A Teacher's Ruminations

The concerns addressed in this post have been brewing in my head for a while. I just hadn't sat down to articulate them...until now. Any resemblance to recent or future contexts is purely coincidental. What is depicted here is a generic portrait of institutionalized thinking around professional development.. This post is written as an interrogation between an imaginary reporter (IR) and a teacher (T). IR: What do you learn in school wide teacher workshops? T: What the administration deems important. It's a one size fits all arrangement. Whether or not it is a good fit for teachers is not the point. If everyone did something different, how would the school keep track  of that? It would be too messy. Besides, how would a school make sure that there is consistency from grade to grade? You see, differentiation and choice are not meant for teachers. IR: Who is doing the learning at school wide teacher workshops? Some teachers, I'm sure, but not everyone....

I recently gave a workshop to a room full of teachers, which in this particular venue amounted to 150 educators. First, let me say that I don't think I have ever given a 2 1/2 hour workshop to a group this size. In fact, I know I haven't. Although it may appear intimidating to be confronted with 150 educators from pre-school to high school, I felt quite comfortable once we got started. I thought the workshop was going well and then I started noticing certain things. First of all, I always want to get workshop participants talking, to me and to each other, because I feel that is one way we learn best, and in a group this size with chairs in rows facing forward, there isn't much else to do. There was a bit of discomfort during these times. I used a 3-min pause purposefully, which I often do in workshops and in my classroom, as I wanted the participants to pick up some instructional strategies that they could take back with them to their classrooms. I also referred partic...