Caron kicked off this intriguing discussion of weekly staff meetings, effective
staff development, and the best use of teacher time.
Okay folks, I need some advice.
We have weekly staff meetings that frequently drive me nuts. Literally.
The teachers begin to act like Middle School students and talk across the
room and among themselves. They make cute comments and I often feel like
I am often getting hit with fifty items at one time. We have them on Monday
afternoons and there have been times I have been so overwhelmed I have just
gotten up and left the room.
I had hoped our new director was going to be more forceful in directing
the meetings, but, so far, there are three voices who have steam rolled
the meetings. Any suggestions on how to handle this without me being the
wicked witch of the west at the end of the meeting?
Caron
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Melba suggested a couple of strategies that have helped her engage teachers.
Caron, are you leading the staff meetings or are you one of the teachers
in the "audience"? If you are leading the meetings, I can suggest
a couple of things that have worked for me.
Two of our teachers tend to do the same thing. I stop talking, smile politely
and just wait for them to stop talking. This sends the message quickly and
the other teachers have actually shushed them.
During pre-service training, I was not getting them back on task after the
break quickly enough so I pulled the old "if you can hear me, clap
once". Well, it did not work, so I repeated it except I asked them
to clap twice. I kept going each time asking them to clap one more additional
time. We clapped four times before everyone got the message. After the afternoon
break, we only clapped once. They got the message right away, and all went
fine.
During last week's faculty meeting, two of our usually sour faced, never
smile after 4 people were laughing and talking while I was trying to begin
the training (instructional staff meeting). I did not have the heart to
stifle them, I just waited patiently, smiled at them and began as soon as
they were finished. It did not take long and they remained happy.
However, if as a teacher among them, if you want to stay on good terms with
them, you may not have too many options.
Melba
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Caron responded.
Melba - I just participate.
There is usually no problem when I lead....I have a very good, kind, firm
"momma" look that gets the point across when I lead....comes across
differently when I am a passenger.
Caron
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Maureen defended teachers who find themselves in dull and irrelevant
staff development sessions.
What I hear, as a veteran is,...BOREDOM.
We get inservice on things we already know. We, teachers, are like students...engage
us and we will listen. Make it meaningful and we will listen.
I will "Play" if I am bored. That is what bright people do!
Maureen
----------------------------------------------------------------------
When Melba responded to Maureen's "all caps" message, she wrote
that "there's no need to yell, Maureen." Maureen disagreed!
Actually, Melba, I do need to yell. When you are inserviced for the
third time on a topic...you need to yell. Why? Because taxpayers pay me
a big sum to sit through an inservice that I could I teach. What a waste
of professional time. Consultants need to do a much better job at tiering.
A brand new teacher and a veteran teacher do not need the same inservice.
I want to yell as I sit through my third inservice on teaming that does
not meet my needs. We, teachers, are not all at the same place...just as
our students are not at the same place. Listen to our plea!
Maureen
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mary Anne shared a strategy with Caron.
One of the things that really helped focus my staff at curriculum meetings
was having an agenda prepared before hand with time limits for each subject.
At the beginning, I even used a timer! When it went off I quickly summarized
the discussion and tabled it for another time.
What a difference! I actually got the idea from someone on another list
who used the idea in her classroom to keep herself on topic.
My guess is your new director would welcome your suggestions!
Mary Anne
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Debbie, a middle grades teacher turned staff developer, prefers facilitation
to "in-servicing."
Maureen wrote: "We get inservice on things we already know."
As someone who is often on the presentation side of the table I recognize
a real difference between "in-servicing" or facilitating a group.
I much prefer the facilitation role because It assumes a high level of respect
for the audience. It means this group has strengths and needs and together
we'll figure out what needs to happen to reach their agreed upon goals.
In-servicing is generally top down, one size fits all and feeds disrespectful,
disempowering modes of behavior. I've been told to do presentations, sometimes
on really important topics and even though I've been well prepared, I've
had people balance checkbooks, grade papers and act out in very rude ways.
I don't think it's well thought out behavior on the teachers' parts, I think
it's resistance. It's just like our students, when they feel disrespected,
they opt out and then some.
So what's the solution? I think teachers have to demand better, more interactive
approaches with differentiated topics. How many times can you attend a cooperative
learning workshop? I'd much rather examine student work and get feedback
from peers, visit each other's rooms etc. than listen to canned presentations.
I'm an independent consultant this year. I'm hoping my "independence"
will allow me to act as an advocate for the kind of teacher, student and
family empowerment we need to improve our schools...time will tell.
Debbie
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Linda is a teacher and staff developer in Florida.
I'm doing a lot of agreeing with Debbie today. (As I usually do). I
am also in the position of facilitator, often asked to "present".
I just won't do it anymore unless we can figure out how to get at the ideas
in a "constructivist" way. Teachers, like kids, need ways to manipulate
new ideas, and always, always, focus focus on the "so what does this
mean to my work with my students" aspect.
Having a "pre conference" BEFORE a meeting can help surface a
variety of ways of building new understandings that involve DOING something
as opposed to LISTENING to something.
Sometimes listening to something or someone is the best approach, but if
it's used only when nothing else will do, then it has a better chance of
being successful. Besides, if everyone is engaged in making meaning of ideas
or techniques or whatever, then the feeling is more of "we're all in
this together", rather than the "us" and "them"
feelings that a talking heads model seems to set up.
Linda
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Myrna directs a small middle school in Atlanta.
I have a white board in the office where teachers can list topics for
the agenda; these are nuts and bolts things. My aim this year is to limit
the staff meetings to 15 minutes of this and then proceed to learning together.
We've decided that once a month we will have a Conversation About Learning-CAL
; teachers will sign up to facilitate these sessions and the topics could
range from an assigned reading/discussion to an actual classroom/school
problem brought to the rest of us. I plan to introduce compacting to the
faculty during these meetings.
Myrna
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A staff development "Code of Conduct"?
Two years ago we had a staff developer come in and run a workshop with
the staff that came up with a Code of Conduct. It was printed and put on
view at each meeting. It involved one speaker at a time, respecting all
opinions, facilitation, etc. It has worked for two years. Of course, to
implement this the staff would have to agree that there is a problem.
Sharon
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Carolyn describes one staff development "zoo."
I have what we call "Tech Academy" after school about 2 times
a month. It is voluntary. This last week our published topic was using myschool.net
or scholastic's home page creator. 14 or more teachers signed up for it
but it was a zoo. One person wanted to fuss the entire time about how lousy
or technology is (she was the only one having trouble with equipment), one
teacher who is none too bright wanted to disrupt when she would fall behind.
It was all I could do to keep from shreiking and running out of the room.
Many of those present have very small children who had ridden over on the
bus and were running in and out to see their Mom. After an hour, the worst
left and those who really wanted to do this stayed and we quickly got them
going. It has made me wary of doing it again. And then the next day I presented
a session on plagiarism. I was expecting a repeat of the behavior from the
day before but was pleasantly surprised. I am not sure what made the difference.
Carolyn
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ellen suspects that technology workshops often get out of hand.
Carolyn wrote: "And then the next day I presented a session on
plagiarism. I was expecting a repeat of the behavior from the day before
but was pleasantly surprised. I am not sure what made the difference."
I have noticed that technology workshops seem to be the worst for disruptive
behavior. Most of the time it is because you have such a wide range of abilities
in the classroom (in our school, we have people who haven't figured up how
to move a mouse up to folks who know HTML!). The "advanced" people
get frustrated with the pacing, because they have the background knowledge.
The "beginners" get frustrated because the pacing is too fast.
What happens? Everyone acts out.
What has been done before at my school is to have two separate training
classes (administration broke us up so there was no cheating!), one for
beginners, one for advanced. Everyone learned the same content more or less,
but in different ways and paces and levels. Behavior was noticeably better
on both ends, and we all learned something.
Ellen
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Anne is a regional staff developer, based in Alabama. She thinks we may
need to used a "differentiated instruction" approach in professional
development classes.
Strange how students are the same - no matter what their age!
As Carolyn related her experiences in teaching a group of teachers how to
ratchet up their technology skills/use, I am reminded of teachers I work
with and with how much they resemble the students I worked with. Some are
there to learn. Others are there because they have to be for some reason
or other. Some are eager to learn new things. Others just don't want to
have to add anything new to their plates, or maybe they have a fear of failure.
I wonder if we should start applying "differentiated instruction"
to teachers in staff meetings and professional development sessions. If
it works with kids, why not with teachers?
In Carolyn's case, the teachers who were comfortable with technology might
be placed beside less comfortable and asked to help them with this.
Maybe using and applying classroom technology could be come a faculty responsibility
rather than Carolyn's responsibity. (Maybe Carolyn could have a faculty
committee who agree to be responsible for seeing that the whole faculty
is up to speed and utilizing technology.) So, if kids running in and out
is a problem, maybe one faculty committee member could hold a study hall
for these kids while their parents learn.
If the "I can't do this!" teacher disrupts, then a faculty committee
member could sit beside her and help her rather than Carolyn having to disrupt
her entire training session.
I might even suggest that we group less experienced from more experienced
teachers when doing this training. The "less experienced" in this
case might be those do not use technology productively in their classrooms
- even if they already know how to use technolgoy.
I feel your pain, Carolyn! In a recent training I did for collaborative
teams, one high school teacher was so angry about the idea of working together
with colleagues that he talked out loud to those around him during the first
part of the training. (To the embarassment of those around him.) After about
five minutes, the principal went over and stood beside him for the rest
of the training. I smiled inwardly at the number of times I had done that
for a student who was openly disruptive. Deja vu.
Anne
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Beverly says there's never justification for rude behavior.
I think Anne Jolly is too kind--often there is no explanation for brat
behavior or rudeness during staff meetings or training meetings.
I do have one theory, however -- during pre-school staff development time
this year, I made three presentations about Fred Jones' strategies for classroom
management, based on his book, the idea of forming study groups, and the
newer set of videos from his company. One presentation of 3 hours I made
to secondary fine arts (choral music, band, visual arts, etc) teachers,
another 3 hour session to an elementary school faculty, and a one hour introduction
to the teachers at my school.
The fine arts teachers were pleasant, attentive, and participatory; the
elementary teachers were a terrific audience; but the teachers at my middle
school were deadly dull and inattentive for the most part. None even seemed
interested in taking advantage of the program -- the principal had downloaded
a study group guide for each team leader, books were made available to every
teacher, and a set of videos were placed in the library for checkout by
teams to use when them met as a study group. Teachers can even get staff
development credit for reading and discussing the book in weekly or biweekly
meetings and viewing the videos.
Most team leaders didn't even bother to pick up their copy of the guide.
Go figure!! Integrating Fred Jones' system of classroom management has made
me a happier, more energetic, more effective teacher--at least four of the
faculty have read the book, made available last year and applied some of
his techniques, making their classrooms more productive. My own team is
not even interested in pursuing the study group process...I guess the old
adage about leading horses to water is true--maybe restated as "You
an lead the teachers to ideas, but you can't make them think."
Beverly
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Marsha is a staff developer in Kansas. If people misbehave, she asks
them to leave.
Technology staff dev is almost all I do, so Carolyn's stories are quite
familiar to me. I am getting bolder the longer I stay on and I now have
little problem asking people to be quiet or leave. I've tried so many other
strategies that I was worn out and felt like some people just shouldn't
participate.
That being said, I do more positive things as well. First of all, in afterschool
trainings I bring inexpensive snacks because everyone's usually ravenous.
Just a huge bag of pretzels and animal crackers seem to make a difference.
If it's a longterm class, I bring a snack signup list and teachers are more
than willing to take turns bringing stuff. They really like this.
I also start afterschool trainings with some kind of mood setter...and I
usually hate these so mine are quick and to the point. It helps everyone
transition into the mindset of the class. I also breakdown what I present
into 15 minute chunks, then teachers have time to try it out for themselves.
I always state that if you already know what I'm going over that it's perfectly
OK to start testing out the new stuff while I go through my outline. If
everyone knows it, I just skip to the practice time to review and refresh
skills.
Usually the practice chunk lasts 15-20 minutes and then we discuss what
they figured out or what questions they have. Then onto the next chunk.
This works really well because of the multi-levels of people in the class.
The practice chunk is where I get to help all the less skilled teachers
or the ones who are not confident. I guess this is just basic teaching,
but I've really learned my lesson about trying to teach too much in too
short a timeperiod. It's the practice time that most teachers find invaluable
and that has caused me to trim back on what I want to cover.
I've also really experimented with creating tutorials that go along with
some of the basic classes we teach. That way if someone is far behind, they
can review the material at the own pace after the class is over. I suggest
that they listen for the big ideas and follow my examples because they know
they can relax and use the tutorial. We've done these using PowerPoint or
iMovie. They're really easy to either deliver via email attachments or burn
onto a CD. Teachers stop panicking over getting the details and listen....that
means they're talking to their neighbor much less and completely grinding
the class to a standstill.
And here's my motherlode new discovery....I changed my exit slips (feedback
forms) from every training---not just dumb questions but ones that really
got to the heart of it. Now I'm even putting those online at SurveyKey.
The advantages of doing something online is that people do it before they
leave, they experience a new idea that they could turn around and use with
their students and I have a summary of feedback instantly. I ask, not only
about the accommodations, but the meaty things. I change my classes all
the time based on what I get as feedback.
Many of the classes that I repeat over and over are actually getting pretty
good as a result of teacher/participant feedback. People will help you out
with getting things pared down to a useful set if you ask them. I follow
up with people via email about 4-6 weeks after the training to see if they've
used anything. If no one has in a whole class, I really grill myself about
its worth and whether or not we should waste my time and teacher's time
since no one is able to put it into action.
marsha
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Beverly liked the mix of presentation and practice.
Marsha - I like your strategy to break training up into 15 minute increments
followed by practice, then making tutorials available to those who didn't
"get it" the first time. This really appeals to my logical, sequential
brain (at least that part that is so). I'll keep this in mind-could also
use it in my 8th grader classes..
Beverly
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Brenda, a teacher/coach, further explores the idea of differentiated
professional development.
Anne wrote: "I wonder if we should start applying "differentiated
instruction" to teachers in staff meetings and professional development
sessions. If it works with kids, why not with teachers?"
Right on, Anne! I'm not sure if Michelle Pedigo (former Middle school Principal
of the Year), is still on MiddleWeb listserv, but if she is I would love
to hear her respond to Anne's statement. I know that differentiated professional
development is a concept that she believes strongly in.
When you think about it, it makes total sense. According to Carol Ann Tomlinson,
20-year veteran of the classroom who's now an associate professor at the
University of Virginia's Curry School of Education (and a proponent of mixed-ability
classrooms), we can recognize differentiated instruction by a variety of
classroom characteristics. If you consider them from a professional development
frame of reference, these criteria should be present in our PD sessions
with teachers. I've slightly adjusted a few of Tomlinson's criteria below:
- Teachers (Administrators/Trainers) begin where the students (teachers)
are.
- Teachers (Administrators/Trainers) engage students (teachers) in instruction
through different learning modalities.
- A student (teacher) competes more against himself or herself than others.
- Teachers (Administrators/Trainers) provide specific ways for each individual
to learn.
I like the title of the Differentiated instruction article below (written
by MaryAnne Hess). Hess is speaking of differentiated instruction involving
stduents, but I thought of teacher learning the whole time I read the article.
Playing on the title, could differentiated professional development "take
teachers down many paths to a common destination"? Those of us who
follow a differentiated approach in our classrooms know that it is time
consuming, often messy, and often taxing, but if we do it with kids, "don't
we owe the same to our teachers?"
"Teaching
in Mixed-ability Classrooms: Teachers Guide Students Down Many Paths to
a Common Destination."
- Brenda
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Michelle, a former national middle school principal of the year, responded.
Brenda, you know that this topic is near and dear to me, and as a matter
of fact, I am writing a "principals' brief" for NMSA currently
on the topic. From the principal's perspective, I have learned that differentiating
instruction for teachers, for me, is the only way to truly "grow staff."
If we look at our faculties like we looked at our classrooms, we can strive
to grow each of them individually. In this sense, we never lose our "calling"
to be a teacher.
Building on that foundation, a principal will quickly realize that someone
like Brenda has very different needs than a first year teacher, even when
overall school initiatives are involved. Once this realization is in place,
the hardest task is to "walk this talk," which means classroom
time with each and every teacher and different conversations about instruction
with each teacher. It means that the principal does not have to know all
the content, but he/she should know pedagogy at a high level and be able
to "pitch that pedagogy" where the teacher can "hit it".....at
the appropriate time and place in that person's career.
It means expect nothing less than everyone's best, but then being able to
provide physical and human resources to support their reaching their best.
It also means understanding what motivates each teacher. One teacher may
be motivated by a quiet conversation, while another may rather be recognized
in front of their peers. Understanding the implications of using different
types of motivation can assist the principal in helping different teachers
accomplish different things at different levels.
Differentiating instruction for teachers also means that most of the people
in the school (except the possible 15% of the faculty that will always find
something to gripe about) understands risk-taking, and they are willing
to articulate that every teacher is not the same, nor should they be treated
the same.
Differentiating instruction has great implications, and I hope my writing
for NMSA conveys that. All that said, I never completely accomplished high-level
professional growth for ALL of my faculty members, but I do think we got
closer tho that goal because I viewed them as my classroom of students (even
though I never articulated that to them!).
Looking forward to your thoughts,
Michelle
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Leighann has been there and done that, too.
I agree with the "been there, done that" inservice thoughts.
I too, am tired of hearing about things over and over. I'm really tired
of hearing how "teachers aren't doing this or that" because normally
I am. I could not tell you how many times I've had to sit through an inservice
on record keeping, attendance forms, and the like. This is my 4th year and
I know more about attendance sheets and student record cards than half of
our staff.
BUT, how do we change things? How can we get our principals to see that
some of us "get it" and want to move on? How can they target those
who are not doing as they should and allow the rest of us to move on?
I wish I knew... *sigh*
Leighann
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Marsha had a final thought for Leighann.
Is there a way to gently refocus your inservice towards student learning?
I would think that this could help the principal broaden the choices for
inservice topics. Also, I know that quite often these are always the topic
because it is pretty easy to get someone to present. Would you and/or any
of your colleagues be willing to develop some kind of schedule for presenting
something that would be useful? Maybe something around your school improvment
goals? Your building leadership team might want to offer to create several
student learning or assessment topics as an option on those days...then
those who need the basics can get them and others can go onto new topics.
It's just an idea. I would bet that your principal would much rather discuss
instruction and curriculum than administrivia. Maybe they just need a reason
and you could be that reason with a plan!!! Good luck and keep us posted.
marsha
PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CONTINUE THIS DISCUSSION
BY JOINING THE MIDDLEWEB
LISTSERV.
MEMBERS CAN POST A MESSAGE TO:
middleweblist@sreb.org
BACK
to the MiddleWeb Listserv Conversations Index