Over the past two and a half years, I believe that I have grown as an individual and as a leader. The work with the Academy has helped to develop a level of knowledge about professional learning that I can only hope to continue to develop long after the Academy experience is finished.

Effective professional learning is about ongoing opportunities within the work that focuses on student outcomes. As a school leader, I continue to work with teachers to develop individual professional learning plans to address areas of need. I believe that the difference following the work in the Academy is that I have been very intentional with teachers to paint a picture of professional learning as everything from book studies, to classroom observations, to collaborative planning, to evaluation post conferences as opportunities for professional learning.

Through the work of the Academy, I have developed a strong belief that professional learning is central to any type of improvement plan for a school or district. Everything from the time spent on purposeful, student results-driven, job-embedded professional learning to the importance of funding for professional learning has come from my work with the Learning Forward Academy. Prior to my work in the Academy, I saw good professional learning as multiple offerings with topics that would meet the needs of those in many different subject areas. Now I realize that the best professional learning is not just about one-time offerings, no matter how many diverse topics are offered.

Professional learning and coaching can result in discomfort. For years, teachers and principals have expected supervisors to simply tell them the ‘correct’ method or strategy; consequently, the amount of learning that has taken place has been inconsequential, as educators have expected a "one size fits all" professional development to address. I have often believed that the first sign of lasting change is when the vocabulary of the district changes. Administrators and teachers no longer talk of professional development. For me personally, I knew I was actively embracing the change when I changed the name of my "professional development" folder to "professional learning".

Fort Wayne Community Schools has embraced the concept of professional learning and has a very active partnership with Learning Forward. I have witnessed the transformation over the past several years. Our leadership meetings are no longer a lengthy “sit and get” PowerPoint presentation. During leadership meetings, administrators are now regularly provided time to collaborate around a common problem of practice. Administrators and instructional coaches are encouraged to coach teachers as they implement the school improvement plan. By helping principals and teachers clarify and reflect upon their practices, genuine strategies that can improve student learning are beginning to show.

In addition, we now use norms, protocols, and a professional learning plan to monitor our progress toward our student and adult learning goals. More importantly, our professional learning takes place over time so that genuine adult learning can take place….no more ‘one and done’ professional development. By ‘going slow to go fast’, our faculty is beginning to embrace the concept of professional learning; they are beginning to envision the process as ongoing and not simply a checklist.

The concepts of professional learning and problems of practice align closely to my own beliefs as a former science teacher and current principal. Unlike professional development, professional learning is not an “event”. Professional learning is an ongoing process of learning by practice, observation, and refinement....much like addressing a scientific hypothesis over time. No longer do I advocate sending my staff to professional development conferences to find a “one size fits all” approach to an instructional dilemma: been there, done that, it doesn’t work. I now tell my staff that the answers to improving student achievement exist right within the walls of our own school. While we may research techniques available online or in educational journals, the solutions only begin to take place when we learn and experiment together as colleagues.

My problem of practice was largely revolving around creating vertically aligned assessment for my Physical Welfare Division. The challenge was to gather data, evidence, and research change in order to build and implement a vertically aligned curriculum. The evolution of my problem of practice was heavily influenced by the learning I took part of in the Academy. Marcia Tate’s Principles of Adult Learning and the theories of change and implementation were areas of great influence to my problem of practice. Eventually my work evolved from something vague to a clear and established purpose for change.