What strategies and/or techniques were used to communicate the importance of the professional

development? Provide a rationale for your choice of strategies and/or techniques.

The biggest strategy that was used to communicate the importance of professional development

was data and statistics. I brought in the summary of the data collected on a building level about

our identified needs, and then I communicated what statistics show about family engagement and

the impact it has on student learning overall. When the data is presented, it makes a very

compelling argument that we not only need family engagement to be a priority in school, but that

we do not know how to do it overall and we were desiring training and ideas across the school.

What individuals did you select as participants in the professional development? Why did you

select them?

I chose to have members of our Family and Community Engagement (FACE) team be part of the

professional development. I had them speak to their experience that we had in our training with

scholastic, and then I also had them give suggestions for activities and ideas that teachers could

use with the families in their classes to help them be more engaged on a regular basis. I also

chose to have them help give the demonstration of the “BIG 3” event that we were planning to

implement at the school so that teachers could see what it would really be like when we invited

families in for this type of event.

What approaches were used to facilitate the professional development? Provide a rationale for

your choices.
The approach that was used to facilitate the professional development was mostly a presentation

to guide myself through the majority of topics and ideas that I wanted to cover for the training. I

had other members of the FACE team also helping to facilitate the professional development as

they worked to assist in engagement and encourage discussion. I used resources to present the

data that I wanted to cover, gave them printed forms of the data, and then moved through the

training with the presentation slides. I also included a run through of what our future community

event would look like so teachers could see how they would present this information to parents

and work to build that relationship with them.

What strategies were used to actively engage the participants? Provide a rationale for your

selected strategies.

The biggest strategy that was used to actively engage participants was the process of doing a

“mock” or run through of the type of event that we would be using to create a jumping off point

for engaging families in our school. We went though what an actual home visit would look like,

and what it would look like to present student data to families, and provide them with tools and

resources to assist in the learning process with their students at home. I feel that this was

effective at engaging the participants so that they were not just sitting and listening to a lecture

the entire time, but rather seeing and example of something that we would do to reach our school

goals in this area.

What assignment(s) was (were) given to participants and/or students to demonstrate the impact

of the professional development on instructional practice and student learning? What is the

connection between the assignment(s) and the professional development?

The assignment that was given to the participants (teachers) to demonstrate the impact of the

professional development was a type of survey that they filled out both before and after the

professional development took place. This allowed them to self assess their feelings on family

engagement and reflect on whether or not they felt the training was helpful for them to move

forward. This connects directly with what we were doing during the professional development

and allowed them to identify how helpful they thought it was, and additionally what information

I still needed to provide or facilitate so that we could engage families as a school and positively

impact student learning.

Before this Professional Development… (Circle One)

I believe that ALL I believe that MOST I believe that SOME I believe that VERY
families have the families have the families have the FEW families have
capacity to be active capacity to be active capacity to be active the capacity to be
participants in their participants in their participants in their active participants in
child’s education. child’s education. child’s education. their child’s
education.

After this Professional Development…(Circle One in Each Row)

I DO NOT feel a I DO NOT feel a I DO feel a need to I DO feel a need to

need to engage need to engage engage families in my engage families in my
families in my families in my students’ education students’ education
students’ education students’ education SOMETIMES. EACH DAY.
AT ALL. EACH DAY.

I DO NOT feel I feel SLIGHTLY I ALMOST feel I DO feel adequately

adequately prepared prepared to carry out adequately prepared prepared to carry out
to carry out a family a family engagement to carry out a family a family engagement
engagement activity activity like the BIG engagement activity activity like the BIG
like the BIG 3, or 3, or home visits. I like the BIG 3, or 3, or home visits. I
home visits. I DO feel SLIGHTLY home visits. I DO feel ready to
NOT feel ready to ready to begin ALMOST feel ready begin engaging
begin engaging engaging families to begin engaging families somehow
families somehow somehow each day. families somehow each day.
each day. each day.

I believe that ALL I believe that MOST I believe that SOME I believe that VERY
families have the families have the families have the FEW families have
capacity to be active capacity to be active capacity to be active the capacity to be
participants in their participants in their participants in their active participants in
child’s education. child’s education. child’s education. their child’s
education.