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ARTESIA Lamesa ISD HENRICO COUNTY ARTESIA Lamesa ISD HENRICO COUNTY ARTESIA Lamesa ISD HENRICO COUNTY ARTESIA Lamesa ISD HENRICO COUNTY ARTESIA Lamesa ISD Large, Urban Texas HENRICO COUNTY ARTESIA Lamesa ISD HENRICO COUNTY ARTESIA District Increases Lamesa ISD HENRICO COUNTY ARTESIA Lamesa ISD HENRICO COUNTY ARTESIA Lamesa ISD HENRICO COUNTY ARTESIA Lamesa ISD HENRICO Teacher Accountability COUNTY ARTESIA Lamesa ISD HENRICO COUNTY ARTESIA Lamesa ISD

Case Study

IRVING INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT, TX

PD360 has added another dimension to our professional development system allowing for Just in Time Teaching for new and/or struggling teachers with researchbased best practices.
Dianna Hopper Director for Staff Development Irving ISD, TX

FOCUS The IISD professional development (PD) department is committed to helping every staff member develop the skills and knowledge they need to ensure success for all students and close the achievement gap by delivering quality services, resources, and programs which support and promote the professional growth of its staff. IISD provides a great deal of PD for its teachers but with 4,000 employees, not all are able to come to every PD event to accrue the credits that are needed to meet contract requirements. The district wanted a resource that would allow flexibility for teachers to do some of their own PD. The district also has a large, growing ELL population and wants to provide a comprehensive program for students while training teachers in differentiated instruction. IISD Division Director of Staff Development, Dianna Hopper was looking for an online, on-demand, source that was user friendly and job embedded, to add to IISDs PD program. It needed to be a versatile resource that would add to staff effectiveness to ensure high achievement for every student. SOLUTION Ms. Hopper met School Improvement Network PD 360 Trainer Gregg Morrow at a conference four years ago. He told her about PD 360, an all-inclusive online PD resource, and he offered to put IISD on a pilot program. Ms. Hopper has been glad she accepted the offer.

DISTRICT PROFILE The Irving Independent School District (IISD) is located in the center of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and for 100 years, has been offering students the best resources available to achieve a quality education. Carefully planned academic, athletic, and extracurricular programs prepare students to succeed in a world that will demand their best. IISD serves 33,800 students. This school district was rated academically acceptable by the Texas Education Agency in 2009. All IISD high school students are issued a laptop computer. As part of a grant program, all students at DeZavala Middle School also get laptops. Sixty-seven languages are spoken by IISD students who represent 99 different countries. There are 73% of students qualifying for free and reduced lunches. IISD is a minority-majority district and 67% of the students are Hispanic. English Language Learners (ELL) make up 39% of the student population.
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ABOUT PD 360 PD 360 is an on-demand library of professional teacher development resources that leverages technology to make professional learning more effective, convenient, and sustainable. With over 200 hours of research-based video content, plus tools for follow-up, tracking, reflection, and group training, PD 360 is the most comprehensive solution to your professional teacher development needs. More than 600,000 educators across North America already use PD 360 to access individualized support on the most relevant topics, like differentiation, minority student achievement, English language learners, classroom instruction that works, leadership, assessment, and many more. PD 360s content is divided into hundreds of indexed and searchable segments that make it easy for teachers, administrators, aspiring leaders, coaches, mentors, paraprofessionals, and professional learning communities to find the answers they need. New content is continually added to keep you up-to-date. See a demonstration at www.pd360.com. DRIVING USAGE AND IMPLEMENTATION

liaisons provide support to first and second year teachers and feel it is important to train these new teachers to use PD 360. Therefore, new teachers are immediately introduced to it as a teaching resource. > Teacher Liaisons Teacher liaisons give ongoing first and second year teacher support. They are often retired teachers hired by IISD. They meet with first and second year teachers on a regular basis to answer questions and listen to concerns. When there is an issue in a classroom, a teacher liaison can direct the teacher to PD 360 segments included in programs such as Classroom Management, Differentiated Instruction, and many more. > Teachers Who Struggle The instructional support staff helps teachers who struggle. They are able to easily suggest specific PD 360 segments in classroom management and diversity that show what best classroom practices look like in needed areas. Each teachers usage as well as their answers to Reflection and Follow-Up Questions can be tracked by the administration to follow growth. > Walkthroughs Getting principals into the classrooms has a huge impact on teacher training. When principals do classroom walkthroughs, they can suggest specific PD 360 segment links that are relevant to the instructional needs of the teachers while providing easy and effective, job-embedded follow-up. Being able to quickly email instant remediation on many issues has been beneficial to both IISD principals and teachers alike. > Staff Development Training PD 360 makes it easy for IISD to personalize staff development training. Video segments in differentiation, assessments, compliance, and paraprofessional needs are shared to help teachers implement new strategies. The digitized Facilitator Guides that accompany video programs provide assistance as district facilitators prepare training sessions. > Teacher Certification IISD teachers are allowed up to six credits of PD 360 for Distributed Learning Credits and it may be used by Instructional Paraprofessionals for District Exchange Credits. The first set of reflection questions must be answered after viewing each segment and the programs selected must align with Core Curriculum objectives. > English Language Learners (ELLs) IISD is a school district that welcomes diverse heritages and excels at meeting these students thirst for learning. PD 360 ELL and differentiated instruction programs are helping teachers in these areas. > Large Library of Content Educators in IISD can immediately find the help they need in the 1400 fully indexed, video learning segments that address the most pertinent topics and have easy

> Excellent Training IISD has formed a Staff Development Council made up of one representative from each school. The council and administrators received beneficial instruction on PD 360 by School Improvement Network trainers. Those who were trained then went back to their schools and shared the information with their colleagues. The training we received from School Improvement Network for PD 360 was of good quality. In fact, we have scheduled more training for the Focus Objectives. And when we have called for any technical help, the School Improvement Network people have been friendly and very willing to help us.
Dianna Hopper Director for Staff Development Irving ISD, TX

> Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) PD 360 supports Professional Learning Communities in IISD and gives them a solid resource to study. PLCs watch a PD 360 video segment and discuss how to apply the practices in their classrooms. The accompanying digitized Facilitator Guides provide group activities, discussion questions, lesson plans, and graphic organizers. Many include handouts that can be printed. > New Teachers IISD instructional coaches, administrators, and teacher

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search ability. In addition, PD 360 continues to add more programs that are up-to-date and applicable. > Job Embedded/Accessible Professional Growth Professional development should not be identical for each IISD teacher but should be job embedded to be responsive to a teachers day-to-day practices in school and student needs. As questions and situations arise in classrooms, teachers can instantly find answers in PD 360 to improve teaching and give support when needed instead of waiting for workshops. The wide variety of content in PD 360 ensures that teachers of every experience level can find individualized help when they need it. Because PD 360 is an online and on-demand solution, teachers in IISD can access it anytime and anywhere they have the Internet. They can log on at home as well as at work, encouraging teacher education on their own time schedule. We love that teachers are able to use PD 360 on their own as a professional growth tool. When they are in need and looking for help, they can find it.
Dianna Hopper Director for Staff Development Irving ISD, TX

ideas, participate in discussion forums, upload lesson plans, and share web links to helpful resources. Teachers and administrators can share best practices, learn from one another, and eliminate classroom isolation regardless of location. Learning Communities can be created as public or private domains. CONCLUSION By bringing PD 360 to its professional development for teachers, IISD has added a school improvement support that is versatile, all inclusive, and gives teachers personal accountability. The district is easily able to focus on content, classroom management, assessment, and English Language Learners. ABOUT SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT NETWORK The School Improvement Network is the leading provider of teacher education and teacher training, specializing in on-demand, research-based professional development anytime, anywhere. As the home of The Video Journal of Education, PD 360, and the Leadership and Learning Framework, School Improvement Networks education training resources focus on the most relevant topics, such as classroom management. The resources also feature top experts such as Michael Fullan and Douglas Reeves, and show how to put theory into practice. With its focus on long-term improvement, sustainability, and greater internal capacity, the School Improvement Network helps its clients close achievement gaps, meet high standards and increase student learning for both elementary education and secondary education. To learn more about School Improvement Networks dynamic resources, visit www.schoolimprovement.com.

> Focus Objectives Ms. Hopper is planning to customize PD 360 Focus Objectives to align with state, district, and school goals and initiatives in the coming year. As teachers and administrators use these aligned segments, they can actually see what the standards and best classroom practices look like when implemented in real classrooms. Focus Objectives allow administrators to efficiently drive common language and practice with all educators. > Relevant Topics IISD is very happy that new, quality content is continually being added to the up-to-date PD 360 library providing a resource that helps teachers continue to grow professionally. PD 360 has programs dealing with nearly every educational initiative of the past two decades. > Real Classroom Examples Teachers in IISD have been pleased with the wide variety of real classrooms from across the country that are shown in every PD 360 program because they can actually see how to implement best practices in their own classroom management. > Real Experts Over 120 respected education experts are available at each IISD teachers fingertips whenever they need them. Now educators do not have to wait to attend workshops and conferences yet can learn from the best authorities. > Interactive Communities PD 360 Learning Communities allow teachers to communicate and collaborate with each other. Through it, teachers present each other with implementation
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