This past Tuesday, we had our March “Faculty In-Service Day” as we prepared to return from spring break and begin classes on Wednesday. In the past, these days have usually involved bringing in an outside speaker on a particular topic who would address the faculty as a whole with ensuing discussion or, in some cases, break-out sessions of some type. Most teachers out there are more than familiar with this model for professional development and would probably agree that it is rarely the most useful ways to structure the time. I have certainly listened to a good number of outstanding speakers over the years but rarely leave with anything concrete that I can immediately incorporate into my classroom.

We tried a different model this week that was well received by my colleagues that was more like an educational conference than a typical PD day. The Deans of Faculty asked for faculty member volunteers who were willing to lead 45 minute workshops on anything that they were interested in having to do with their teaching. Several faculty members stepped forward and suddenly we had quite an interesting list of sessions to pick from. Here are a few example sof the variety:

The Flipped Classroom Phenomenon: Hear about the pros and cons of the flipped classroom, where students listen to lectures at home to free up class time for more hands-on activities and problem solving with their peers.

Twitterific: The best free professional development 140 characters at a time. Learn the basics of how to leverage the Twitter world as an educator.

Harkness … or Hark-less?: We will explore the efficacy of using a pure Harkness approach and consider other approaches to the issue of engaging students as fully as possible in the classroom.

Googly Goodies: Google docs is a powerful suite of free software that can increase your personal productivity and add tools to your teaching toolbox. Learn the basics of using shared documents, spreadsheets, and surveys to enhance your teaching.

There were several others that were equally as interesting, and the best part of all of them was that they were all led by our own faculty. The best source of professional development is certainly our own faculty. I know that other schools use a similar model for PD days with several going even further using more of an Edcamp style approach. We are not quite there yet, but made an important step towards a more fruitful use of our limited professional development time. I would love to hear how other schools are structuring their PD days.