanted to stop with 2 hours left to work!  Still others were so concerned about having to publish something to Schoology within 24 hours, that they never really took the time to THINK.  If I get the opportunity to do something similar in the upcoming years, I hope to tackle these issues.

Overall, it was one of the best in-service days some teachers had ever had. I'm continuing to find ideas on how to differentiate pd to make staff development meaningful and engaging.  Feel free to post your ideas, too!