EDUL 6017 Pamela Barnett

School Staff Development Final Assignment

Professional Development

This web course has many elements that promote and support my learning. I have been able to complete the course within the demanding schedule of my professional and personal life. Since I could set and move at my own pace, I could focus on the readings, web sites and assignments without the pressure of daily or weekly deadlines. This format promotes ‘revisiting’ areas and content based on my needs and circumstances. I am freer to be an active learner and to utilize what I have already learned to internalize the content of this course.

The real life scenarios are very helpful and enable me to see how the methods and strategies can be implemented at my school. Very often it is difficult to find a starting place to put new learning into practice. The guidance included in the text and the various web sites provide the support to make change possible. It also encourages me to take the risk that is inherent in changing my own views and teaching.

Also the websites have connected me to varied and prolific sources of information, strategies and guidelines related to staff development. The websites are a form of networking in that it connects me to a type of support other than the textbook. The websites are valuable since they are a type of ‘living’ document that can be updated and that can grow and mature, therefore providing me with the necessary fundamental support to be successful.

We have recently experienced a change in our system’s curriculum director. He is introducing some new approaches. This past summer after looking at survey results, he provided staff development in various identified areas. Some teachers feel that the staff development did not meet their needs. There was not enough clarification to ensure that what was provided was what teachers needed. The teachers at our school feel that he attempted to interpret our specific concerns from the survey results and that he missed the mark in some areas. The curriculum director has his own concerns and views that may or may not merge with ours.

At our school our principal has established Professional Learning Committees (PLCs) in the content areas of Math, Reading and Language Arts. The committees are not fully utilized to improve learning. It is a means to achieve the principal’s agenda and does not meet for other purposes. The PLCs are working on identifying target domains and groups for the school improvement plan. The committees get an email that informs them of the meeting agenda and the date and time of the meeting. Very often the members have not had the opportunity to prepare for the meetings due to other teaching demands. Due to time constraints the meetings are in a ‘I talk, you listen’ format. Information is collected, tasks are assigned and the meeting ends. There is not enough collaboration on matters of concern and not enough production of solutions. After PLC meetings, many teachers have voiced their views that these meetings just add to their already heavy burdens and often confuse and complicate the teaching process.

The staff development that is available to teachers at our school is often scheduled during the summer months and at a time when most educators want and need a vacation. This impacts the number of teachers participating in the training. The teachers that are required to attend staff development frequently develop resentment that carries over into the implementation and utilization of the training. The intended improvement or change is rarely derived from the learning experience. Also, teachers do not believe that the staff development has the potential to ‘fix’ things in their classrooms or in the school. Teachers base their opinions on their past experiences with staff development that did not produce what it touted.

Teachers do feel that they are professionally ‘stale’ and several have expressed a desire to attend national and state conferences in their content areas. They believe that collaboration with their professional peers will provide motivation, insight, resources and solutions to their concerns that will improve teaching and learning. Teachers feel the need to refresh their repertoire of teaching methods and strategies. They believe they can validate their efforts in their classrooms when they have the opportunity to present at the conferences. When I encouraged the teachers to put in a request to attend the conferences, they assumed that it is useless and they reminded me that they have not been able to go to any conferences in years due to the funding situation. I get the impression that in this area, teachers have surrendered to the way things are and do not believe that they will ever improve. They seem to have accepted the outlook that if professional collaboration is not available outside the school setting that it does not matter if it is utilized within the school setting.

We are now involved in staff development that is the redelivery of Georgia Performance Standards training. Facilitators were trained by the state to redeliver the training to content teachers in their system. The redelivery is not running as efficiently and effectively as it should. The tasks that are given to teachers are overwhelming and require resources that are in short supply. Many teachers cannot agree on the sequencing and pacing of content while others are at odds over interpreting the standards. Valuable time is consumed through fruitless hashing and rehashing of opinions and viewpoints. Finally, teachers were individually assigned a standard to work on to produce a unit. This did not require consensus to accomplish. The completed units were sent out to each content teacher in the system to utilize. Many teachers cannot provide their students success by following the pacing or utilizing the resources of the unit. After discussion with the facilitator and the curriculum director, teachers are allowed to modify the units to meet their students’ specific needs. Some teachers feel that it requires more work and effort to modify the units than to design their own units using the GPS. One teacher may feel that the unit includes extraneous material and relies too heavily on the textbook while another teacher believes that there is too many time consuming activities.

One critical insight that I have gained is how important a shared vision is to the school organization. A shared vision will provide the direction for the change process and will empower stakeholders to achieve school improvement. No matter how effective programs and teachers are, if we are not moving in the same direction—holding on to a shared vision—we will not have the support or the means to achieve whole school improvement. We may make headway within our part of the school, but it will not have the vitality necessary to move the whole school towards improvement or to ensure all students are learning.

Another critical insight that I have obtained is that there are stages in which barriers and constraints become evident. Knowledge and understanding of these stages encourages leaders to sustain their support when implementing professional learning communities. Being aware of the various stages of group development prevents leaders from surrendering and gives them motivation to endure until the group achieves the productive stage in which members can work and produce effectively.

The most critical insight that has been reinforced for me is reflective practice. Reflective practice entails examining what you do and why you do it. You answer to yourself. Reflection brings about change that is permanent and deep rooted within the individual. After true reflection, a teacher can never go back—can never be satisfied with her practice—but continues her search for excellence.

How can we deal with teachers that are not open to change and who do not buy into a new approach? There are teachers who believe that there is nothing wrong with what they do in their classrooms. It is often impossible to get them to see that there is room for improvement in their practice. They have the mind set that it is the ‘raw materials’ that are at fault for the lack of student learning. No form of professional development impacts their stance.

I strongly believe that true self-reflection would bring any teacher’s practice into focus. If teachers could get a precise picture of the teaching and learning that occurred in their classrooms for one day and reflect on it, this process would generate changes and produce a desire to improve. I want to involve my principal and the curriculum director in arranging training for teachers to learn how to conduct reflective practice. I am going to offer to model it by sharing my National Board for Professional Teaching Standards entry on reflective practice. We would then examine what I did and what students did during the lesson. We would look for the things that worked, things that did not work and things I would maintain and modify. Then I would encourage all teachers to participate in reflective practice since it can validate what a teacher does in her classroom. It can provide the answer to, "What else can I do to get students to succeed?"

How can we develop endurance in our pursuit of school improvement? At our school we do not stick to a program long enough to identify or enjoy any level of success. We get pumped up with the quick fix then overwhelmed with the ‘donkey work’ of the program, but we never endure long enough to know if it will produce the desired results. Change and transition in leadership at the school and system level has contributed to this condition.

I am going to discuss my concern with my peers. Then I am going to ask our principal and curriculum director about our path to our shared vision. I want to know if it has been mapped out and if it has, I want to understand the plan. I am going to express my concerns over the lack of a long-term program that has the ability to move us towards achieving our goals and experiencing our vision. I am going to share information from the text and websites that I have found useful.

When teachers and principals do not implement needed models because of the time constraints, how do you overcome this barrier? Too often we know that we need something to move us towards school improvement but we discard many models because we do not have the time to dedicate to the meeting, discussing and observing.

I am going to share the information from the text on dealing with time constraints with my principal and peer teachers. I am going to offer to cover classes while teachers meet together to learn through study groups, to assess student work, and to participate in staff development. I will try to set the example and encourage teachers to participate and offer to cover classes also.