My design process
Action Mapping
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In the initial stages of the project, I participated in meetings with both teachers and administrators to gain insights into the challenges they faced, particularly concerning the high rate of classroom disruptions and student referrals. Through these conversations, it became evident that building positive relationships with students could be a solution to the problem. It was our goal to create a professional development course for teachers to reduce these issues and increase student success.
Text Storyboard
I organized the course content by creating a text-based storyboard. It outlined the lessons from start to finish, beginning with why building positive relationships matters. Then, it detailed how teachers can build positive relationships with their students in four ways; effective communication, active listening, expressing empathy, and building trust. Lastly, the course explains how to use de-escalation in classroom settings.
Interactive Lessons
My goal was to involve teachers in the learning process, so I incorporated interactive components. These interactive questions served as opportunities for teachers to share their experiences, engage in peer-to-peer learning, and apply the concepts directly to their own classroom management.
Conclusion
The professional development course was delivered to teachers in the beginning of the academic year. Throughout the school year, we maintained conversations about the topic during monthly faculty meetings. We pulled the data from the previous school years, and we found that classroom disruptions and classroom referrals were reduced by 8%.