The Birth of Instructional Cycles 

Why creating your own professional development opportunities is important for your mindset, practice and growth as an educator.

Teaching 30 miles out to sea certainly has its benefits. Have classes at our famous Nantucket Whaling Museum or getting to know each other through team building experiences on the Tall Ship Lynx.  Our island is soaked in history that is at the fingertips of the children of Nantucket.  All of which offer fantastic learning opportunities for teachers to take advantage of with their students.  One thing that can be a challenge for educators on our island is the fact that there is one public school, for students to attend.  Yes, we have two private schools open to students K-8, however there is only one high school on Nantucket.  I teach at the middle school and am the only 7th grade English teacher in our public school.  That is true for each core educator at our middle school.  This makes things particularly difficult for administrators to offer differentiated professional development for its staff.  In the spring of 2015, our faculty voiced concerns about professional development opportunities that were being offered and wanted to see a change. Out of a difficult and openly honest faculty meeting, our middle school decided we wanted to try something different and the birth of instructional cycles began.  

A handful of teachers worked with our principal and developed a teacher-driven professional development system.  There are three cycles in a school year and teachers brainstorm different teaching strategies that are new to them that they would like to explore and try out in the classroom.  The topics were broken down under the following categories: Content, Pedagogy, Technology, Differentiation/Special Education, Formative Assessments, RETELL.  Last year I worked on Project Based Learning, Collaborative Google Slides and Finishing Strong: Exit Tickets/Summarizers as my three cycle topics.  This model offers teachers to meet at least four times in a cycle to brainstorm, document resources and strategies as well as findings.  In between these meetings, teachers are encouraged to conduct peer observations on colleagues in their groups.  In hopes to get into at least one other classroom and have at least one person observe your classroom during the cycle.  While there were a few tweaks to made as we went along, overall, we had a successful year growing professionally and teachers were excited about new strategies they were implementing within their classrooms with the support of colleagues.  For the first time (since I began teaching), classroom doors were open and teachers were welcoming others in to see all of the wonderful things that were happening around the school.  I felt that this also helped build camaraderie among the staff as well as deepening the support of one another, as we had a view into classrooms, that we hadn't had before.  One of the hardest things an adult can do is show vulnerability, and we had to do just that.  I am so proud of our staff for stepping outside their comfort zone and giving it a try.  This year, we have just introduced this professional development model to our entire district and will see how that goes. 

It isn't a perfect model and it most certainly is one of those things, where you get out of it, what you put into it.  It is a step in the right direction for us, pushing educators to grow and I applaud our administration for empowering their educators to take control of their own learning.  A nice reminder to carry into our own classrooms and implement with our students.