I've been doing professional development for 26 years. Even when you do it with the colleagues you know, it is never easy work. When you do it with strangers, it's even harder. What can one possibly do to appeal to all the content needs of a single school? As soon as you aim in one direction, you alienate all the others. PD is doomed to fail at the get-go, so when you try to appeal to the masses, you never know what will result. I mean, dang. I hate being pulled into meetings that don't help to push my work forward, so how might I lead meetings that might be slightly appealing to the majority?
Of course, I am literacy/ELA/writing inclined, and I knew I'd get faulted for that (comment; this is irrelevant to what I do). Still, I do pre- and post-surveys and try to gauge my audience before I begin, and after (how much did I screw them over?). Of the teachers that attended yesterday, over 65% rated their previous PD experiences as 1-3 out of 5 (1 being "Huh? What's the point?" and 5 being "Hey, cool. This was rather useful"). I was afraid of the results from yesterday after almost 3 hours, because I know what it's like to have to participate in PD after a day of teaching, and also that the stress of this year is insurmountable. Add the fact that it was totally via ZOOM, too, and most didn't have cameras to turn on. Very few had audio. So, how does one implement PD to black screens?
He works with his fingers crossed.
I created a Padlet (thanks, Susan James), had people do things off the camera, and used the chat feature to discuss. They were also were broken into break-out rooms, and I witnessed then most turned cameras and mics on. They talked. They broke out for over 50 minutes total during the 3-hour block, and they really did talk. They were engaged, especially with the dialogue books I created for Milo.
The result? 92.5% rated the PD as 3 or higher, with the 86% at 4 or 5. There were 7.5% that were like, "Give it up. You shouldn't be doing PD at all," which I expected, as administration figured there'd be a few. Still, the written feedback was valuable, and I get the critique, "This is very useful for ELA, but not so much for content areas" which was one comment. Another stated that having teachers write at the end of a long day is "never acceptable," and having them respond to a prompt about de la Peña's books was too personal and unprofessional. I'll take that, too. He writes on heavy issues, and that's the point. Higher order thinking cannot avoid the complexities of who we are.
It's tough out there right now, people.
Still, the emails I received (even poems) and commentary given to administrators, coupled with the online exit survey, is a moderate success story. I owe the applause to Matt de la Peña, though. He wrote the platform in which conversations could be held yesterday....he was the source for all of us to (re)imagine our worlds. And Christian Robinson....those illustrations, not only from Milo but from is entire portfolio. Brilliant. JOY.
I will be reflecting on the ZOOM-style platform for PD for a while. The good news is I didn't have to travel, worry about sweating, and deal with teachers who sit as far away as possible grading papers. They kept me from seeing anything, actually.
Proud, too, of my ex-student who teaches at the school as a new English teacher, Joanna Warren! She was stellar in he reading debut and contribution. They have many challenges that face them, but have a phenomenal facility, excellent educators, and tremendous hearts. I look forward to the additional work ahead.
No comments:
Post a Comment