Entry #6: Find staff development time
by rethinking meeting and planning schedules
One of the most difficult challenges educators today are faced with is always
"how to do more with less." We're no different at Jefferson Middle
School.
I constantly remind myself that my staff needs three distinct types of staff
development: content-specific professional growth opportunities; best-practice
pedagogy, and content-specific pedagogy. Going to conferences/workshops
and staying abreast of the latest research in one's field through subscriptions
and other literature teachers receive probably represent the majority of
professional growth opportunities that most teachers have the time to experience.
Many feel guilty not being there for their students and elect not to take
a professional leave day. Toss in the fact that there are district-level
initiatives that seem to take priority on institute days, and there simply
seems to be very little time to implement building-level staff development
programs.
The challenge, then, is not where to find additional time in an already,
jam-packed school week for staff development, but rather to rethink how
to use time that is already 'blocked' for teachers and build staff development
into that time frame.
Several ideas are in the planning stages at Jefferson. We have traditionally
held our faculty meetings on the first Monday of every month. Instead, I
would like to take this time and implement the concept of faculty "focus
groups" or "study tables," where small groups of teachers
meet by subject area and participate in collegial/collaborative sharing
of ideas and knowledge.
A good starting point for discussion would be implementing a professional
development activity called "learning from student work." At each
meeting, a different teacher takes a turn bringing in a student work selection
and acts as the facilitator to discuss his/her ideas as to what the student
was thinking when he/she wrote the work. Professional colleagues then share
their thoughts and perspectives, and, gradually, teachers from that subject
area come to some type of consensus as to what makes such a work effort
a quality piece.
It also helps teachers think in terms of rubrics in setting standards for
high quality student work. Teachers look for signs of misunderstandings
that may lie hidden behind correct answers and for clues to the thinking
that leads to incorrect answers. They also search for fresh insights into
the ways students build understanding. Looking at student work form this
viewpoint provides information that can help teachers identify the most
effective strategies for teaching students.
[Editor's note: This
page at MiddleWeb has many links to resources about the collaborative
examination of student work.]
So what happens to faculty meetings? Well, at JMS, where we have three administrators,
each administrator meets weekly with an assigned-grade level during one
of the team planning times. This year I meet every Thursday with our seventh
grade teams. We can get through most typical faculty meeting agenda items
and also have time for teachers to share their concerns and ask questions.
Of course, it takes good articulation among the administrative team to ensure
that all three administrators cover the same items. Our administrative team
meets every Tuesday morning at 6:50 a.m. to discuss and coordinate information
for the week.
This doesn't mean that we can't call a full-scale faculty meeting when we
feel we need to pull everyone together, but it sure does change the nature
of this 45-60 minute block of time. Instead of talking "at" my
staff about predominantly management types of information, they will talk
collaboratively with one another about professional teaching practices--and,
with no extra time being asked of them than before!
Another idea we have involves using one or two of our most experienced and
knowledgeable reading teachers to do some staff development from time to
time with other reading teachers during team planning time. It would mean
that we would have to secure an in-house substitute teacher for an hour
for the reading teacher who will lead the staff development activity. Again,
we would want to ensure that our team time is not utilized to an excessive
degree for staff development priorities. But, again, we think it could be
a wonderful way to increase staff development opportunities without asking
teachers for more time.
Lastly, we are very creative in finding ways to secure small stipends for
our teachers to attend evening or Saturday local staff development opportunities.
School improvement grants, building staff-development funds, and local school-business
partner support can all add a little extra incentive for teachers to participate
in after-hours inservices. Combining with another school and providing lunches/dinners/treats
(donated) are extra touches that send a message to our teachers that we
appreciate their efforts.
What we want to do is simple: Look for ways to acknowledge the tremendous
pressures and commitments our teachers already face and work within those
same time constraints to make some "trade-offs" every now and
then. Top it off with being able to find small ways to say "thanks"
when they step outside the regular school day to continue their professional
growth for the benefit of kids, and everyone is a winner!
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