Personalized Learning "Camping Trips" - Virtual Communities of Practice

Overview

Rather than leading teachers through their traditional professional development opportunities that were spaced throughout the year, the Personalized Learning Department at Dallas ISD wanted to create a community of practice where teachers had both structured and unstructured opportunities to learn and share with each other. To accomplish this, the department invited teachers to participate in Personalized Learning Camping Trips.

“Instead of designing professional development, it was super important for us that we shifted to building a community of practice where teachers had structured and unstructured opportunities to learn and share with each other. It has been really powerful as we're all learning this together.” - Kristen Watkins, Director, Personalized Learning at Dallas ISD

Approach

Teachers who chose to participate in the camping trips were invited to choose from five domain indicators (classroom culture, instructional rigor, assessment + data, equity, and student agency) from the Personalized Learning Coaching and Development Rubric to narrow and determine goals for their professional learning. Based on their chosen path, teachers used Schoology to engage in a self-directed learning cycle. After their “camping trip”, they engaged in a synchronous personalized learning “Campfire Chat” with other teachers who were working towards similar goals. During this time, they did a share and tell of their learnings, which allowed for targeted, cross-district collaboration.

This strategy is a part of TLA's Hop, Skip, Leapfrog release, which explores the concrete ways in which schools and systems pursued student-centered innovation during COVID-19. Explore the full guide to find additional strategies, insights, and resources.