The Story Behind the Story Transcript:

Hello, I am Joseph Fisher. I am a music teacher in the Rose Tree Media School District in Pennsylvania. Professional development has been a passion of mine, and I first delivered a presentation to my colleagues about how to record a screen using QuickTime, a skill many utilized when we delivered blended instruction in 2020. It is my goal to convince the administration of my district to change their belief about professional development. The “implementation dip” defined by Gulamhussein (2013), is ​the biggest hurdle for our professional development efforts, and I believe that I can persuade others that there is a way to deliver effective professional learning experiences.

The Why

The idea for my presentation, “The Yearn to Learn” is built on the time I have spent on the Rose Tree Media Professional Development committee. Our assistant superintendent invited one or two teachers from each school to represent the content and grade levels in this group. We have met about four times per year and implemented strategies to improve and enhance professional development in our district based on teacher and administrator feedback. In my slideshow, I am presenting to my colleagues in this committee and intend to grab their attention with Duarte’s Sparkline: stating of “What is” and “What could be.”

Replacing the word ‘development’ with ‘learning’ is a purposeful proposal to engage my colleagues to consider this as a transformation from what we did before to what we need to do. Stating “It Doesn’t Work” is attention-grabbing and is my way to call to action.

I have offered solutions to professional development that did not work in the past, but I believe this presentation would support my previous efforts with the necessary data and research as I highlight the five principles of effective professional development.

Finally, the title of the presentation is a representation of my colleagues. I strongly believe that the professionals in my district are interested in improving. When we have experienced great PD efforts together, we have not been given the time, resources, or guidance to put it into action. My presentation highlights the need for change and, as I state in “The Yearn to Learn,” a new philosophy.

The What

To create this slide deck, I took guidance from Nancy Duarte’s YouTube channel and her book, “Resonate” (Duarte, 2013). As I outline the five principles, I emphasize what we do not do in our district and offer a solution as to how to accomplish it. I connect some of the lessons to my own experiences as I discuss music and learning in reference to the importance of modeling. The slides are meant to supplement the verbal presentation, grab the attention of the listener, and focus on the main idea of each. To accomplish this, I was careful in selecting colors and how I used pictures and fonts. The final slide is a reminder that this is a call to transform our professional development as I simply share, “time to change.”​

The How

I used Apple Keynote to design this presentation along with images from Pexels.com, some of which I edited in Pixelmator Pro. There are also images I created of my teacher and I to make a personal connection to the modeling principle. In the movie version of my slideshow, I provide original music that I recorded on the keyboard to begin and end the presentation. I recorded the movie with QuickTime and edited the movie using Final Cut Pro