Professional Development: A Mini Study
Twenty five of us arrive at varying times prior to 8:30 a.m. and find our seats at round tables. We introduce ourselves to each other and discuss breakfast and coffee and the location of the nearest Starbucks. I arrive promptly at 8:20 a.m. and prep my space. My computer is open to the advance material sent out last week. I have my pen and journal in my lap. My phone is on silent. I slept well. I'm ready to learn about a topic of interest and a topic of need to my development as a teacher.
The presenter places a large pile of handouts in the middle of the table. There are three and one is stapled and quite thick. We have two hours together so I begin to wonder what is ahead. I leaf through the handouts and I'm surprised to see how dense they are. These are set aside for later reading.
The presenter begins at 8:31 a.m. Good, he's prompt and serious about following the schedule. He puts up his first slide. It is wordy- too much text I think- and he begins to read it word for word for the audience. He looks very uncomfortable. He is quiet. He doesn't make direct eye contact. I look at my watch. I open my email in a new tab.
As he begins to read his fourth wordy slide word for word I send an email. I look around. I drink my latte and wish it was still hot and not lukewarm. I think about how cold the air conditioned room is until he asks a question. The inflection in his voice draws me back and I tune in for what I hope will be some discussion. No wait time. The question is followed by the presenter answering it for himself. I check my phone and send a text.
A command- Let's do a jigsaw. Everyone at the table number off 1-8 and take a high leverage application. Read the descriptor and share. I count. Our table has six people. Oh great, who has to do two? I don't volunteer to begin to count off because then I'll end up with two. We are told we have two minutes to read. I begin to read. I'm a pretty quick reader. Time's up. I have two sentences left. I miss the next step because I'm finishing up reading and thinking about what I'm going to share out. No one is ready at my table but we muddle through. We have five minutes to share. I calculate that we only have seconds each to share so it doesn't matter that we weren't ready. One person shares and time is up. Time is really up. This guy isn't messing around.
Back to more wordy slides read aloud. Do I do this to my students? Note to self: Don't do things for your audience that they can do for themselves. I check my phone again. I make a list of things I need to do this evening. I open my journal and grab my pen and pretend to take notes while I write down ideas.
The presenter asks a question. A woman at my table ventures a quick answer and he asks someone to paraphrase what she said. I avert eye contact. I wasn't paying attention. I'm really not sure how this is relevant to me. I'm really not sure what I'm supposed to be learning and how this applies to students. I'm lost.
9:42 a.m. Seventy minutes in. I hear a statement about how all of this can apply to classrooms and how it all benefits students. I tune back in. Now that sounds relevant. I wait but the presenter moves on and doesn't go into detail as to the how. He says he'll get back to that but I don't believe him. I begin to wrestle with my Fitbit and see why it isn't wanting to connect to bluetooth on my phone. My neighbor is looking at a pay scale for a school district. My other tablemates are discussing dinner plans. I check my agenda to see what the afternoon will hold.
The presenter continues with slides. These have pretty blue links in them and I'm interested in the available resources. The slides aren't available to us. He doesn't click on the links. I can't write them down quickly enough before they disappear. Now, I'm getting frustrated. I get up and get some water.
The presenter asks for volunteers to reassemble a cut up sentence in the front of the room and for table groups to discuss key reasons for the sentence structure decided upon. I'm back. This is interesting. We are in the mindset of our students and we are talking at our tables about the activity. We get into a great discussion about how this might be a challenge for some and how we could adapt it in our classrooms. Just when we begin to get excited we are told it's time to move on and another wordy slide appears. I take a mini field trip to the bathroom.
The presenter asks us to take a minute and think about a statement he reads. He proceeds to talk during the entire thinking minute. I can't concentrate and I don't know why I'm thinking so I think about lunch. Then I think that the relative pronoun "which" is like "witch" and I could write a story about a witch sitting in a PD session.
The session ends with great irony. First of all, after not having any time to really think for two hours we are reminded how important it is to give our students processing time. Second of all, after running the session like a military drill, stopwatch literally in hand, the presenter asks for an additional ten minutes after break for discussion. I think many may get "lost" coming back from break. And I have no connection to the resources provided at the onset. I file away the thick packet and forget about it.
I escape. Where's the coffee?
Limitations to the Study
It is very important to provide some self disclosure at this juncture. My husband refers to me as a human Jack Russell Terrier. We own two of them. They don't sit still. They need nearly constant stimulation. They like to have their brain and body engaged. This has to be considered a limitation. If I am not instantly engaged I have to work very hard to focus.
In the above scenario the point is not to tear down the presenter. It is more to examine my behaviors in alignment with his presenting choices. He did not appear comfortable and I am going to infer that he is not usually a presenter but a researcher.
The hotel conference room location was extremely cold and participants were spread out. The presenter was located in the front of the room and not in close proximity to the audience. The physical space was a limitation.
Analysis and Application
The PD session described above is, unfortunately, not unusual. Teachers receive this type of "sit and get" one shot PD frequently. So, what can I learn and what can I take away in application to my teaching and as I work with teacher leaders?
Delivering instruction to colleagues is tough work. It's not easy to get in front of adults and convey information in an engaging manner. Adults are not inherently different than my former sixth graders and they tend to have more expensive toys like Apple watches. Delivering PD takes practice and preparation.
What I learned today:
The presenter places a large pile of handouts in the middle of the table. There are three and one is stapled and quite thick. We have two hours together so I begin to wonder what is ahead. I leaf through the handouts and I'm surprised to see how dense they are. These are set aside for later reading.
The presenter begins at 8:31 a.m. Good, he's prompt and serious about following the schedule. He puts up his first slide. It is wordy- too much text I think- and he begins to read it word for word for the audience. He looks very uncomfortable. He is quiet. He doesn't make direct eye contact. I look at my watch. I open my email in a new tab.
As he begins to read his fourth wordy slide word for word I send an email. I look around. I drink my latte and wish it was still hot and not lukewarm. I think about how cold the air conditioned room is until he asks a question. The inflection in his voice draws me back and I tune in for what I hope will be some discussion. No wait time. The question is followed by the presenter answering it for himself. I check my phone and send a text.
A command- Let's do a jigsaw. Everyone at the table number off 1-8 and take a high leverage application. Read the descriptor and share. I count. Our table has six people. Oh great, who has to do two? I don't volunteer to begin to count off because then I'll end up with two. We are told we have two minutes to read. I begin to read. I'm a pretty quick reader. Time's up. I have two sentences left. I miss the next step because I'm finishing up reading and thinking about what I'm going to share out. No one is ready at my table but we muddle through. We have five minutes to share. I calculate that we only have seconds each to share so it doesn't matter that we weren't ready. One person shares and time is up. Time is really up. This guy isn't messing around.
Back to more wordy slides read aloud. Do I do this to my students? Note to self: Don't do things for your audience that they can do for themselves. I check my phone again. I make a list of things I need to do this evening. I open my journal and grab my pen and pretend to take notes while I write down ideas.
The presenter asks a question. A woman at my table ventures a quick answer and he asks someone to paraphrase what she said. I avert eye contact. I wasn't paying attention. I'm really not sure how this is relevant to me. I'm really not sure what I'm supposed to be learning and how this applies to students. I'm lost.
9:42 a.m. Seventy minutes in. I hear a statement about how all of this can apply to classrooms and how it all benefits students. I tune back in. Now that sounds relevant. I wait but the presenter moves on and doesn't go into detail as to the how. He says he'll get back to that but I don't believe him. I begin to wrestle with my Fitbit and see why it isn't wanting to connect to bluetooth on my phone. My neighbor is looking at a pay scale for a school district. My other tablemates are discussing dinner plans. I check my agenda to see what the afternoon will hold.
The presenter continues with slides. These have pretty blue links in them and I'm interested in the available resources. The slides aren't available to us. He doesn't click on the links. I can't write them down quickly enough before they disappear. Now, I'm getting frustrated. I get up and get some water.
The presenter asks for volunteers to reassemble a cut up sentence in the front of the room and for table groups to discuss key reasons for the sentence structure decided upon. I'm back. This is interesting. We are in the mindset of our students and we are talking at our tables about the activity. We get into a great discussion about how this might be a challenge for some and how we could adapt it in our classrooms. Just when we begin to get excited we are told it's time to move on and another wordy slide appears. I take a mini field trip to the bathroom.
The presenter asks us to take a minute and think about a statement he reads. He proceeds to talk during the entire thinking minute. I can't concentrate and I don't know why I'm thinking so I think about lunch. Then I think that the relative pronoun "which" is like "witch" and I could write a story about a witch sitting in a PD session.
The session ends with great irony. First of all, after not having any time to really think for two hours we are reminded how important it is to give our students processing time. Second of all, after running the session like a military drill, stopwatch literally in hand, the presenter asks for an additional ten minutes after break for discussion. I think many may get "lost" coming back from break. And I have no connection to the resources provided at the onset. I file away the thick packet and forget about it.
I escape. Where's the coffee?
Limitations to the Study
It is very important to provide some self disclosure at this juncture. My husband refers to me as a human Jack Russell Terrier. We own two of them. They don't sit still. They need nearly constant stimulation. They like to have their brain and body engaged. This has to be considered a limitation. If I am not instantly engaged I have to work very hard to focus.
In the above scenario the point is not to tear down the presenter. It is more to examine my behaviors in alignment with his presenting choices. He did not appear comfortable and I am going to infer that he is not usually a presenter but a researcher.
The hotel conference room location was extremely cold and participants were spread out. The presenter was located in the front of the room and not in close proximity to the audience. The physical space was a limitation.
Analysis and Application
The PD session described above is, unfortunately, not unusual. Teachers receive this type of "sit and get" one shot PD frequently. So, what can I learn and what can I take away in application to my teaching and as I work with teacher leaders?
Delivering instruction to colleagues is tough work. It's not easy to get in front of adults and convey information in an engaging manner. Adults are not inherently different than my former sixth graders and they tend to have more expensive toys like Apple watches. Delivering PD takes practice and preparation.
What I learned today:
- Wait time is crucial. And, I'm not always good at it. If you ask for participants to think, give them time to think. If you ask a question, allow them time to form an answer.
- Don't do for your audience things they can do for themselves. I am an avid slide user. I like slides for the organization. They keep me on topic and help me with pacing. But, I've tried in recent years to limit the visual information on slides and to talk from them rather than read them aloud. I have room to grow.
- Consider urgency not anxiety. Keep time deadlines flexible. If you want to allow five minutes for discussion and groups are engaged be ready to allow for seven or eight minutes. If you are going to ask for independent reading account for the time it takes for all readers. Watch non-verbal cues or think of another method for presenting the necessary information.
- Rather than tell your audience about useful teaching strategies embed them in your presentation. Convey the instructional material through the actual strategy. The audience will experience the strategy and will be able to clearly see its application.
- Practice. Rehearsing your presentation- especially when it is new for you- can help with pacing and point out potential pitfalls.
- Build in some type of movement. There are participants like me that simply can't sit and focus for more than an hour. Let's face it, I start to struggle after ten minutes.
- Infuse appropriate humor and keep your own energy level high. Your audience feeds off of you and they like to know you're human and passionate about what you are teaching them.
Conclusion
I am not an ideal audience member for professional development but this morning's session was not what I would consider a success. However, it did allow for me to reflect upon the work that I do with adults and to think about changes I can make to best reach all learners at all stages.
Wyoming Writing Project is dedicated to teachers teaching teachers on our PD days around the state. The invitational institute is intense for three weeks and approximately 100 hours of study in the practice of writing and teaching writing. We are doing some things well and that is exciting to think about in light of my recent experiences with professional development.
Thank you.
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