METSS, a Staff Development Model

On my web site, I have a slogan that says:

Teach People HOW to Learn and not What to Learn

Those words are core to my teaching philosophy and are synonymous with the mission statements and core values of many schools. When you teach people how to learn, they become empowered to learn by themselves, to share what they have learned with others, and are less afraid to try the next new thing. People who know how they learn best, will set higher expectations of themselves. Opportunities begin to unfold for them that were not expected as one's confidence grows.

As teachers begin to implement research based instructional strategies they can easily be caught up in all the new information, the new learning. They might not be able to see how these strategies work in the classroom.

Over the last eight years, I have worked with teachers from Grades K - 12 to integrate technology into their curriculum. I developed a systematic method that changed how teachers integrated technology in a slow, deliberate, confidence-building way. This method is called METSS. The acronym stands for:

• Model instruction
  
• Enable collaboration
  
• Teachers teaching with support
  
• Solo teaching
  
• Showcase
  

I first Modeled instruction so that teachers knew what to expect a good lesson or unit to look like. As teachers began to feel comfortable, I Enabled them to co-plan lessons with me; they brought me their own instructional objectives and I taught them. This action empowered them because they could see how technology and/or a new instructional strategy fits into their curriculum.

As the teacher’s confidence grew, Teachers began to teach their own objectives with technology and/or a new instructional strategy, while I support them with planning, resource finding and lesson observation. Through practice, Teachers became self-directed instructors with technology and/or a new instructional strategy because they knew how to teach, which led them led to them flying Solo, teaching without my support. In an effort to show best practices, promote my staff and publish student work, I Showcased their work on our district web site. At faculty meetings teachers spoke to fellow teachers about what they were doing and this led to other teachers asking me to start a METSS cycle with them.