Grant Proposal - Vclay

NEA  - Learning & Leadership Grant Proposal

http://www.neafoundation.org/pages/learning-leadership-grants/#

Summary

This project is to support a group of adult basic educators to establish a virtual Professional Learning Community (vPLC). Adult basic educators in rural counties in West Virginia work in isolation. They are beholden to the same program goals, expectations, and curriculum as larger programs, but work without the advantage of peers to “bounce ideas off of” and co-teach. A virtual Professional Learning community would present opportunities for collaboration and innovation to happen online. This proposal is to fund travel costs associated with initial face-to-face meetings to establish the project, costs to fund substitutes for the instructors and software costs.

Goals 
Describe the professional development plan. What are your goals in this learning? What learning resources do you plan to use? How does the proposed professional development advance your professional goals? How does it advance your workplace goals?

The main goal of this project is to establish an online, virtual Professional Learning Community of rural, isolated Adult Basic Educators. This project will allow a small group of 3-5 instructors to collectively brainstorm, create, experiment, and revise lesson plans and teaching strategies and support each other in implementing new program goals, in order to create a better way to serve our students.

Goals for the first phase of this project would include an initial face-to-face meeting with teacher participants to share ideas, establish goals and guidelines with the objective of establishing a collaborative vPLC.  A teacher leader will also attend a conference that includes discussion of vPLCs (TBD), or visiting another community of educators who are successfully engaged in a vPLC to discover best practices. The initial phase would include identifying several software programs and formats that have been successfully used in vPLCs, or have the potential to be successful. In a second Face-to-Face meeting between teacher participants, best practices learned by the PD activity will be shared with the group; guidelines, goals and ideas will be revisited and revised if necessary; and software will be presented and demonstrated. After allowing the participants adequate time to “play” with the various software/platform (demos might have to be arranged?), the group will decide which software will best serve their vPLC needs and the software will be purchased.

In the second (implementation) phase of the project, a two-day meeting will be held in order to install software, collaborate on initial set-up of systems for use of software in order to address needs of participants, train participants to use platform/software. A weekly virtual meeting time will be negotiated, and rules (with consequences) will be established for compliance. Also, meeting dates and locations for face-to-face meetings will be determined for the year. It is the intention of this project that meetings take place in a different site/classroom every month on a rotating basis. An ongoing evaluation method to determine effectiveness and participant satisfaction of the project will also be created.

In the third (“working out all the kinks”) phase of the project, monthly face-to-face check-in meetings will be held in order to address any issues with usability, compliance or collaboration issues. Troubleshooting software and rethinking systems will also take place during these meetings if necessary.

The fourth phase (locking it in and planning ahead) will consist of face-to-face meetings held every other month and two-day end of year meeting to evaluate effectiveness, revise goals and/or guidelines and plan for the following year. It is the intention of this project that these meetings will continue for the life of the vPLC and are crucial to the sustainability of the project. It is also the intention that the goals, guidelines, methods, software and meetings will be re-evaluated and revised to reflect the needs and concerns of participants on a yearly basis.

Sustainability
How will this project continue beyond the grant period? How will you continue sharing the knowledge gained in this project? Describe sharing in relation to your colleagues, students, and administrators.

It is the intention of this project that every other month, face-to-face meetings and a year -end meeting will continue for the life of the vPLC.  These meetings are critical to the sustainability of the project, and alternate funding sources will have to be found to cover transportation and substitute costs. It is the hope of the teacher/grantee that this could be used as a model for other isolated teacher groups across the state, and that funding on the department level (which already covers the cost of professional development trainings) will be able to cover these costs. Proper evaluation methods will need to be established early on in this project in order to prove it’s effectiveness. Future funding requests will hinge on this evaluation. Furthermore, all face-to-face and virtual meetings, will be documented by recording audio and note-taking. This documentation will be made available via the online platform for participants’ reference and can be used to help evaluate the project.

Professional Needs
What is the need for this professional development? How did you and your colleagues assess the need? Please define need in terms of both student need and professional need by the applicant(s).

West Virginia has a lot of new changes happening in adult basic education, including a new high school equivalency assessment starting in January 2014, that will incorporate 21st Century Skills. The past year has also brought a new focus on career awareness for our Adult learners, and a Technology Innovation grant that equipped all our classrooms with Smartboards, I-Pads, Document Camera’s, Kindles and other technological advances to integrate into our instruction. With these changes, teachers are struggling to catch up and keep up. In larger counties in the state, the instructors have the benefit of a team of educators to supplement their deficiencies (whether that’s technological or otherwise), in rural counties it is not unusual to find only one full time (or one half-time) instructor. This project is meant to meet the professional needs of those isolated educators.

Activities

How, when, and where will the learning be accomplished? (Please be aware of the date of grant announcement. Any project taking place prior to the announcement will automatically be removed from consideration. Grant announcement dates can be found here.)

	Action & Goal	Resources needed
June 2013	Initial meeting with teacher/participants to decide on guidelines and group goals for vPLC. Identify professional development activity for teacher leader to learn about other vPLCs.	funds to travel to central location. funds to cover substitute costs. Conference fees & Travel costs (if appropriate).
July 2013 (beginning of fiscal year	Face-to-Face meeting to share best practices for establishing a vPLC, including a presentation of possible software that could be utilized (to be presented by teacher leader who received the PD). Group chooses software to act as online platform for the vPLC. -Software purchase	funds to travel to central location. funds to cover substitute costs. software costs.
August 2013	2 day meeting to: install software collaborate on initial set-up of online platform to most accurately address the needs of all participants train on software establish guidelines for use - including designating weekly meeting times. Create an evaluation method to determine effectiveness.	funds to cover travel/hotel costs, substitute costs.
September 2013	Initial Face to Face check-in meeting to troubleshoot and address any issues with the software and/or instructor compliance with collaboration via vPLC	funds to travel to central location. funds to cover substitute costs.
October 2013 - February 2014	Monthly, Face to Face check-in meetings (at least for the first 6 months) to troubleshoot and address any issues with the software and/or instructor compliance with collaboration via vPLC	funds to travel to central location. funds to cover substitute costs.
April 2014	Face to Face check-in meeting (every other month), re-establish and re-visit goals for vPLC.	funds to travel to central location. funds to cover substitute costs.
June 2014	Face to Face check-in meeting (every other month). Create/revise plan for new fiscal year for  vPLC (as determined by needs or concerns of participants)	funds to travel to central location. funds to cover substitute costs.