Monday Notes 4 by Marcia

Marcia’s notes…
Monday, November 6 3:00 PM
SESSION: Supporting the Online Instructor: Best Practices in Teacher-Training, Community-Building, and Professional Development Online
Presenters: Jo Wagner and Robin Winder, Florida Virtual School
Janna Vega and Jennifer Quintero, Idaho Digital Learning Academy

What do teachers need to be effective online teachers? It’s all about relationships and support.

This presentation states the professional development and support offered by Florida Virtual School and Idaho Digital Learning Academy

Basic Outline:
Florida Virtual School:
Annual Face to Face Conference
Ongoing Professional Development Online
Outstanding Performance Tool with Bonus Pay
Training and Mentoring
Idaho Digital Learning Academy:
Support Network
_________________________
Face to Face Faculty Conference—one week long

Train new teachers and assemble veteran faculty
Workshops
New technology and resources
Online teaching practices
Online instructional design
State standards
Up-to-date research of online education
Special topics, such as cyberbullying
Team Building! A sense of community…

Ø Teachers are paid for the week, and paid for travel.

Ongoing Professional Development Online
Online training for teachers
o Using Blackboard
o Instructional design
o Formatting and file size
o Creating assessments
o Structuring a course
o Screen design
Online Professional Development Course
o Required annually for all teachers
o Specific focus each year
§ Using digital media online
§ Creating a classroom community online
College credit is always available for the conference and online course

“Outstanding Performance” Measurement Tool

A rubric to measure and guide teacher performance and practice
Clear communication of expectations
Opportunity to earn “bonus pay” for outstanding performance

Students also rate teachers.
Semester classes are 18 weeks.
A score of 32 qualifies the teacher for “bonus pay”--$25 per student
Bonus pay is available each semester

Areas evaluated include:
Ø Quality of feedback
Ø Communication
Ø Teacher’s participation in professional development
Ø Administrative requirements (reports, student grades, up-to-date class schedule, etc.)
Ø Student evaluation of relationship with teacher

Student is charged $50 per semester.
A 9 week course pays the same as an 18 week course.
Teacher is paid for all students who stay after two weeks.
____________________
Support Network—Idaho

Support provided:

Online principals—assigned by subject area (principals take care of problem if student is cheating, for example)
Site coordinators—in student’s home school
Regional coordinators—coordinate individual schools
Technical support specialist—full time 8-5
Team leaders
Content specialists—experts on content
Content area teams—a sense of community
Provide teachers an arena to practice modifying content without doing any “real damage”
Facilitate regular, open communication within a subject area about current issues, “how to” questions, or future development ideas
· Content Area team leaders
o Mentor new teachers
o Act as communication hubs
o Facilitate the work and administration of the team
· Constant Communication
o Email
o Instant messaging
o Online Instructor Handbook/Workbook
o “How to” guides for technology use
_____________________________

FLVS
Training and Mentoring
Ø Establish and model relationships with students
Ø Support teacher development
Ø Institutional support
Ø Community building
Ø Mentoring—improves instructional performance, provide teacher support

Online Training courses—45 days long?
Ø New hire training course
Ø Graded and facilitated by the mentors
Ø Models effective feedback and communication
Ø Content area orientation

Timely Trainings
Ø Mentor corners
Ø Rapid reminder
Ø Monday Mentor Minutes
Ø Thirsty Thursdays
Ø Telephone
Ø Web conferences
All of these are communications aimed at correcting specific problems

Program Accountability
Ø Monthly checklists
Ø Contact logs
Ø Mentee surveys
Ø Teacher retention

Teacher teaching 135 credits is considered full time
Maximum 25 students in class
Majority of staff begin as adjuncts
Currently have 9000 teachers on waiting list
94% teacher retention

Lessons Learned
Ø Mentoring and training teachers is critical to success
Ø Set expectations very early regarding training commitment
Ø Build in accountability at all levels
Ø Simulate student learning via teacher training
Ø Use “just in time” information delivery to reduce frustration
Ø Allocate human and financial resources for mentoring program—this is critical
Ø Work in “chunks,” not chips
Ø Pace charts for students are given to parents

Wow!
Marcia