The Oklahoma Teacher Leadership and Learning Cohort (OTLL) provides opportunities for experienced or master teachers to lead PD projects that enhance their professionalism and skills, extend their learning and share their expertise with others. The annual program is designed with the recognition that ongoing teacher learning is vital in supporting the goals of the Teaching and Learning vision: Learn Now, Expand Today, Use Tomorrow.
Teachers who are currently working in the classroom can apply, as individuals or as teams, to undertake self-directed projects with their own unique learning and sharing activities. The program has three goals:
Teacher Professional Learning:
Teacher Leadership:
Sharing of Exemplary Practices:
** Approved and completed PD sessions will post to the OPSRC member platform. For each completed PD, there will be an “at-a-glance” synopsis that includes a description of the session, a list of resources and contact information for the teacher leader. These tools are intended to serve as a resource for OPSRC member schools, principals, and teachers to support future professional learning initiatives.
Experienced teachers from all Oklahoma schools, who want to deepen their learning in an area of their expertise
Teachers whose primary assignment is teaching students (e.g., classroom teacher, teacher-librarian, guidance counsellor, co-op teacher, department head)
Individual teachers or groups of teachers; groups must be teacher-led but may include other educational workers, such as education assistants, instructional facilitators and principals
Substitute teachers are not eligible to lead a OTLL cohort; however, these educators can provide extremely valuable input as team members. The focus of the program is on experienced teachers who have chosen not to pursue system level or administrative roles and therefore do not have the opportunities to share their knowledge and experience, as consultants do, for example
OTLL is meant to deepen professional learning for teachers or teacher-led groups that bring relevant background or experience to the topic. OTLL also fosters the sharing of the teacher’s or teacher-led group’s learning with colleagues. In this context, applicants will need to indicate what background and experience they bring to the cohort and:
The focus of OTLL is to provide opportunities for knowledge construction and personalization of learning that is developed by the learner and connected to their own “real world” classroom practice. As such, experienced classroom teachers are encouraged to collaborate with their colleagues to pursue their own authentic learning goals
Examples of PD projects are:
Compensation:
Ineligible costs
The extent to which the proposal is guided by the following five characteristics of effective professional learning:
The quality of the PD proposal
The extent to which the topic would have an impact on student learning and development and reflect OPSRC/district/school goals
The potential impact for the learning of participating and external educators
The potential of the plan for sharing with others in the school, district, and OPSRC membership (i.e. the potential for replication and interest on a larger scale)
The extent to which the learning and sharing outcomes can be measured
This committee is comprised of OPSRC Teaching and Learning Staff and OTLL cohort participants.
OTLLC will:
Inform teachers of the selection decision in February.
