Introducing The SmartFox Professional Development Course Library

Facilitating ongoing professional development within any organization can be a demanding task. For a growing organization, continuous onboarding and training is critical to meet staff members’ wherever they are in their professional careers.

Outsourcing professional development has its place in any organization’s professional development plan. Within effective organizations, training is needed when new tools, systems or processes are implemented and updates to the training can be very useful on an ongoing basis. Additional training that's unique to the organization, such as refined procedures or cultural ideas, are likely to be effective only if facilitated from within the organization.

At Method Schools, as part of our internally built SmartFox Student Information System and Learning Management System, we're creating our own professional development online course library that provides training and instruction in key areas of need within our organization. These courses will help to support staff in independent study instruction, best online practices, utilizing systems, coaching and developing others, building culture and many others. The courses will also provide a template for ongoing PD needs and requests that all staff can create, participate in and collaborate on an ongoing basis.

Our professional development course library will serve as a powerful tool as it can be personalized to our organization’s needs as nobody knows our organization better then we do. Right sizing our professional development and training and meeting staff where they are mimics our educational program and the approach we take in supporting students and their individual growth.

Just as with assessing students quarterly and developing individualized plans, we assess teachers regularly through monthly 1 on 1’s and quarterly evaluations and then utilize all resources available to support their continual growth. If the need for further development in the area of utilizing student data to ensure effective instruction is identified for a particular teacher, we can assign modules within that course and create new modules that address particular needs within that area. The course can then be assigned for the teacher to complete independently and then apply the learning during rich discussions with their coach during their 1 on 1 and weekly meetings.

Developing a growing professional development course library equips all staff with the resources needed to continue to grow and develop within the organization and their perspective roles.

Some course titles include:·

• Coaching & Mentoring
• Implementing Change
• Developing an Intervention Program
• Utilizing Data to Develop a Personalized Program
• Developing a Growth Focused Culture
• Creating Teams Focused on Growth
• Utilizing Data Analysis to Drive Decisions

Creation of online professional development courses helps to create a diverse catalog of resources that can support staff from all departments, skill and experience levels. If any department or staff member identifies a need for information, training, or development they can contribute to the course library. This makes for the ultimate personalized professional development that builds overall growth and culture.