A frustration of my current job is that I haven’t figured out the staff inservice piece. Back in KL, I was pleased with the after school drop in sessions Kent and I held for staff. I think they worked because…
- No advance registration was required. Teachers didn’t feel they were committing to something.
- Weekly session were held. Teachers started holding non-critical questions for the drop in session. This meant I could safely run to the loo between classes without fearing being dragged into a classroom to provide support.
- Reminders were sent. I sent out a reminder email and posted signs in the canteen each week on the day of the session.
- Studio approach rather than set agenda was used. People came in to work on projects and we were there to support them.
- Teacher-student ratio was high enough. Often Kent, Suganthy and I were all there rushing about to provide just-in-time support.
- We were a trusted source. Suganthy, Kent and I had been there long enough that teachers felt safe dropping in for support.
I don’t think the same approach would be successful at this school because their are more initiatives vying for people’s time. I’ve tried offering after school sessions when needs arise, but teachers are so tired that it isn’t a great time for them to learn something new.
I’ve tried sessions during their team planning time. I felt my inservice wasn’t very good, but I can work on that. I plan to do more with this option next year.
I’ve tried giving brief teasers during staff meetings on new items that I think can be of real use to many people, such as a very easy way to resize photos to free up more space in their server quota. This has worked well and people ask for more info, but this venue only works for very specific types of information.
Therefore, I was delighted by an idea I heard tonight. The technology directors from various international schools in Singapore try to meet monthly to discuss instructional technology. Tonight, the director from the Australian school shared an idea that I think is brilliant. Next year he is going to offer full day professional development sessions for staff members. He will lead them in house. As he said, we often send people out for professional development. Why not keep them in?
There is much to love about this idea…
- Cost effective.
- Total control over content so able to tailor exactly to the users’ needs.
- Teachers will be learning when they have more energy, not at the end of the day.
- Sufficient practice time can be provided in class.
- It builds support networks among the users; after the class they can ask their classmates for support.
- It is on our computers so everything will look the same when they return to use it on their classrooms.
I could go on and on, but you get the idea (and my level of enthusiasm). To make it even better, he proposes we all do this and open our sessions up to each other’s schools. Only cost will be for subs. Of course, I’d need to find lab space and at the moment, that’s an insurmountable barrier. Hopefully I’ll soon be back in my own lab.
Are any of you using this model in your school/district? Is it working?
We have done this for a number of years. It works well because after the inservice is long done, and people have forgotten 1/2 of what they learned, they are still able to come to you for suggestions, help, and further mentoring. It also gives you the opportunity to follow it up immediately with implementation in classrooms.
We offer a 3 day Summer Institute for four hours in the morning. The teachers are required to be there all 3 days and create a technology integrated lesson to upload to our district website. The teachers aren’t paid but they get either a: document camera, projector, half a laptop or Smartboard.
We get the teachers who will use the equipment and this year the class of 80 filled in 30 minutes. 😉
Each building has offered tech inservices during the year to support the new learnings.We offered a graduate class every other week for 3 months. I can see some real change happening, but it will take a lot more hard work.
I feel your frustation. We started delivering pd in house this year to a a group of candidates that qualified…they also get tech equipment (projector, ELMO) to use with their wireless laptop..(Yes, I know we are spoiled)..so this program is three levels of technology with the end result being a unit plan tied to the NETS..so far, so good, but we’re only into the middle of the 2nd level ….
I think if you offer the Teachers some kind of “credit”…they might buy into it…stipends seem to work and we offer summer classes in July, both morning and afternoon and the teachers get paid.
A model that has worked well in our county is for the school to hire 3 or 4 subs for the day, and for teachers to rotate for a couple of hours in small groups.
Thank you all for sharing these. I appreciate the input as I continue to mull.