Cohort 21 Builds off the Design Thinking Process toward a Personalized PD Approach

On Saturday, January 15th at 8:30 a.m. the Cohort 21 professional learning community met for its third time as part of the year long inquiry and action plan process.  70 CIS Ontario educators make up this Season 10 cohort. The cohort is specifically comprised of participants, coaches and facilitators from across almost all of our CIS Ontario schools. The third 'Face to Face' was built on the Design Thinking process that was initiated back in November as part of a personalized approach to professional development.

The initial portion of the morning was spent making space for the shared anxiety and uncertainty resulting from the wide-spreading Omicron variant. Valuable conversations and resources were shared highlighting the importance of integrating strategies to assess and better understand the state of wellbeing and the feelings of our students.

The conversations then shifted to the Cohort 21 Action Plan process that this year centers around 4 urgent strands (see graphics below). Each participant shared their Action Plan line of inquiry and was given the opportunity to engage in support groups to further refine their process, plan and next steps. Cohort 21 coaches and facilitators are integrated throughout this entire process and participants are given many opportunities to connect, share and support one another. All participants engage in meaningful ways to improve their practice and support their students.

The awesome day ended with a re-commitment to Action and Inquiry between now and April 9th when the Season 10 participants, coaches and facilitators will come together for a final time to celebrate all of the learning, impact and growth. You can read all about the Action Plans and connect with the thinking by visiting https://cohort21.com/activity-streams.

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