Jennifer Armenia

 

 EDUL 6017

 

School Staff Development

January 21, 2007

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Process of Learning about Professional Development

The process of learning about professional development in this course was on-going.  As I read Schools as Professional Learning Communities I reflected on my own experiences, and in doing so I found that my knowledge of staff development programs was lacking.  From my experience, professional development is conducting a small workshop which addresses a small part of the school improvement goal.  These workshops were usually held after school for two-three hours and usually didn’t benefit me very much.  From reading Schools as Professional Learning Communities, I learned that professional development can be much more than just sitting in a workshop after school with other teachers who don’t want to be there. 

As I read Schools as Professional Learning Communities, I learned how important it is for the school to have a “shared vision” and for ALL the teachers to work together as a team toward that “shared vision”.  I began to realize how important a “shared vision” is to successfully conduct professional development programs.  The idea of having a “shared vision” made me think about how this relates to shared governance.  Shared governance allows the administrators to get input from the staff and make decisions in the school based on the staff’s needs and wants.  Just like teachers being facilitators in a classroom, shared governance and having a “shared vision” is allowing administrators to be facilitators of the school.  It is important to use shared governance when developing professional development programs.

 

Critique of My School’s Professional Development Program

As I was reading Schools as Professional Learning Communities, I was constantly thinking about experiences at my school and comparing them to what Roberts and Pruitt were saying throughout the book.  I felt that my school is beginning to use shared governance and implement some of the ideas from the book, yet other times I felt like the administrators are going to make the decision no matter what the teachers say.  One thing that I feel my school does do to begin using shared leadership is asking teachers what they feel their weakness is.  At the end of the previous school year, teachers were given surveys to complete regarding professional development.  Many teachers expressed concern with teaching students writing and differentiation, therefore our staff development goal was writing and differentiation.  I think that asking teachers what their weaknesses are is a step in the right direction however, not all teachers expressed concern with writing and differentiation and these teachers are being forced to participate in writing and differentiation professional development.  Rather than conducting 2 professional development programs which all teachers are required to attend, the school could create learning communities for writing and differentiation along with learning communities which interest teachers who are not interested with teaching writing and differentiation.  This would cater to all teachers and I feel there would be a better reaction from teachers when it is time to go to professional development meetings.

Shared leadership also lacks in the area of coaching and mentoring other teachers.  There is no coach or mentor program set up in the school to help teachers new to the school or coach other teachers when new programs are adopted.   Another area that lacks in shared leadership is the teachers’ opinions and comments are not given serious consideration.  Teachers are asked their opinions on things such as professional development and text book adoptions however their opinions are not always taken into consideration.  When adopting a new math program a majority of the school did not want to adopt it however, the principal overruled the teachers and spent money adopting a new math series even though other schools in the county were using something different.  Another example of when my school did not consider teacher input is during our professional development on differentiation.  We were meeting during our planning period and after school every Monday to watch videos of high school classes in order to give us examples of differentiation.  Many teachers felt that this was not beneficial since we are an elementary school.  Teachers expressed their concern that this is not a quality professional development class to the principal and she said that we asked for professional development on differentiation and this is what we are getting.  Rather than correcting a problem with the professional development and listening to the teachers, the principal made a decision.    

Another problem I see with our professional development program is that teachers go to the professional development meetings and learn new techniques for teaching writing or learn new strategies to differentiate in the classroom, but don’t have time to plan any lessons that use these strategies.  Time for implementing these strategies and techniques should be built into the professional development plan so the teachers can use what they are learning rather than go to the meetings and learn new techniques but never use them.

            Another area I feel the school lacks in professional development is involving parents.  Parents are not involved in creating the mission statement or improvement in the school.  All school improvement is based on test scores and what teachers express as their weaknesses rather than asking parents what they would like to see improved in at the school. 

One good thing the school does is provide a common planning time during the day for teachers in the same grade level.  Every day the whole grade level receives a 45 minute planning time.  This common planning time allows the grade level to meet and plan for upcoming events and to make sure that everyone is covering the same concepts around the same time.  At this time teachers often bring up problems that they have in their classroom to discuss and get suggestions from other teachers on how to solve the problem. 

                        Overall I think that my school is making an effort to use shared leadership.  I feel when creating professional development programs teachers suggestions are used more than when addressing issues such as textbook adoptions and report cards.  I can definitely see the school system making a push for shared leadership, but it still has a long way to go before it is completely used.

Three Critical Insights I Gained

I found the concept of learning communities to be a beneficial way to provide teachers with professional development that is beneficial to them.  I liked the idea of getting teacher input when creating learning communities and I found the suggestions on when to conduct professional development, having rotating substitutes and releasing students from school early on a weekly or monthly basis, rather than holding professional development after school to be a creative way to educate teachers as well as not add more hours to their workload.

As I continued to read Schools as Professional Learning Communities, and I learned about the different ways to conduct professional development, I was very surprised to learn that professional development can be conducted in small teams by grade level or subject area.  This was insightful to me since all the professional learning I have attended through my school was always conducted as a whole school.  I began to realize how beneficial professional development would be if it were grade or subject area specific since many times teachers need training in different areas and what may be beneficial for a fifth grade teacher is not beneficial for a first grade teacher.

Another insight that I had while learning about professional development was the difficulty of continuing professional development year after year and creating professional development programs that interest the teachers, are beneficial and exciting.  It seems like all the professional development programs are the same year after year addressing the same weaknesses and giving you the same strategies to use in your classroom. 

Three Questions That Remain For Future Exploration

How can you convince teachers to use data to improve their instruction?

            In my classroom I use data to influence my lesson plans on a regular basis.  Most of the data I use is from assessments I have given students.  I use this data to see if I need to reteach a particular concept or if the students are ready to move on.  I often break down assessments by concept to see which students need extra help with which concepts and then create learning centers for the specific concepts each student needs to work on.  I find that I am one of very few teachers who use data to influence lessons.  I see that many teachers assess their students, yet move on even if a majority of the class did poorly on the assessment.  I have even seen teachers discard the assessment because the students did so poorly and still move on in the curriculum.  In order to solve this problem I believe it is necessary to bring it to the attention of the principal and assistant principal.  One way this problem could be solved is to conduct learning communities for teachers and have them find ways to use data to drive their instruction rather than just the standards they are given to cover.  Teachers could also be given extra planning time so they can have more time to look at results of student assessments and use the results to drive their instruction. 

How can you be sure the professional learning communities are beneficial to everyone in the school?

            I believe that using professional learning communities in a school would be a great way to provide professional development to teachers.  Most of the professional development that I have received was very short and not very beneficial to me.  I do not want to create the same programs for my faculty.  One way I plan on providing them with quality professional development is by asking them what they feel is their greatest weakness and creating professional learning communities according to the teachers’ weaknesses rather than having the whole staff receive professional development on the same topic. 

If the teachers attended professional development and learn information they want to try in their classroom, how can I assist the teachers in implementing the information they learn into their classroom?

This is something that I struggle with myself.  I learn lots of information from reading professional books and visiting teacher chatboards online however; I never have the time to sit down and begin to use the strategies and ideas in my classroom.  I want teachers to attend professional development and be able to use what they learn in their classroom immediately, not in a month or next year.  One way this problem could be solved is by giving teachers extra planning time to figure out how to implement strategies and ideas into their classrooms.  Using rotating substitutes could provide each teacher with one hour of planning time to sit down and plan how to use what they learn in professional development in their classroom.