It is professional development week in 638! When I was a Peace Corps Volunteer, I was sort of cast into a position as the teacher trainer for my school district the second that I arrived at my site. The idea was that I grew up in an educational system that worked, so I must be able to reflect on my own education enough to bring about new ideas in an isolated community. I had to get really comfortable teaching people who had a significant amount of prior knowledge regarding teaching, were really set in their ways, and had preconceived notions about who I was based on my race and cultural background. But in the midst of that, I made it work and even loved it-- some of my best experiences in the Philippines were when I was teaching teachers.
This week's reading looked at the role of lesson study in developing professional learning communities in schools. I shared an office with three teachers with varying degrees of experience and different subject matter to cover. My counterpart and I taught English, and the other teachers taught Math and Ethics. We often took our breaks together and bounced ideas off of one another for classes. It was an really enriching activity that was completely facilitated by our shared personal spaces. That is something that a lot of teachers don't really have, but I think the library can provide. I think that it should be the place where teachers want to spend their breaks. It should be the place where people bump into each other who might seem to have very little in common.
But that is a more implicit way to support PLCs. I think that librarians can also be more explicit about providing forums for teacher feedback and support. Another article that we looked at discussed staff development workshops. One point that really resonated with me was to call on other educators within your community to lead workshops. It is important to see your school as a community of experts and to tap that wealth of knowledge and experience to support the greater community. It doesn't always have to be the Librarian's job, and frankly, it probably shouldn't always be our job-- we will never be qualified enough for that.
We might call your Philippines experience a kind of embedded PD. Love your idea of inviting others to lead, too.
ReplyDeleteI like talking to others in the same community--that could be even better than talking with others in general, as the context is the same. And calling on others to lead would probably make them more likely to listen to you, too, since they know you're willing to listen to them.
ReplyDeleteDo other Peace Corps teachers relate the same type of experience? I wonder how it compares with Teach for America? It seems that both programs run an extensive pre-training program. How does that compare to our student teacher training? We will get enough hands-on experience? From talking to Kara and Emily- it sure seems like we will. But, hopefully- we won't feel like we have been thrown into it, or at least, we land on our feet;)
ReplyDeleteInteresting that we think our educational system is broken while other countries view it as successful, huh?
ReplyDeleteIn terms of PD, I think your experience as a Peace Corps volunteer would be my main worry: teachers are accustomed to doing things their own way and don't want to disturb the status quo. But then how can things ever change for the better?
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