Faculty Handbook

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Professional Development Advisory Committee

The Palo Alto College Professional Development Advisory Committee consists of a group of faculty and staff that meets the first Wednesday of every month Fall and Spring semesters. This committee provides feedback on professional development events that have occurred in the past, provides suggestions for needed future professional development sessions, and provides input on plans for periodically scheduled professional development events. A perusal of the agendas and minutes from the Professional Development Advisory Committee Meetings this past year will give a sense of this group's invaluable feedback and guidance for Faculty and Staff Professional Development initiatives at Palo Alto College. Among the changes that were made, thanks to the Professional Development Advisory Committee input, was the scheduling of Tech@demy (PAC's Technology Showcase for faculty) during Convocation Week rather than during the Summer.

 

Agendas and minutes PD Advisory Committee

PD Advisory Committe Minutes - May 4, 2011

 

Evaluations for the PAC Faculty Retreat and Employee Development Day

 

Pac Faculty Retreat

August 14, 2010 marked the first ever PAC Faculty Retreat, a professional development day especially devoted to the training needs of adjunct faculty at Palo Alto College. Evaluation results indicated that adjunct faculty valued the learning opportunities and asked that the presentations last longer next year. Based on feedback from the PAC Faculty Retreat, a session on ACES for All Faculty was added to the Employee Development Day program.

2010 PAC Retreat Evaluation

2011 Adjunct and Faculty Development Day Evaluation

 

Employee Development Day

September 29, 2009 and September 29, 2010, Palo Alto College employees participated in Employee Development Day. Evaluations from the most recent event indicate that there were useful sessions for all employee groups. Suggestions for the 2011 Employee Development Day include:

  • Healthier food with more vegetarian options that are clearly labeled as vegetarian.
  • Covering or tents over picnic tables.
  • More sessions that they can choose from.
  • Sessions geared towards fun and relaxing activities.

Employee Development Day Evaluations

 

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Informal Input

e-mail blasts

Periodically all faculty and staff are invited to provide suggestions for needed professional development sessions through an "e-mail blast". The most recent request (February 10, 2010) yielded 23 replies with 17 distinct suggestions. Of the 17 suggestions, 14 have been implemented.

Implemented suggestions

  1. Dealing with Disruptive/Difficult Students Inside and Outside of the Classroom (handled with the SOBI sessions)
  2. Writing Across the Curriculum (handled with Employee Development Day session Tips by English and Speech Faculty for Assigning and Assessing Student Writing and Oral Presentations for Non-English Faculty and Non-Speech Faculty)
  3. SMART Classroom (3 requests) (SMART Classroom Train the Trainer sessions)
  4. Microsoft Access and Excel instruction(2 requests)  (curriculum purchased in the Instructional Innovation Center)
  5. FERPA Regulations (handled with Employee Development Day sessions)
  6. Banner Training (2 requests) (handled with sessions during Convocation Week Fall 10 and in October 2010)
  7. Improving Presentation Skills (handled with a session Employee Development Day)
  8. Teaching Math to Students with Learning Disabilities (handled with a Winston School presentation to the math faculty)
  9. Cooperative Learning (2 requests) (handled with Dr. Barbara Millis’ presentations during Employee Development Day)
  10. Using Social Networking with Students (3 requests) (handled with Tweeting and Blogging Brown Bag and Tech@demy presentations)
  11. Assessment Methods/Effective Grading (2 requests) (handled with Dr. Virginia Anderson’s Workshop, Pat Stone session during PAC Faculty Retreat)
  12. Faculty Advisor Training (handled with Fall 10 sessions)
  13. Learning Community Training (handled with Dr. Barbara Millis workshop and Pat Stone session)
  14. Share Your Favorite Lesson (handled with Assignment Brainstorm Fall 10 Convocation)

Suggestions in the queue

    • 7 Habits of Highly Effective College Students Seminar
    • Why You Could be Disciplined, Fired or Sued
    • Conflict Resolution Education in Teacher Education


    Executive Team Meeting Input and Deans/Chairs/Directors Meeting Input

    Sabrina Carey and Patricia Stone sit on both the Executive Team and attend the Deans/Chairs/Directors Meetings. These meetings often uncover needed professional development training for the staff and faculty as Palo Alto College seeks to implement new initiatives. An example of a training session that resulted from suggestions at the Executive Team Meeting was Banner for Faculty in time to help faculty advise students for Spring 11 registration.


    Attendance Counts for Sessions and Evaluations

    Attendance counts are recorded for every professional development event at Palo Alto College along with e-mail contact information for attendees. These attendance counts are reviewed and used to inform professional development offerings as well as times professional development sessions are offered. For example, an examination of the faculty attendance counts for Brown Bag sessions Spring 10 showed that lunch time sessions for faculty was not working well. As a result, Fall 10 faculty professional development sessions were scheduled later in the day.

    Beginning Fall 10, every professional development sessions at Palo Alto College was evaluated by participants using the following questions:


    1. I learned something in this training session related to my job at Palo Alto College that was useful.

    1

    Strongly Disagree

    2

    Disagree

    3

    Not Sure

    4

    Agree

    5

    Strongly Agree

    2. I would recommend this training to other employees at Palo Alto College

    1

    Strongly Disagree

    2

    Disagree

    3

    Not Sure

    4

    Agree

    5

    Strongly Agree

    3. If you would not recommend this training, please let us know why.

     

     

     

     

     

    These evaluation results are providing insight into the usefulness of the sessions.

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