Monday, October 11, 2010
professional development
I'm wondering what you all experience in your school districts in terms of the "professional development" provided/required. For example: How many PD days do you have in a given school year? Timing? Who facilitates? Do teachers have any self-directed time? General impressions? Favorite experiences?
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I like the way that our building is moving in the direction of teacher learning communities. But, more so than ever before I feel like we are being watched - not necessarily for the quality of the PD that we are engaging in, but to be sure that we are putting in our hours. I personally think Summit provides too many PD hours, and not enough time to explore PD outside of our building.
ReplyDeleteI have been gathering information on this very topic for my school district and would love to hear from some of you as well.
ReplyDeleteWe're struggling through year one of PLCs. It's been a struggle for even those of us who are enthusiastic about it because admin is not willing to cut anything out to make room for PLC work. We're being asked to meet, but we're not using staff meeting time, which means that many teachers won't do it (which I understand - kids, grades, errands, life). Not using staff meeting time for PLCs also sends the message that the administration isn't really serious about PLCs, but just doing it to satisfy some state requirement or other (which I really don't think is the case, just the perception).
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, the PLCs are not really taking off because they require a delicate balance of guidance/instruction from admin and the freedom and autonomy to pursue individual interests. It seems that our administrators are trying to give us autonomy, so there's been very little guidance, which causes a lot of anxiety for a lot of teachers who feel like they want to do what they're supposed to do, but they're confused as to what that is supposed to be...