Professional Learning Plan - Career Connect Campus

Situation: KRESA's Career Connect Campus hired 18 new industry professionals, all of whom needed training to become instructors in a 12-month window.

Task: Create a strategic curriculum and learning plan to clarify learning, equip instructors, and respond to dynamic needs -- to be ready for the opening of the Career Connect Campus in the fall of 2025.

Action: Designed & executed a comprehensive plan, with high-impact instructional structures and multi-modal learning. I incorporated individual and group activities with technology and in-person learning.  I leveraged an Agile framework to provide learning pacing and goals.

Result: 95% instructor retention and maximized curriculum development and learning within a <$50k total budget for approximately 100+ hours of learning events for 25+ people.

Situation: KRESA's Career Connect Campus needed to equip 1,400 students with employment skills while maximizing the classroom time for using those skills.

Task: Create an asynchronous Canvas course that teaches employability skills.  The purpose is to allow classroom instructors to focus on applying these skills in their career field.  The course should include input from local businesses and industry partners and provide 75 minutes of weekly engagement.

Action:  Designed and developed the Skills for Success Canvas course.  Utilized Google Slides as the primary content delivery to allow changes to the content without editing the Canvas course. Developed a template resource for future content development to maintain style.  Designed a universal Career Connect Skills for Success rubric with multiple stakeholder inputs to  give context to student feedback on applying skills.   

Result: 100% of the course structure and relevant supporting rubrics developed.  80% of the business and industry partner video case studies have been recorded and edited.  25% of complete course content developed.  100% of curriculum mapping completed.

**The course is currently still under development. (5/2025)

Situation: Caring for a lower limb amputation is essential. New amputees need a support network, and a way to learn new skills.

Task: Create an online, on-demand microlearning on limb care that offers insight to new and seasoned amputees. The learning should be personable, and should foster a real sense that there are other amputees who can provide experience and knowledge. 

Action:  Using Articulate Rise 360, a simple learning deck was created using resources from the Amputee Coalition, and publicly available youtube videos coupled with anecdotes from SMARG members and pictures of my own amputation and limb care.

Result: As a pilot learning element, data is being collected on the efficacy of this microlearning. The microlearning will undergo some updates and A/B testing to improve the blocks and will be moved into Articulate Storyline next.

Using Agile methodology for adult learning processes

Situation: Hiring 18 new industry professionals over 5 months revealed the need for paced onboarding and unique learning needs. 

Task: Create a system to bring on many new staff(18), all with limited knowledge of the organization, education, and instructional design. The staff arrive in cohorts of 2 to 6 over five months. All staff need to be equipped with organizational knowledge, technology, and instructional tools, and prepare their curriculum. The level of instructional awareness and capacity varied.

Action:  As a part of our systems design, we created a series of intense 1-day workshops with approximately 4-6 weeks between workshops.  We made a spring for each 4-6 week period between seminars.   Each sprint included several well-documented tasks, meetings, processes, and elements to engage in individually or in a small group.  With limited trainer capacity, I created unique open-ended Q&A sessions weekly, focusing on each sprint's primary learning targets.   New cohorts could pace themselves to complete the learning when a new cohort arrived.

Result: More effective onboarding in a short time. Better foundation grasp of the vision/mission and the "next right thing" in the process. We retained 95% of staff in this period, and we were able to differentiate and meet individual learning needs as they arose.

Situation: Portage Public Schools' onboarding process and staff equipping process needed a technology update.  Professional learning for educators is traditionally set aside for specific days of the year.  While this is still the case, specializing in that learning in that time frame can be difficult, especially with newer teachers.  A way was needed to equip teachers with specific skills Portage Public Schools expected.

Task: Create an online, on-demand learning environment with rapid access and the ability for a team of authors to create content on a just-in-time model.  Create pathways (multiple learning steps) specific to levels and topics, and a badging (validation) system to identify completion of learning. 

Action:  Reviewed multiple adult learning platforms (Looop, Articulate Rise, Captivate, etc.). Selected Looop (now a part of Learning360) and built a rollout for equipping elementary literacy skills and K-12 onboarding learning into the Looop platform.  Designed and executed training for all central office stakeholders for authoring Looop content (using Looop itself).

Result: Increased onboarding satisfaction ratings. Increased access to learning elements for existing staff while minimizing out-of-classroom or overtime hours.  Leveraged some compliance training elements into Looop.  Portage was one of the first K-12 customers in the United States to use Looop for L&D.

Situation: Technology tools are necessary for adaptive, creative learning. Presenters/Designers often have more tools than the learners in the workshop. To be successful in supporting educators, it is important to use the tools available to all our educators to engage adult learners.

Task: Create all our multi-modal learning activities for adult learners using the same tools that they would use to work with their students. Ensure that these are available for all educators. 

Action:  Reviewed multiple student learning platforms for multi-modal engagement: Pear Deck, Near Pod, Screencastify, Articulate Rise, Captivate, Canvas, Google Slides, and more. We determined that Pear Deck would provide the best, broadest, most supportive synchronous and asynchronous multi-modal platform.  Developed all our adult content using Pear Deck.  Instructed using two-track (learning and meta-learning) technology platforms

Result: Increased awareness of opportunities for Pear Deck use, maximized familiarity with the tools. Uncovered limitations and best/worst case scenarios for application of the technology and allowed 100% of our learning decks to be multimodal and persist after a workshop. 

Situation: I needed a course that was delivered via e-learning on the Canvas LMS and had practical applications in the workplace. Our business and industry partners contain a wealth of practical situations that would help students apply the learning from the course.

Task: Capture video content from industry partners in a format that engages learners and provides learners with authentic employment situations related to the Career Connect Campus Employability studies course.

Action:  To support preproduction, a speaking template was provided to all our participating business partners. Using iPhone cameras, videocasting software (riverside.fm), and remote microphone technology, along with closed captioning, videos were captured quickly using a vertical format. Videos were edited in Camtasia and Riverside.fm tools and hosted on Canvas and Google Drive.

Result: Delivered nine engaging videos with authentic work situations, including Collaboration, Communication, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Personal Management. Content was easily created, reducing the need for extensive post-production.

**The course is currently still under development. (5/2025)

Recursively using technology engagement to teach technology engagement.

Situation: Hiring hands-on professionals from trades requires an increase in technology skills to support the best practices in instruction.

Task: Create content learning that requires participants to engage with the technology to build their skills. The learning elements should be available for future reference.

Action:  Identified three key software platforms essential for instructional staff to use: Pear Deck, Screencastify, and Teams. Broke down software into skill-based competencies. I modified all professional learning events to include one or more skills essential to operating the software. We also offered open training sessions for any technology topic to remove roadblocks to use.

Result: Rapid identification of individual technology skills gaps during the first day of onboarding. Improved our targeted micro-learning topics and processes, reducing unnecessary training and increasing technology engagement. 100% of staff are integrated into using Teams / OneDrive and Google Drive for curriculum warehousing. 100% of staff are proficient on MS Teams skills.

Situation: A longstanding curriculum council in Portage Schools, with over 60 members, needed to update its bylaws and processes to reflect the core purpose of the group.

Task: Research and reflect on the bylaws and practices of the Council. Create proposals for modifications to the bylaws and ensure that those are in agreement with the School Policy and Administrative Guidelines as well as with Michigan Law.

Action:  To support the buy-in and research necessary for updating bylaws, multiple meetings and smaller committees were formed. The teams were equipped with facilitation and processing skills, and teams audited the bylaws, documented proposed changes, and received approval from executive leadership.

Result: Updated bylaws to reflect the use of technology, proxy voting in the digital age, process and method expectations, and embedded the curriculum review cycle into the bylaws.

Recursively using technology engagement to teach technology engagement.

Situation: Hiring hands-on professionals from trades requires an increase in technology skills to support the best practices in instruction.

Task: Create content learning that requires participants to engage with the technology to build their skills. The learning elements should be available for future reference.

Action:  Identified three key software platforms essential for instructional staff to use: Pear Deck, Screencastify, and Teams. Broke down software into skill-based competencies. I modified all professional learning events to include one or more skills essential to operating the software. We also offered open training sessions for any technology topic to remove roadblocks to use.

Result: Rapid identification of individual technology skills gaps during the first day of onboarding. Improved our targeted micro-learning topics and processes, reducing unnecessary training and increasing technology engagement. 100% of staff are integrated into using Teams / OneDrive and Google Drive for curriculum warehousing. 100% of staff are proficient on MS Teams skills.

Summer Curriculum Development

Situation: Parchment Schools needed a way to support department leaders with curriculum development training to support the curriculum warehouse, curriculum design models, and curriculum mapping

Task:  Create a summer workshop to allow curriculum leaders to learn and work on curriculum.

Action: Leveraged the "Rigorous Curriculum Design" framework from Larry Ainsworth and used tools from Adaptive Schools to create a three-day workshop.  Each day contained 1-3 learning elements, small group time for applying concepts, and curriculum development time focused on each K-5 grade level's specific needs.  Provided 1-1 support during workshop time. 

Result: Successful rollout of curriculum warehouse training and development of curriculum next steps and curriculum mapping.  Equipped 100% of participants with the Rigorous Curriculum Design framework.  Trained and supported the newly hired district curriculum director with oversight and understanding of the curriculum process and warehouse support. 

Situation: The River Church partnered with Apoyate en Mi, a high-needs school in Guatemala City, Guatemala, through Hope Chest, Inc. After multiple visits by leaders to the school, providing professional learning for teachers in the school was identified as a primary method for helping the school and students be supported.

Task:  Create a week-long dynamic learning program for Apoyate en Mi school staff to meet their needs as they expressed them.

Action: Utilized remote data gathering tools (surveys, emails, phone calls) to identify needed adult learning target skills.  Trained and equipped 8 volunteer educators to travel to Guatemala over 4 years to support staff development.   Designed a multi-day, bilingual training plan, documents, and activities on classroom management and student engagement. 

Result: Highly effective locally-developed Positive Behavior Support Plan - oriented for their identified needs, equipped 100% of teaching staff with multiple high-impact engagement strategies.  Built long-term relationships between the teaching staff and our volunteers.  Encorporated 5+ students (7-14 year olds) to participate by travelling to Guatemala. 

Situation: Best practices in educational use of instructional data show that teams' collective efficacy greatly improves students' learning outcomes. A collaborative data dialogue provides system-wide positive change and meets Michigan's adoption of the MICIP expectations on continuous improvement. 

Task:  Expand our data dialogue workshop for instructional leaders, hosted three times per school year. The workshop will include learning dialogue systems and practices around collaborative work and using work time to develop and implement continuous improvement plans, focused on actionable results.

Action: Utilizing Adaptive Schools practices, we expanded the data dialogue practices to build capacity in instructional leaders.  With all leaders trained in Adaptive School practices, we leveraged these skills into the data review days.  We added targeted systems to support compliance tasks in MICIP, ensuring that the data review practice remained at the core of the work.

Result: Improvements in instructional leadership's capacity to effectively guide data dialogue freed up time and space for teams to make progress on continuous improvement plans.  Integrating Adaptive Schools practices improved the quality of the dialogue and provided support.  Data review days remain the core of data-driven responses.  

CTE Curriculum Summer Workshop

Situation: Finding time in the school calendar for professional learning is difficult.  Time to work on curriculum with instructors who are sole course educators is necessary, and can be challenging to find.  Supporting instructors throughout the county with CTE-specific learning is a need.

Task:  Create a multi-day workshop on Competency-Based learning for all CTE instructors in the county, regardless in which district they work.  Create time to work and learn to prepare for the school year.  Honor the work that educators do in summer. 

Action: Utilizing the learn+work format, I created a workshop that would help all CTE educators develop their curriculum, regardless of where they currently are. I set aside funds to honor this in-depth learning work time and provide a stipend to each attendee for their time investment. The workshop format contained group, individual, and 1-1 explicit learning and processing time and was adjusted to meet attendee needs each subsequent day.

Result: 15 educators from 4 districts and KVCC attended the workshop and felt better prepared to start the school year. 

Situation: Parchment Schools needed a kick-start to curriculum warehousing.  Their previous curriculum work was done before the advent of Google Workspace.

Task:  Create a curriculum warehouse solution with a $0 extended budget beyond their current digital document storage system (Google Drive). Locate and convert previous curriculum work into a Google Drive location.

Action: Audited and met with school leaders and instructors. Designed and launched a series of shared Google Drives, Sheets, and Sites interfaces to support navigation and warehouse.  Set Shared Drive permissions and fulfilled 100% of all warehousing requests. Developed a multi-modal training workshop for staff to learn the system. 

Result: Successful rollout of curriculum warehousing and equipped 100% of available curriculum leaders.

Situation: With changes to the chemistry content standards in Michigan, Portage Schools needed to update the Chemistry textbook. The challenge would be to choose a textbook with the right content.

Task:  Create a custom coursepack textbook from scratch for use by 100% of incoming ninth grade students for the semester long Chemistry course. This should include all homework assignments, lab activities, necessary materials, and references.

Action: Along with two other instructors, we created the chemsitry coursepack over the course of 9 months. We authored the entire coursepack, 12 lab activities, and packaged the entire document ready for publishing.

Result: Successful rollout a new chemistry course with the ability to make corrections, expansions, and ensure that we had exactly the necessary materials for each student.

Situation: Teaching collegiate level courses in high school requires high levels of lab customization. Many high school lab activities don’t approach the proper learning depth, or they eliminate critical writing or calculation skills.

Task:  Create lab activities for Organic and Analytical Chemsitry and International Baccalaureate Chemistry courses that include higher level analysis and calculation.

Action: Deep research in each topic area lead to a large 9-week analytical chemistry lab activity using qualitative lab skills and problem solving. IB Chemstry topics with a focus on deep titrative acid-base chemistry with accurate calculations, including weak polyprotic acid titrations and reverse titrations.

Result: High levels of student engagement in practical activities in the lab, including verbal / written analysis and problem solving. Improved student writing skills (80% improvement during course using IB chemistry lab activity rubric) and the employment of spreadsheet based quantitative results.

Situation: When lecturing on complex chemistry concepts, learners often need more than one note-taking or problem processing session to fully grasp and apply a concept.

Task:  Create interactive topical learning for students to return to for follow-up and processing applicaiton.

Action: Designed learning over multiple years on platforms such as: youtube, VoiceThreads, Moodle, Canvas, Looop, Google Slides, Pear Deck, and more. Including the whiteboard images and examples from the classroom lecture.

Result: High levels of student learning with the ability to leverage blog post formats with conversation threads. Students supporting each other in conversations and improved exam essay and short answers.