However, there seems to be at least one universal time in every teacher's life that seems to bring out eye-rolling, exasperation, indignation and full-on annoyance: the Professional Development Day.
I have not been teaching very long (obviously, according to the title of this blog, I'm still working on my two year masterpiece). But if there is one thing I seem to have become an expert in it is anticipating the animosity towards Professional Development Days or Teacher Inservice Days. I hear griping and grumbling about how these days are a waste of time and energy; there are so many other, better things we could be doing; this is the time to work on grading and lesson planning; time to improve my phone scrolling efficiency; etc. These days are just not popular. They are not supported by those they are supposed to help. They are--dare I say it--worthy of the thousands of yawns they exude.
Well... I am here to defend the Professional Development Day.
I imagine the veteran teachers would look at me and think, "Oh, you are sweet... you're still young and you're still eating everything up." And they would be right. I am NOT an expert in teaching (and quite frankly, I never will be; the second I think I know everything is the day I need to re-evaluate my life and career and figure something else out). I look for every outlet of learning that I can. I am still developing my teaching style and I am still figuring out how to "be a teacher." I ask for advice all the time and take my evaluations quite seriously. I watch master teachers make magic in the classroom and find myself thinking, "When I'm at that point in 10 years I'll look back on this time in my life and laugh." Yeah--I am still figuring things out. Any chance I get to learn something new and different, I'm going to take it.
So... is it really any surprise that I'm going to look at a Professional Development day with optimism?
On Friday, we had the opportunity to listen to our main speaker, Dr. Kerns, and attend two different breakout sessions over various topics and ideas for education. From my perspective: I have three opportunities to learn a lot of excellent, different and interesting ideas that I can use to better myself. Because I know I am not an expert and I want to work on that.
So here are a few things I had the opportunity to learn about on Friday:
1. Research and Growth: Our main speaker, Dr. Kerns, hit us with the latest research in education. He presented us with a survey of three different individuals who have studied and written about their research and inferences in the world of education. I thought when I graduated from the College of Education in 2012 that I had the best knowledge ever. It is 2016 and the information just keeps getting better. We were introduced to authors who celebrate the idea of practicing to get better; we looked at the most up-to-date statistics of what techniques are actually effective in the classroom and which techniques can be overlooked (spoiler alert: student-based grading, formative assessments and meta-cognitive strategies are the name of the game). We broke down what "motivation" actually is and the key components we need to use to make it so in our classrooms (more spoiler alerts: deep practice; ignition; master coaching). Ultimately: we grazed the surface of some hot topics in education right now. My husband and I walked away manic with excitement. It has been a while since we've been exposed to some good topics and literature to work on bettering ourselves as educators. Now we get the opportunity to read, research and practice some the ideas we saw. By the end, my husband and I were deadset on hitting Amazon.com the second we could to order the books discussed. Because, let's face it: as teachers, we are the master students and we want to read, learn and apply anything that we can. (update: the books are on their way)
2. "I've been doing this wrong for a year...": Our next session was taught by one of my co-workers. He introduced a few different strategies that could be applied to a Social Studies classroom. Granted: I teach English. But I have a history minor and it happens that I think the teacher leading this session is one of those master veteran awesome teachers I can learn a lot from. So of course I had to sign up and get some ideas. And I learned something: I have been doing the Socratic Seminar SO WRONG FOR THE LAST YEAR. I mean... I've led class discussions; I've made participation a grade; I've gotten some delightfully heated conversations going (I discreetly smile at the most heated discussions; it means they have learned something but they don't realize it...). I've done that. But... the format and ideas presented on Friday made me look back on what I had been doing and cringe a little. I learned grading techniques, talking techniques, getting the loud students to hold back a bit techniques... I learned something new about something I thought I had mastered. Granted, I still like way I have done my class and I can still use my former ways. But I learned first-hand how a master teacher approaches a technique I thought I knew... For that, I am incredibly grateful and can't wait to pit my kids against each other over topics from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Hats off to our Social Studies Department Head--you're an inspiration to me.
3. Flipped Classrooms--No Longer Traditional: My final session is something I was actually familiar with. We've been hearing about Flipped Classrooms for years. You send the students home with the content/lecture and then do the homework/application in class with the teacher. Unheard of. Yet heard of because we hear of schools using this technique with every teacher or we hear of lone teachers making this work everyone wanting to try their masterpiece. I distinctly remember attending a PD in my student teaching semester over the Flipped Classroom and thinking it was ground-breaking. And yes: it is an amazing technique. It is also something that can fail horribly and take everyone down. And that is the bit that has kept me from trying it. I have only seen successful examples of the Flipped Classroom in content/grade levels that I don't teach; how do you do it with a High School English class, I ask you?! Well... I did not get that answer. However, I learned that--even now--the Flipped Classroom has changed drastically. We are encouraged to no longer send our students home with hour-long videos of our lectures. We consider how we can break our content down into main topics and hit our students with these main ideas in short, engaging videos. We are encouraged to practice being ourselves in front of these terrifying videos. And when the students come back to class? Who's to say we can't differentiate and make the class itself flipped for part of the time and then come back together to make our days awesome? Our instructor was an absolutely energetic, fabulous and eccentric person who awoke the desire to give this a try. I have wanted to... I really have... but I have always been too scared to try. With this session? I was encouraged to make the obnoxious "hostage video" and just dive in. Because when will we know if it works if we don't try. My life philosophy: If I'm afraid of it, I have to try it at least once. Let's see how we can flip at least one unit in this semester.
So let me turn it around for you. I could have walked out of Friday rolling my eyes and groaning about time lost. Let's face it: as teachers, we do not have enough time ever and only get completely caught up by the end of the semester. I could have looked at the speakers as obnoxious, over-the-top people who don't get where I am or what I'm coming from in my school district. At the very least, I could have walked away complaining about how tired I was the entire day.
But seriously?
How can we every really accept the benefits of something if we automatically categorize it as a terrible thing? Why not look at the PD day as an opportunity to learn at least one new thing? Even if it is the name of the random teacher sitting next to you or learning that your POD Discussion leader is moving (this totally happened and say what you will about POD Discussions... I'm devastated because she is an awesome leader and I'm going to miss her). Our district gives us an opportunity with these days. They really do. And they do their best knowing that people hate these days.
So honestly?
Quit hating on the PD days and think about what you can take away from them. Allow yourself to open up, reflect on what you could learn, and pick something you could try that terrifies you.
And if all else fails? Be honest when your admin comes around and asks what you want from your PD day. Friday was based on a survey sent out across the district. Everything they brought in was from us.
Embrace the PD Day. Because teachers are ultimately the master students.