After participants met to share successes, strategies, and ideas for next steps, key leadership themes, spurred by knowledge gleaned from the PD sessions, emerged:
1. Strong emphasis on ongoing adult learning to help principals implement blended and digital learning programs with purpose: “Things would happen without the course, but they wouldn’t happen as strategically or as intentional. The course presents it clearly and it accelerates our timeline; brings it a little deeper,” said Nicole L’Etoile, West Warwick High School assistant principal.
2. Focus on modeling and job-embedded professional learning: LBDL facilitators modeled effective uses of blended learning strategies and digital tools, which participating principals took back to their schools.
3. Foster an open, collaborative and trusting culture: Facilitators help participating principals foster a culture shift in their schools, making it OK for teachers to try something new and fail, because learning from failure is still learning.
“We’re always working at culture, that never goes away, but when you learn a different set of pedagogical strategies and different learning needs for kids based on 21st century skills, your culture has to be redefined,” said Lynne Burke, an LBDL facilitator and technology director of the Coventy School District.
4. Create opportunities to see blended learning in practice: An open culture leads to more collaboration among teachers, with many participating principals reporting that their teachers frequently observe colleagues’ classrooms for ways to improve their own instructional practices.
LBDL facilitators said principals noted a number of successes after implementing program knowledge in their schools. Those successes include the development of a vision and plan, increased engagement at all levels, growing personalized learning, and expanded leadership capacity within schools and across the state.
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