This is the pattern in way too many schools. This isn’t the poor coach’s fault. This is a failure of leadership. It’s wishful thinking disguised as professional development, and it’s yet another example of a school that’s going through the motions instead of engaging in meaningful, long-term, thoughtful improvement. These wasted opportunities in schools just make me sad…
Scott McLeod
My friend Scott is talking about a forum post about a coach offering a PD session on “anything you like” for one hour.
Which is, of course, pointless.
I have been given roughly an hour for PD on January 4th to work with teachers on anything that I’d like. I rotate between 7 sites pre-k to 12th grade, but I will be working with 4th grade-12th grade teachers on this date. My boss mostly likes for me to introduce new tools to teachers during these opportunities. We have been focusing on Canva the last few months while we try to transition back to students creating work rather than the teacher worksheets, etc., that we used a lot of during the pandemic.
All of that to say, what would you use this time for? Should I show teachers how to be better organized with Google Keep/Tasks, find a free new tool for them to use in the classroom? Do you have any free project based EdTech tools that you love?
Scott’s reply:
Just wanted to say how sorry I am that you only are given 1 hour (a whole 60 minutes!) to do this important work. You and your educators deserve more systemic and strategic supports and investment than this. 😢 I’m tempted to say that, with this little time, it really doesn’t matter what you do because the likelihood of it being impactful is fairly low?
Good luck.
Sadly, this is the state of much professional development in our schools. And it’s not just a theme of instructional technology PD. We see this when schools roll out new curricula, as well. One day of learning is all teachers need to implement new programs, right?
This was the theme of my Tuesday newsletter this week, specifically on rethinking PD.
We can’t afford to think about PD like this anymore.