Teaching has certainly changed since I started my career in 1990. The demands on the professionals in the classroom are various and complex. Most of the biggest challenges we talk about in 2011 didn't exist or were unknown just two decades ago. For teachers to be successful and satisfied in their constantly changing roles, they need good professional development. What we once thought was good professional development is no longer supported by the professional research. When I first started teaching we basically had two types of professional development. The first was a 'sit and get' at a conference, workshop or seminar. These one-day opportunities were often fun to attend but did little to change the learning environment in my school, beyond my individual classroom. The second type of opportunity was the motivational speaker or guru that was brought into the school to explain the latest and greatest or pump us up to feel better about the jobs we were trying to do. Neither did much to change the instructional practices in my classroom and we certainly would be hard pressed to demonstrate any increase in student achievement from those speakers. So what do we know that good professional development should look like?
First of all we now have a better understanding of how adults learn. Training needs to be relevant and useful. They should have choices and it should "meet them where they are." It needs to give them tools to improve in their profession--not create meaningless work for them.(Sounds a lot like good classroom teaching doesn't it?) Professional development can't be a 'sit and get and forget' -- it should be tied to expectations in the classroom, have support and be continuous.
While our professional development still isn't where it needs to be, I think we've made great strides toward building a better model for adult learning in the organization. During our early dismissals this year we have created opportunities in several key strands of learning. The strands have related to curriculum/assessment/instruction, technology integration and RtI. Those broad categories included such sessions as book studies, writing projects, resource selection, progress monitoring, content area reading, common core implementation and life skills curriculum development. Our technology focus this year has included sessions on: Google forms, MOBIs, Clickers, Blogs/Wikis, Facebook, Twitter, iPod Touches, iMovie, Garageband and MacBook Tips and Tricks (just to name a few). Teachers are allowed to select what they would like to learn. For the most part they are learning from colleagues and not outside 'gurus.' This accomplishes several tasks, first of all it makes connections between staff members that might not have an opportunity to know each other. Secondly, it gives the new learner a person to contact in the event they need additional support. Lastly, it becomes an opportunity for continuous growth as the group can continue to collaborate after the session is completed.
Early dismissal time is used for professional development to enhance teaching and learning. It is not time for teachers to get caught up on paperwork or do other tasks associated with their jobs. Although, being human, that is often the desire. As with anything there is never enough time to get everything done that needs to be done. We get a couple of hours each month to try and address the needs we have, and the needs outweigh the time available. So we'll continue to improve the process and strive to meet the needs of each learner (regardless of their age).
My thanks this post goes out to Jackie Mark, Jackie Larson and Dave Sinkular. In my last post I was lamenting about the rough time we had with the implementation of a new assessment package. Since that time, things have improved. Using that assessment system, Jackie, Jackie and Dave were willing participants in our first round of online testing with students. They volunteered to take a chance and allow their students to take their classroom assessment on the computer. It's difficult to agree to the unknown, yet they were willing to help out and work through the process. I'm so grateful to get to work with such dynamic teachers that are always student focused. They make CCUSD#1 a better place to work.
Thanks for reading.