The theme of intentional, meaningful professional
development and peer collaboration was strong throughout the OECD presentations
on Singapore and Finland as it was in the Darling-Hammond book. I was impressed with the opportunities that
teachers had to reflect on teaching practice and collaborate with peers built
right into their daily schedules. It seemed that the new teachers had a
predictable process and routine to reflect on their teaching skills. It was
apparent that the experienced teachers were learning along with the new teacher
as they reviewed video clips of lessons together and discussed the interactions
between the students, the learning targets, and the strategies of the teachers being
viewed. The experienced teachers had to be reflective about what they were
doing and why in order to have these collaborative discussions. Through this
they demonstrate that learning is a continual process for everyone in the
education field.
There will be at least one new teacher in our program, and
possibly two, after 20 years of the same teachers and many of the same
classroom aides. At this point we don’t know whether the new teacher(s) will be
completely new to the profession or someone who has experience elsewhere.
Either way, this may be the opportunity to break the present cycle of going to
our rooms, shutting the door, and only sharing with one another in a more or
less haphazard way. I have been assigned to be the mentor teacher. Though I
don’t expect that my working schedule will change significantly, I do believe
that I can work in some of the practices of intentional peer collaboration,
though only to a small degree by comparison to the time in Finland or
Singapore. I already have the support of
the director to set aside some dedicated time for the process, though we
haven’t established what that process will look like. At the minimum I would
like to have a time for some planning together and reflecting on the prior
week. If sub pay is available then we could do some observations in person. If
not, we could watch videos of lessons to guide discussions.
I am so excited for the new school year to start! Our school district is setting aside some time every week for PLCs. We will have delayed start on Mondays. I feel that this is a great opportunity for us. I worry about how effective it will be and hope that its possible lack of immediate success will turn it into another flash in the pan initiative. Unsurprisingly, there are some teachers that are complaining and not open to learning about the value of this opportunity. There is also the issue of training. I don’t think a one day workshop will significantly prepare us to participate in PLC effectively. We will have the idea – but the scaffolding supports will need to be there as we learn. I am also concerned that just one hour a week really is not enough time to dig in deep. I appreciate the movement to PLCs, but hope it is supported enough to be successful.
ReplyDeleteI am excited for what you will be doing also. Sounds like the timing is perfect to support some changes!
Lynette, I think the new teachers will be lucky to have you as a mentor. It's great that you are in the building with them. Our new teachers are assigned a mentor who is usually a retired teacher and not in the building for support. I'm not sure how effective that is.
ReplyDeleteWe are lucky in our district to have late start on Mondays which allows for collaboration and some professional development. At our school, our principal has been extremely supportive of teachers teaching each other because there's no money to bring in people or send people anywhere. I'm hoping this year our PD can be a little more focused.