Entry #17: Professional development --
when is it too much of a good thing?
It's a known fact in education circles that we don't come anywhere close
to the corporate world in terms of dollars and resources to support the
professional growth of our teachers. But I've been fortunate to work in
a district that, for the most part, has been able to provide staff development
resources that can meet the needs and interests of our staff in conjunction
with our school goals.
We are by no means "flush," but what we do receive we can efficiently
and effectively work with. Could we still use more staff development dollars
and a higher substitute allocation to expand staff knowledge and expertise
even more? Most assuredly, the answer is a resounding "yes!" There
are excellent workshops and conferences across the nation that I'd love
to send staff to. I also believe that we do a very good job of tying our
staff development into our school improvement plan.
But I'm finding myself these days juggling with two opposing beliefs that
are coming into direct conflict with one another. First of all, staff development
should make my teachers more effective in the classroom working with students,
and, in turn, promote their academic achievement. On the other hand, many
staff development opportunities are offered during the course of a school
day, which means pulling teachers out of the classroom and replacing them
with substitutes.
Besides the fact that no one can take the place of the regular classroom
teacher, the overall quality of substitute teachers doesn't always leave
me with the best feeling that our kids will have a productive lesson, even
if a solid lesson plan has been left for the substitute to follow.
Being the data-conscious person that I am, I felt that I needed to get a
better "handle" on exactly how the year has been reflected in
terms of teachers out of the building. So, I asked our Director of Educational
Technology to run a printout for me, showing three different categories:
personal days used, sick leave used, and professional leave days used. I
might suggest this to other principals if the technology is available to
do so because it sure opened my eyes!
The good news? First of all, I don't seem to have to be concerned about
my teachers feeling like they need "mental health" days. With
the exception of a couple of individual cases, the "mental health state"
of my staff seems to be in decent shape at this time of the year, with the
total number of sick leave days per teacher being minimal or average. Secondly,
almost every teacher has had some type of professional growth experience
as reflected in the use of a professional leave day.
What caught my eye right away were some significant days out of the building
for professional leave purposes. I had several teachers whose professional
leave days totaled two weeks out the building, or, more importantly, out
of the classroom! How, I asked myself, did I let this get away from me?
In my enthusiasm to see staff excited about learning something new, did
I simply lost track of what I had previously approved? These are solid teachers
who are true "life-long" learners. A day here for gifted training,
two days there for new science training at our district science center,
another day for co-teaching training (we are a full-inclusion school). The
days can obviously add up very quickly.
The irony is that we tell our kids and parents that kids can't learn if
they aren't in school, and yet kids can't learn effectively if they are
in school and don't have their regular teacher in front of them. It's an
interesting paradox, but one that I am now better alerted to -- and that
needs to be more closely monitored.
I guess that once again it just serves to reaffirm that we need to be better
attuned to how we provide staff development opportunities for our staff.
We must minimize the loss of teacher instructional time from the classroom
and find alternative, creative ways to provide effective training and/or
new pedagogical information. Of course, the ideal is when your teachers
take the initiative to impart their new knowledge or expertise to their
colleagues outside of the regular school day.
I experienced that kind of sharing just this week. Thirteen of my language
arts teachers asked me if I could find some registration fee money for a
4:00 p; 9:00 pm writing clinic that was being held locally. What's the
big deal, you may ask? Well, to begin with, the day of the clinic was the
same day as the first day of our Blue Ribbon site visit. Yet, here was a
significant number of my staff wanting to attend this workshop into the
late night hours. Then, to top it all, they were so excited about the great
information they received that they wanted to impart what they learned to
the rest of the school staff at the next inservice day next week. All 13
will be participant instructors! And remember, it's the last month of the
school year, and I have these staff members so excited about staff development
that they want to train their colleagues. Now that's powerful!
Feiler, Heritage, and Gallimore (Educational
Leadership, April 2000, Volume 57, No. 7, pp. 66-69) speak to the issue
of "teachers leading teachers" as perhaps the most powerful form
of professional staff development. It's a reassuring feeling at this time
of the year that even though I need to more closely monitor the amount of
time my teachers are out of the building for professional leave purposes,
I do have many teachers who are willing and able to nurture their colleague's
expertise without leaving the classroom.
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