Airtight Activities for

Professional
Development
Monica Gomez
Overall Characteristics
Used to guide participants to the right conclusions with minimal facilitation

Ensure that the airtight activity is aligned to your objective

Embed the clear, BIG idea within it

Tell participants what to look for

Directions are clear and precise

Video Clips and Movie Clips
Ask a focus question before showing the video
The world is
Focus on the positive shifting from book
literacy to screen
fluency where
Connect it to your learning objective video is the new
vernacular.
(Kauffman &
Mohan, 2009, p.5)
Keep it short!

Use movie clips when you need to build buy-in.

Show clip
and then
allow them to
reflect and
share!
 Participants will watch and learn

Role Plays Role plays allow audience to make an emotional

connection

Keep it short!

It offers huge potential

mainly because of its
flexibility with respect
to a variety of contexts
and complexity of foci.
(Yardley-Matwiejczuk, 1997,
as cited in Mogra, 2012. p.6)
 Case Studies (written)
Embed every PD objective in a well written case study

Bambrick-Santoyo identifies three types of case studies:

Type 1: Solving Problems
Type 2: Learn from Failure
Type 3: Success Story

Open-ended: describe an event that leads to an unresolved dilemma

Closed: describe an event and how the dilemma was resolved

Use case study discussions for challenging issues relating to...

Teaching methods
Curriculum design
Assessment/Evaluation
Student Motivation
Student Safety
Legal responsibilities (Muth, Polizzi, & Glynn, 2007, p. 6)
(Muth, Polizzi, & Glynn, 2007, p. 6 & p.8)
 References
Bambrick-Santoyo, P. (2012). Leverage leadership: a practical guide to building exceptional
schools. San Francisco :Jossey-Bass

Herreid, C. F., & Schiller, N. (2013). Case studies and the flipped classroom. Journal of College Science Teaching, 42(5), 6266.

Kauffman, P. B., & Mohan, J. (2009). Video use and higher education: Options for the future. Retrieved from
http://library.nyu.edu/about/Video_Use_in_Higher_Education.pdf

Levey, B. (2015). Using film clips in the classroom: something old, something new?. Journal of Teaching and Learning with
Technology, 4(2), 41-50.

Mogra, I.(2012) Role play in teacher education: Is there still a place for it? Tean Journal, 4 (3) October [Online]. Available at:
http://bit.ly/YCbBmy

Muth, K.D., Polizzi, N.C., & Glynn, S.M. (2007). Using real middle school dilemmas for case-based professional
Development. Middle School Journal, 38(3), 4-9.

Pai, A. (2014). Case study: a picture worth a thousand words? Making a case for video case studies. Journal of College Science
Teaching, 43(4), 63-67.

Rosenberg, S. (n.d.). Classroom use of movie clips or banishing boredom: how Hollywood can help [Web log post].