Reflections based on
article “6 Powerful strategies for paradigm-shifting teacher PD” by Steven
Harris.
PD meetings should be organized as if teachers were
VIP students. There are several reasons for that:
A.
Meeting costs. Often companies do not consider the
cost of a meeting, but the reality is that they are very expensive. A two-hour
meeting with 100 meeting attendants costs 200 times the average hourly rate.
B.
Modeling. Teachers will use PD sessions as an example.
Bad example leads to bad teaching. PD meetings should get teachers experience
the methodology the school wants to get in the classroom.
C.
Motivating. Teachers often use personal time to
prepare their lessons. If they feel that their school is wasting their time
during meetings, they will not be encouraged to continue doing that.
The list of ingredients to make a successful PD
meeting is not very different to the equivalent things needed to make a good
lesson:
2-
Open Space workshops in which every attendant is
contributing.
3-
Encouraging staff to develop courses or present at
conferences or workshops. Any teacher participating can improve his/her CV as
well as enhancing their motivation by presenting.
4-
Informal, informative, fast-paced meetings. A good
example is the Pecha-Kucha type presentations in which 20 slides are presented
by a 20 second talk. Total 6’40’’. More info on PechaKucha.org
5-
Take the team on an observational journey. Short PD
sessions outside the regular settings.
6-
Create or join a “vision tour”. Long PD training
periods a worth-wile investment from a school in a teacher who is committed to
work in the school for a certain period of time.
As a mathematics teacher in an international school I would like to see more of these ingredients in our PD meetings. I feel that often none of the A, B or C reasons as listed above are taken into account when planning a PD meeting, and the only reason to meet seems to be "because we have to" or "because it is scheduled" or "because you get paid for that". I feel that some changes need to be done as this affects specially our IT PD meetings. For more information on this please read this multimedia article.
As a mathematics teacher in an international school I would like to see more of these ingredients in our PD meetings. I feel that often none of the A, B or C reasons as listed above are taken into account when planning a PD meeting, and the only reason to meet seems to be "because we have to" or "because it is scheduled" or "because you get paid for that". I feel that some changes need to be done as this affects specially our IT PD meetings. For more information on this please read this multimedia article.
Thanks for your post and sharing your connection and impression in relation to the article and your own practice. I agree the idea of mentoring and teachers leading teachers is an important and effective methodology, and also creating some clear motivation for teachers to engage with the session is another important factor which you highlight. Nothing is worse than people feeling their time is waisted, this build a negative capacity for all. You do a nice job of describing different methodologies.
ReplyDeleteYou capture the essence of the article really well...!
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