Professional Development Team

Executive Team:​ Jeremy Mitchell, Kate Kimball, Michael Fletcher, Michael Pruchnicki
Professional Development:​ The Positivity Project, Character Education Movement Training
Audience​: Grand Blanc Community Schools, All District Employees
Needs Assessment
● Staff will be surveyed to determine their receptiveness toward a district-wide character education
plan.
● All staff, students 10 years and older, and parents will take the Values in Action character strengths
survey linked ​HERE​ to find out more about their own character strengths.
Objectives
● Introduce ALL Grand Blanc School buildings (elementary, middle, and high) to The Positivity
Project strategy, positive psychology’s 24 character strengths, and develop staff cohesion.
● Implement daily hits of character education (10 minutes) into all classrooms centered around positive
psychology’s 24 character strengths unified district wide.
Evaluation Strategies
● Stakeholder surveys: student, staff, and parents.
● Service projects and artifacts
● Attendance and behavior data
Focused and Sustained Time
● Formation of Culture and Character Leadership Committee (4 building administrators)
● Reorganization and rebranding of the PBIS district committee as the Culture and Character
Committee (C2). 2 representatives from each elementary, 3-4 from middle schools, and 4-5
from high school.
○ C2 committee will meet monthly to prepare and plan for the roll out of the Positivity
Project implementation district wide.
● Positivity Project Rollout Day: ​1 day introduction to positive psychology​, Positivity Project
implementation in the building, and city-wide ​scavenger hunt​ experience in teams learn
deeply about the character strengths, build teams and get fired up for the upcoming year.
● C2 committee subsequent monthly meetings to report out progress at buildings, pull out
specific messages to understand culture in the strengths, and share ideas and strategies.

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 ● One mid-year, and one summative PD session about Culture and Character led by building
C2 reps.
Resources
● Initial Positivity Project Professional Development costs $199 person. Recommended principal and
two teachers attend. All resources are free and open source. Schools will print tee shirts, banners and
any handouts at own independent facility.
● Revenue: United Way of Genesee County Grant - $8,000
○ Covers cost of training for admin and lead teachers, plus printing and material needs
● Revenue: District and Building Contributions - $3,000
○ Covers the cost of substitutes for release time for C2 committee members to plan PD and
building related Positivity Project events.
Professional Development Strategies
● Start with Why, staff are oriented to the increase in narcissism and decrease in empathy facts.
Participants then have are introduced to positive psychology and the 24 character strengths and how
they will be taught throughout the year.
● Team Scavenger Hunt - participants will dig deep into the 24 character and literally live what each
means. This will inspire and inform their teaching to their students in the following year.
● Expert jigsaw - C2 committee members will be tasked with becoming experts in the upcoming
character strengths coming up each month and provide highlights for the team. Each presentation will
include additional ways that teachers can pull out cultural awareness and competence strategies.
Follow-up:
● Continue to work with and coach C2 committee members for how to best lead the movement in their
buildings.
● Connect C2 members with other school building P2 leaders across the country for idea sharing,
particularly through social media.
● Present mid-year evaluation at school board meeting (Jan or Feb)
● Conduct program evaluation district-wide to determine sustain and improve feedback.
● C2 committee will report out at final year end meeting in Spring 2018 the progress and satisfaction
with the initiative.
● Send C2 members to summit to network with other schools implementing the movement.

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Written Plan & Timeline
See the following document linked ​HERE