TL;DR:
- We can use lessons learned in the pandemic to make improvements on professional development (PD).
- Improve PD by focusing on lifelong learning, considering an EdCamp or Facebook PD, or attending a Twitter chat.
S
o in the words of the #EduDuctTape podcast, I am about to get out my soapbox.
How many times have you sat at a staff meeting or a professional development session and thought about all the other things you could be doing instead? Have you walked in or sat down with a stack of papers that you “hoped” you could secretly check? Thought what else is going to be added to your plate now when you are already so overwhelmed? If you have had any of these thoughts, you are not alone. Like most of us, I have been there too.
I find this ironic. As an educator, I love to learn. I read every day, participate in Twitter chats regularly, blog, and more. But when it comes to a “meeting or PD session,” that all changes. As a tech coach, I work hard to change that, but understand that I often need to work within the confines of what my school and the district provides. We emphasize that we want our students to become future-ready using skills like collaboration, critical thinking, communication, and more, but much of what districts provide for us is very “old school.
One More Thing…
“One more thing”—that’s how many educators view professional development. But is that how it should be? We are in the business of helping students learn and grow.
In such a role, we need to model what we preach. We need to model taking risks if we want our students to do so. In addition, if we want our students to be reflective, we need to model this. Finally, if we want our students to be lifelong learners, we need to model this as well.
So much of our time we preach “engagement” and “empowerment,” but we emphasize compliance. We attempt to make time for innovative practices within an old school paradigm. Many times this doesn’t work and it ends up backfiring. As a result, we attempt squeezing in time for engaging and empowering professional development, which is the exact opposite of what we should do.
Improve PD: Focusing on Lifelong Learning
In his book, The Four O’Clock Faculty, Rich Czyz describes how conversations can lead to true professional development. In my 1/3/2020 post, I shared my takeaways from his book and the idea of going ROGUE—finding a Relevant Organized Group of Underground Educators. He shared many innovative ways how educators can make time to professionally learn in anywhere from five minutes to longer amounts of time. Rich is not alone in his ideas of nontraditional professional development.
In Professionally Driven, Jarod Bormann shares that “we need to create the learning environment for adults where they become thirsty to learn and drive their own learning.” Jarod talks about the differences between training and learning. Trainings are predetermined, explaining what we have to know. Learning involves more self-direction, what we want to know. Professional learning uses an inquiry model, while training is more traditional.
As educators, we need to model being lifelong learners to our students. In Innovate Inside the Box by George Couros, he shares, “In a profession where learning is the focus of our job, growth is essential and the target is always moving” (p.71).
Those of us who get it are motivated to learn, continually refining our craft and taking risks to do so. But that is not all of us. Yet, in the 21st century, we have amazing tools at our disposal that can take our professional development in a new direction—self-direction, empowerment, and the pursuit of lifelong learning. Why not take what engages educators outside of our school buildings and bring it inside?
Improve PD: A Saturday Teacher?
Last year, I wrote a post called Being A Saturday Teacher. In this post, I shared the idea of a “Saturday Teacher” as an educator who gives both time and money out of their own pockets to engage in learning on their “off time.”
This post was inspired by a podcast episode of “Check This Out with Brian and Ryan.” Without a doubt, I am a “Saturday teacher,” but in today’s world, being a Saturday teacher is harder than ever in some ways.
We live in a time when the boundaries between home and school have become so blurred that it is often hard to find the time for “off time.” If you do find it, many times you are too exhausted to do anything else. Teaching in a virtual or hybrid environment involves more work—that’s a fact!
This summer, I provided two weeks of professional learning opportunities to my staff. Participation was optional and I loved how engaged my participants were. In these sessions, I modeled strategies that demonstrated new approaches to learning. Afterward, I decided to continue these sessions on Mondays as school started, but quickly noticed that participation dwindled. This was not a surprise; I understood this. Teachers were overwhelmed and didn’t want to do “one more thing.”
So with that in mind, I sat down to think about what makes the learning I do as a “Saturday teacher” more engaging. To begin with, I have the choice to attend it or not and the choice of which sessions to attend. In addition, it also isn’t just about the sessions, but about the people.
Honestly, some of the best learning happens in the hallways between sessions as conversations between participants become PD sessions. Connections are made and PLNs are built.
Improve PD: Consider an EdCamp
In a regular world, EdCamps are a great option for this type of learning. Imagine if schools capitalized on the expertise inside their walls and held EdCamp sessions during a PD day. Plus, there are many conferences that have low or little cost associated with them. This current year, FETC (Future of Education Technology) in Florida was free, as was OETC (Ohio Educational Technology Conference) in Ohio. Wouldn’t it be great if PD time was provided to allow educators to attend these conferences without having to give up personal leave?
Improve PD: Consider Facebook PD
In a COVID world, traditional conferences are not an option. But innovative educators have risen to the challenge. They have given us amazing models for our own professional growth. Many educators have started streaming on multiple social media platforms during the week.
Rachelle Dene Poth and Melanie McAllister have Thrive at Five sessions twice a week at 5 PM EST and invite inspiring guests. Tim Cavey of Teachers on Fire has a weekly roundtable on Saturdays at 11 AM EST where he invites featured guests based on a topic. Dave Burgess Consulting also has a weekly PD session on Thursday nights at 7:30 PM that they stream.
Participants can view these sessions synchronously or later in a recorded format. Yet, most districts do not give credit for these sessions. I find that really sad; educators learn so much during these sessions. Imagine if districts included sessions like this as part of a choice board for professional growth, or if districts used a similar idea to provide PD.
Facebook groups have become an increasingly great place for educators to gather. For my district, we have a Facebook group dedicated to questions about reopening. Other Facebook groups offer support for like-minded educators, like Teachers on Fire, Teach Better Team, and Thrive in EDU. In these forums, teachers share resources, ideas, and more.
Some of these communities have hundreds of educators in them. This allows for collaboration and communication anywhere and anytime. These groups empower the idea of working smarter and “better together.” Educators do not need to learn in isolation and need to see that a staff meeting or training is not the only way to learn. Imagine if districts used this power for professional development—videos and modules could be shared, discussion could take place, and more.
Improve PD: Consider a Twitter Chat
Twitter chats are not a new thing, but they allow for both synchronous and asynchronous learning to take place. Twitter chats allow participants to explore an idea, issue, or sometimes even a book. These chats happen synchronously, but we can review them later by searching a hashtag.
In fact, with sites such as TweetDeck, you can even preschedule your tweets. These Twitter chats take you out of your school bubble and allow you to hear other voices. To promote culturally responsive teaching, we need to “listen” and expose ourselves to other voices.
I am proud to share that my district has begun to embrace this type of PD. A couple of times a year, we get PD credit for participating in Twitter chats on Wednesday nights in the #NoVaEdChat. Usually, these sessions focus on equity or professional learning communities. But I honestly believe that all Twitter chats provide PD. Imagine if schools, regions, or districts used this power as a way to empower learning more.
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Improve PD: What If…
What if we looked at some of these new and innovative practices to engage educators? We often talk about a double-track agenda—using strategies with educators that they can turn around and use with students.
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What if we looked at the idea of using an EdCamp style professional learning session? Some schools already do things like this, but they are not the norm.
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What if we create PD groups and chats on social media for school staff to learn? These groups could stream PD from the comfort of their home or offer it asynchronously. Individual schools could partner with other schools or systems to provide choice and voice to staff.
If we want our students to be engaged and lifelong learners, why would we accept the opposite of this? We really need to model what we preach.
ABOUT DEBBIE TANNENBAUM
Debbie Tannenbaum is an Elementary School Technology Specialist in Fairfax County, VA. An educator with over twenty years of experience, Mrs. Tannenbaum is completing her second year in this role, where she supports both staff and students to integrate technology tools into instruction through both co-teaching sessions and weekly technology classes. Mrs. Tannenbaum is also an avid blogger and shares her thoughts and reflections on her website: Techy Notes. You can also find her on Twitter and Instagram at @TannenbaumTech.
