I have found that the best professional development (PD) is often that which the professional chooses for themselves. While this PD may not be "certified" in that it is not a graduate level course or required/provided by their employer, it is a greater learning opportunity because the professional is invested and interested in the topic.
As a teacher, in the past few years I have gained more practical application for my classroom from Edcamps, my PLN, and Twitter than I have in 20 years of faculty meetings and teacher conventions. Last year I had to attend a beginner SMARTBOARD training even though I have been actively using a SMARTBOARD in my class for the past 5 years. So how can this dilemma (if it is one for you) be solved?
My suggestion is twofold: employees (especially those in the teaching profession) need to speak up and ask your administration to consider an Edcamp style PD - personalized and relevant; and for employers (especially those in the educational field) ask your teachers what they are truly interested in learning about. Just like the students in our classrooms, when we are passionate about what we are learning, we all benefit.
Educators, what do YOU think? How can we improve professional development? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
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I think you have hit the nail on the head here. I spend hours on PD through Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, reading blogs and reaching out to people. But none of this counts for my required PD hours at school. My district is trying to make the process less painful, though. This will be our 3rd year that all of our scheduled PD days are set up like other conferences I have attended. Each day is broken into 4 or so sessions, and a document is shared listing all the available workshops for each session. We can choose which workshops to attend, and there is always something for everyone. If there is any mandatory training for a specific team of teachers, that section will be automatically blocked out for us. This has definitely improved my attitude. It gives me some autonomy as long as there is something provided that I find relevant and interesting, and there usually is. The other new development is to encourage the teachers to facilitate many of the workshops. This has come about since the new APPR was put in place and administrators started observing veteran teachers that hadn't been observed in years. They liked what they were seeing and asked several of us to run workshops. There is now a Google doc shared at least a month before each PD session asking people to volunteer. It works just like every conference I have ever presented at. We turn in an application and receive approval. We earn one hour of PD credit for the actual workshop plus two PD hours for the prep work. Our contract states that we must complete an extra 24 hours of PD each year, with 8 of those hours being done in a school-wide PD day the last Thursday before school officially starts. The other 16 hours are up to us. So presenting at our regular PD days earns us credit towards those 16 hours. Not a bad deal and we get to see what other teachers are doing in their classrooms. As far as I am concerned, it is a win-win!
ReplyDeleteIt definitely sounds like your district is on the right track! I may take some of your school's ideas to our admin and see if we can make some changes in that direction.
DeleteI agree that we often have to sit through PD courses that may not interest or really pertain to things that can directly apply to all teachers. I feel like this can be especially true for the lower elementary teachers. Our school uses our in-service days to provide PD and it may be geared towards 3rd and 4th grade, but the entire elementary attends and we try to take away bits and pieces that may apply to us. It can be frustrating and make for a long day when the topic isn't grade specific to the grade you are teaching. Having the option to find a topic of interest that may be offered through something like Edcamps, is definitely something I am going to look at closer and possibly bring up to my building principal. This was a great post and something that clearly could be a game changer! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteJoanna,
ReplyDeleteWhat an important question and discussion to have. In this age of technology and the multitude of webinars and other courses, why are we still engaging in two-hour lectures on Monday afternoons (our lovely district decided that Mondays were the best days for staff meetings). I recently had a few co-workers get together and view an hour webinar in place of an one-hour meeting and I thought it was a much better use of their time. Our district uses an online form for all professional development which could be used to track things such as webinars, even twitter chats or hours reading articles/research through blogs and twitter. My district has tried to create a Teacher Academy which is an optional hour after school, where teachers sign up to teach different topics and anyone can attend. However, it is volunteer-based, which leads to lower numbers of participants. I wonder if there is a way to show districts that choice in professional development would be beneficial during staff meetings and other professional development days to make the teachers feel that they are being more productive. Thanks for getting me thinking :)
I love the idea of using an online form to track PD. Allowing webinars and time spent reading professional articles/ books etc. to count towards PD hours would also be extremely beneficial for all of us.
DeleteAn EdCamp style for professional development would be amazing. The thought of that being how our trainings went makes me smile. PD's would be relevant, informational, personalized, and would give schools an opportunity to use the knowledge of educators within the school. It doesn't seem like it would work for every needed PD though. That being said, I would love to see PD's shorter, straight to the point, and more of a workshop model vs a lecture. We don't like to give our kids lectures and want them to have hands on opportunities... well, PD's should be the same! Keep us engaged, not nodding off in August or after a long day of work!
ReplyDeleteExactly!
ReplyDelete