Today on the podcast we’re highlighting some new and exciting professional development that’s on deck this spring at Heinemann. There are lots of engaging courses coming up ranging from multilingual instruction to social emotional learning, with options to fit a range of schedules. We’re joined by Lish Mitchell and Jaclyn Karabinas from the Heinemann PD team to tell us more. 

Below is a transcript of this episode.

Lish: Hello everyone. My name is Lish Mitchell, Heinemann PD marketing director, and I'm graciously joined by lead instructional designer, Jaclyn Karabinas.

Jaclyn: Hey, Lish, how are you?

Lish: I'm doing fantastic. Super excited to be speaking with you today about PD, our favorite thing. So, before we take a deep dive into all things PD this spring, can you first speak to your role in the development of our PD offerings?

Jaclyn: So, what's really great about being an instructional designer is I can take all of the things I love, classroom teaching, working with adults, designing learning experiences, and really put it all together with designing the virtual workshops and hopefully in the future, some in person or hybrid events, as we get closer to that.

Lish: Can you speak to some recent decisions and changes for our upcoming sessions?

Jaclyn: Yes. And thank you for asking about that, Lish, because we have so many new kinds of offerings that we didn't have before for a lot of reasons. Before COVID hit, we provided professional learning based on the books that we published. And when we realized that we needed to get professional learning more quickly to teachers on more specific topics without needing to wait for a book to be published, then all of a sudden we had the flexibility because of the virtual world to bring in a wider range of voices with a broader range of expertise, and really diversify the formats so that we could provide professional learning opportunities in smaller chunks of time. And so, one of the biggest really, successes I feel from our side and from participants feedback has been the 90 minute mini workshop. The 90 minute mini workshops, they're really like a just right chunk of time to dig into something.

Whether it's something you're trying to refresh your learning on, something you're trying to just get started with. And a really great way for us to get to know many voices in the field and lots of different kinds of expertise. So, that's been really successful. And the other thing we added was the half day workshop, because sometimes you just need a little more time to dig in. We previously, when we were in person for most of our PD workshops were always full day and while a full day for some kinds of learners, some people really love the full day to immerse yourself in a certain kind of content for the day, in the virtual world, we all know that was really hard. And so, we have far fewer virtual full-day workshops than we did before when we were in person, but we still have a few because some people really do like digging into something for the day. And of course, we've had our webinar series and on-demand content for years.

Before March 2020, our online PD department really just had webinar series and on-demand content with courses that you can earn CEUs with. And we still have those. And the webinar series continue because those are in three or four parts. There are 75 minute sessions, and it's another way to really learn content and really have some community around content, but have some time in between to try things, synthesize your learning and come back and ask the author, presenter, your questions,

Lish: Beautiful breakdown of all of our offerings. And I know it can kind of be overwhelming with so many things to choose from. And I know something that's new this year for Heinemann is categorizing our offerings by themes. So we have writing, reading, creating change, math, literacy. Can you tell us more about that Jaclyn?

Jaclyn: Yeah. So, when we decided to categorize into themes, we did it because fatigue is definitely a thing right now, but decision fatigue is absolutely a thing. And so, while we added more formats and more options and a wider range of presenters and topics, that almost created a new problem. And so, being able to group all of our offerings for this season into themes, gave us a way to put out a blog on here, all of the possibilities you have to dig into aspects of writing instruction or a math instruction. And so, that's been really successful to help break down the offerings for people so that if you know, this year, you're really trying to focus on creating change in your school or district, you can click on the creating change blog and everything is just filtered down for you, so that you can find exactly what you need.

Lish: Can you kind of dig into some of the other offerings that we can expect this year?

Jaclyn: Yeah. So actually coming up next week, we have two starting. So, this one's really in the theme of literacy and creating change. And on Monday we have a half-day workshop, Monday, April 4th, with Kass Minor. And Kass Minor is... She's an amazing community-based educator. She's really inspiring. She has expertise in education and curriculum development, special education. And I love learning from Kass because she really has this ability to convey how able children are to grapple with challenging topics. And she really has an asset-based approach to working with kids of all ages. And so, her workshop on Monday is about honoring learners, honoring young learners and activating a justice-oriented curriculum. And so, this workshop is going to be super hands on. You're going to be able to choose from one of three paths of justice-oriented curriculum design that she'll walk you through.

And then you'll be able to design something that you can use use this year with your students. So really looking forward to that one. One other event next week is with Andrea Honigsfeld. And that is a full-day workshop about supporting multilingual learners, what every teacher needs to know about English language learners. And what I love so much about Andrea Honigsfeld is she is an extremely engaging presenter. You can tell she's really passionate about her content and she's so knowledgeable, but she comes from such an asset-based perspective that you can't help but leave PD with her, feeling as though you're able to look at your students through a glass, half full sort of lens, all the time. And so, that one is a full-day workshop, but we do have recording access. And so, if that day doesn't work for you, maybe you have another professional day coming up where you might be able to dedicate the time to a full-day workshop.

We also have coming up a webinar series with Heidi Anne Mesmer. And this webinar series is specifically, it's focused on phonics. And Heidi Ann, what I really like about learning from her, is how clear and direct she is about research and its translation into practice. So, she is so knowledgeable about foundational literacy skills, but she really explains how to bring it to life in your practice. And she has really practical strategies. There are things that you'll be able to use right away. And so, this is a webinar series. And so, this is three sessions of 75 minutes each, so you'll be able to try things in between sessions. You'll be able to make observations from your students and really in between sessions, bring back your questions for Heidi Ann or for the group. And the final session of her series is going to be designed around participants, specific questions and scenarios and roadblocks. So, that will be really beneficial if you're someone that really knows you need to dig deeper into phonics.

Lish: And for our Spanish language teachers, can you kind of speak to our offerings as well

Jaclyn: So this is exciting. So Jennifer Serravallo, she designed a workshop and a webinar series for teaching writing in small groups. She recently published teaching writing in small groups. Some of you may know that the Reading Strategies and the Writing Strategies book have also been both translated into Spanish. And so, with her colleague, Clarisa Leal, she developed, and then Clarisa translated this series into Spanish. And this is presented fully in Spanish. The chatbox is flowing in Spanish. And Clarissa refers to teaching writing in small groups and to the Writing Strategies book in this series. And so, if you are a dual language teacher or you're fully Spanish language teacher, this is going to be the perfect series for you because Clarisa combines all of Jen's work and all of the ways that Jen breaks down strategies into actionable steps. She goes through all of that in Spanish and talks about the nuances of working with multilingual learners in working with the Spanish language.

So if that is you, this series starts on April 27th. And so, I highly recommend it. Another virtual workshop we have coming is with Kylene Beers and Robert Probst. If you've seen their Notice & Note book or their Reading Nonfiction books or heard of the Signposts, or even if you haven't, I would definitely check this one out. They had two versions of this on the schedule, they had what's called the 101 version that was a few weeks ago, and they have the Notice & Note 201 version coming up. And really the Signposts help us... They help us read in a way that just really peaks curiosity. And I, as a former third and fourth grade teacher, even though the Signposts, the books were really written for upper-level grades, they are something that I found valuable for sure, with younger grades. And I've really enjoyed that. So, you want to check that out. And then Jennifer Serravallo is starting a webinar series. Actually, by the time you hear this podcast, the series may have already started, but that's okay because you can still join it in progress.

So you check that out. The webinar series is about small group instruction, teaching with intention and power, and she is joined by some of her colleagues that will facilitate breakout rooms. But if you don't want to do the series or you're not able to do the series for the small group instruction webinar series, she's also doing that same content in a full-day workshop on June 8th. And so, you can kind of pick the format that works best for you, doing it over 4, 75 minute sessions or the other recording if you miss the first one or in June for the full day. And then we have a really exciting mini-workshop in May with Roberto and Lorena German on restorative writing for teachers. But you're going to hear more about that on the podcast in the coming weeks. So, just kind of tuck that in the back of your mind for a mini-workshop that will be coming in May.

Lish: Excellent. So, what else can we look forward to in 2022?

Jaclyn: Well, we have so much planned. My head is spinning. I'm really excited about all of the things we have planned. And I think as a former classroom teacher, I'm always thinking about designing the kind of PD that I would want to attend. In the PD if I was still in the classroom, I would want to attend. But a lot of the ideas come from following the conversations on social media, having conversations with my colleagues who are still in the classroom now, talking with authors, our consulting authors about what they are seeing and experiencing in the field every day. And so, we have a couple of institutes this summer. The Institute for Racial Equity with Dr. Sonja Cherry-Paul and Tricia Ebarvia will be coming up again this summer, so be on the lookout for that.

We have a two-day writing Institute with Matt Glover and Carl Anderson. That's pretty exciting. And that's brand new. We have a few other things planned for the summer, but just check the website or follow us on social to see what's coming. And for fall I can't tell you anything yet, but I will tell you that we are hard at work on a lot of new on-demand content, finding ways for you to be able to access the learning that you need, and get the kind of professional learning you need whenever you have time for it. So be on the lookout for that, because we are really excited about how our on-demand content is going to expand, coming this fall.

Lish: Excellent information, Jaclyn. I'm so thankful for all of the offerings that you help put together, all the conversations that are going on to make sure that we're providing the best for educators everywhere. And again, you can visit our website at heinemann.com/pd. So, you can not only see the current offerings, but everything to look forward to in the future. So many thanks again to you Jaclyn and to all of you all for listening to learn more about Heinemann PD.

Jaclyn: Thank you, Lish. It's been so great to talk with you.