Since
moving to a different school this year, I have found myself asking many
questions about professional development. At my previous school, professional
development sessions happened weekly and we also had choice sessions monthly. Now,
at my current school, we only have professional development sessions once a
month. I am constantly finding myself wondering, “why?” Why only once a month? Why
not once a week? Why are we not taking the time to help develop our teachers
and make us stronger?
I
strongly believe that teacher development should be a priority in every school
and every district. According to Vanessa Vega (2015), developing systems that
support teachers in sustained professional learning and refinement of teaching
practice is perhaps the single most important way to promote student learning
and educational opportunity in schools or districts” (para. 2). When teachers have
knowledge and tools available, the quality of student learning improves.
As a teacher, I have found the most beneficial sessions to be the
ones that we, as teachers, choose to attend. Choice creates a sense of
ownership, just as it does in our students, and ultimately, creates outstanding
results. When I am an instructional leader, these choice professional
development sessions are something that I want to implement with my teachers. I
would like to have multiple sessions happening at once, different staff members
leading the sessions, and offer all of the options for teachers to sign up to
learn from their fellow staff members. Teachers all have different strengths
and each of these strengths is valued. After reading “Leading learning,
first-year principals’ reflections on instructional leadership,” I learned that
in order to be successful in each of the roles the principal must take on in
schools, principals should use all of the strengths of their staff (O’Doherty & Ovando, 2013). I
plan to do just that.
I understand, from experience at my current school, that there are
many teachers that do not see the benefits of professional development
sessions. I know that as a leader, I will have to make professional development
sessions meaningful and applicable for staff members to appreciate the value in
them. I have learned many ways to avoid the negative attitudes towards teacher
development through research by Vega (2015). We should think about the quality
of the professional development instead of quantity. Professional development
sessions should be customized to fit the needs and interests of the staff
members. We should also promote the mindset that learning is a lifelong journey
in our staff members and offer productive feedback. Finally, there should be an atmosphere of
trust and focus between leaders and teachers (Vega, 2015).
In conclusion, I would like to support my teachers by including a
variety of professional development sessions. I want to give teachers the
opportunities to collaborate, analyze data, offer feedback, and feel confident
in knowing they have a toolkit of ideas available to them. Professional
development sessions strongly influence the quality of teaching in schools.
Olivia,
ReplyDeleteThis was interesting because the journal article that I wrote my summary on this past week was actually about teacher perceptions of leadership and how they tied into 13 core competencies, one of which was professional development. Though diversity was stated as the competency with the most impact on school climate, professional development was ranked second in importance and impact.
My school offers professional development less than once a month and they are county-mandated sessions. Though teachers can elect to take additional Professional Development at the county level, they are by no means required and I have rarely heard of teachers partaking in these opportunities.
I definitely agree that professional development sessions have the potential to strongly influence the quality of teaching in schools, and I look forward, like you, to being a leader that will be able to harness the power of that!
Olivia,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog post. I agree that professional development should be somewhat tailored to what the teacher needs. Wouldn't it be great if administrators always had the flexibility and funds to offer professional development for teachers based on their areas of growth identified using TKES?
I feel like the school I work in has taken a step in the right direction in regards to professional development. This year our principal has offered break-out sessions during our built-in professional development. Teachers are given the list of sessions ahead of time and they get to choose which session would best benefit them. We do still have some professional development that all teachers are required to do but at least now teachers are given some choice.