Alternate PL-Call to Action

Raise your hand if you love going to professional developments! Yeah, most of us go to required trainings in the summer, get a bunch of information, then get on with our day. There usually isn't an ongoing PD available and we are left to do things the way we have always done things. We don't change our practice we simply move on. Wouldn't it be great if we could attend ongoing PD that would change our teaching practice?

According to Gulamhussein, there's 5 key principles to effective PD:

1. The duration of professional learning must be significant and ongoing to allow time for teachers to learn a new strategy and grapple with the implementation problem. Ongoing support.

2. There must be support for a teacher during the implementation stage that addresses the specific challenges of changing classroom practice.

3. Teachers’ initial exposure to a concept should not be passive, but rather should engage teachers through varied approaches so they can participate actively in making sense of a new practice.

4. Modeling has been found to be highly effective in helping teachers understand a new practice.

5. The content presented to teachers shouldn’t be generic, but instead specific to the discipline (for middle school and high school teachers) or grade-level (for elementary school teachers).

This year is my 14th year as an educator. The students have always been my why. I’ve taught 1st grade and kindergarten. I am a kindergarten dual language 2-way teacher this year. When I leave work every day, I feel it feels like the first day of school kind of tired. I used to teach bilingual kindergarten and this year we shifted to dual language, and we were not trained enough, in my opinion. Did we do a book study? Yes. Did we observe dual language teachers? Yes, one time. Did we attend professional development sessions over the summer? Yes, 3 days. Was I prepared when school started to be a dual language teacher? Nope.

The PD sessions I have attended to prepare me to be a dual language teacher, have not had an effective impact on me as a teacher. These sessions have not motivated me, inspired me, nor have they even been tailored to fit the needs of my kindergartners. These sessions have been more of the “one size fits all” approach. This ends up being discouraging and frustrating. I have left sessions with more questions than answers and annoyed that I wasted so much time.

My story is that I am a kindergarten teacher that is trying to bring blended learning to my campus to differentiate for students. It is a story that a lot of people can relate to, especially during a pandemic. Just like I felt frustration with my dual language sessions, I feel our school lacks proper training when it comes to technology. Since the pandemic, our district provides 1:1 iPads for all students. This means all students bring their iPads daily into our classrooms. The expectation is that they come fully charged and ready to go daily. As I try to move forward with my innovation plan, I think our campus needs to establish a professional learning plan that will help our teachers incorporate blended learning into the classroom. I see that some iPads don’t get uses, some use them as rewards. Nothing has really been established as to how to incorporate them into everyday learning. Gulamhussein says that exposing teachers to new concepts is not enough, professional development where teachers change their practice is a must (2013). We have been exposed to more technology, but with no real direction. Let's provide teachers with an effective PL environment so we can incorporate blended learning in the classroom.

---

Gulamhussein, A. (2013). Teaching the Teachers Effective Professional Development in an Era of High Stakes Accountability. Center for Public Education. Retrieved from http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/system/files/2013-176_ProfessionalDevelopment.pdf