As an edtech coach, I constantly seek innovative ways to deliver impactful choice-based professional development, and when our district decided to transition from Microsoft to Google, I saw an opportunity to reimagine our approach to professional development. My team of edtech specialists, plus our administrators and I.T. department, and I created Google Day, setting up a transformative model that engaged our entire staff and created lasting impact.

While our focus was a major platform change, this model can be adapted for any professional development topics or district-wide rollouts. Whether you're introducing a new curriculum or teaching strategies or starting any other initiative, the principles we applied can help you create a dynamic, effective choice-based professional development experience.

Implementing Choice-Based Professional Development

Our journey began about four months before the big day. First, we secured a date that was already designated as a district-wide in-service day. Then, as we brainstormed ways to make the choice-based professional development platform transition smooth and maybe even exciting, we realized that our greatest asset was right under our noses: our tech-savvy teachers. Why bring in outside experts when we had a wealth of knowledge within our schools?

This led us to set up a team we called Google Gurus, 36 teachers who would become the backbone of our professional development day. I worked with my edtech specialists to identify teachers who were already Google enthusiasts.

But we didn’t just ask them to present—we made it worth their while with a package that included a small stipend, custom Google Guru stickers, and a letter of commendation from the superintendent. We also sponsored their Google Level 1 certification courses, investing in their continued growth, and featured them on the new Google website that we began building. This public acknowledgment not only boosted their confidence but also built trust among their peers, who could read about their expertise.

In planning the content of the choice-based professional development, we gave our Gurus a list of eight Google topics that we had identified as ones we needed to cover and let them choose the topic(s) they were most passionate about, and then we worked together as a team to ensure we covered all these necessary topics.

Read the full article about choice-based professional development by Kathi Kersznowski at Edutopia.