Yesterday was the last face to face meeting with our summer professional development course. I have to be honest and say that I am not sad to see it end. I really question the effectiveness of a 2 hour face to face meeting after they have worked all day. There were some teachers who only seemed interested in getting out of there. How late are you going to keep us? If we don't take a break can we get out early? were just some of the comments that were made. Sometimes I wonder how these same teachers would react if there students acted the same way. Maybe it was because it ends up being a long day and they had other places they would have rather been. But they signed up for the course. No one forced them. I understand that they signed up last April and who really knows what you have going on the following October. But just the general lack of interest was the most frustrating. While I did not get this feeling from all it always seems to be from the loudest.
While I am writing about the wrap-up I guess I will add something else that really irritates mes me. Believe me this is not confined to the pd. Showing up 25 minutes late for something with a Starbucks coffee in your hand. To me that just show a general lack of respect for the people who made sure that they could get there on time. I always wonder how far out of the way did someone have to go to get that? If they didn't stop to get the coffee would it be possible that they could have made the course on time? I used to work with 2 teachers who would be late just about everyday for work. Kids lined up at the door waiting to get into their homeroom while the teacher strolls in with her cup of coffee. I know this is an administrative issue but to me it seems like a personal issue. If you need your cup of coffee to get your day started no problem just leave earlier. I know that there are some times when things can not be controlled. Traffic is bad, accidents happen, you wake up late, and some other things that are out of our control. Sometime I wonder if people think about that or if the attitude is just I'll there when I get there?
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2 comments:
Oh how true!!! So many people today are only concerned with themselves and feel the world revolves around them. Those are the ones that seem to show up late, want to leave early, with no regards to others. There are of course those that are there early and try to get the most of the situation. But like you said you don't really remember them, it's the ones that make a scene and show their lack of interest.
As for the way PD's are set up. I agree that the 2 hour follow-up isn't the best for those that are involved becasue it is a long day and people have no idea when they sign up if they will have things going on that partucular day. We've used that follow-up time for sharing of lesson/acivities in order to have accountability of the participants to use what they learned. Maybe we need to change the way we design the last two hours to more instruction. I do see the benefits of having the participants share because we always can learn from others but the lack of respcet during some of the presentations was rude! Many side conversations that didn't have anything to do with the presentation. That's another question to those who disregard others as they present. "Do you allow your students to have side coversations when you are teaching?"
Sometimes I find myself guilty of the very behaviors that drive me crazy. I'm really making a conscious effort this year to focus during meetings and NOT get too far off in the distance in my mind's wanderings. I have also been working on my attendance and arrival times. I struggle with how to work in expectations for behavior into our PDs. There was nothing quite like watching the head of PD let the teachers we were working with 'have it' when their disrespectful behavior reached a peak. At what point can I say something, call other so-called professionals out on their behavior? I almost lost it at last Friday's meeting when a group looked at me and told me that Communicator wasn't working effectively in their building. Why isn't it clear to them that I need to know, that I can get them help, that stopping like there is a herd of cows in their way is not an effective way to fix a problem in their buildings? And to admit openly that they had not followed through on something they had been told to do by a supervisor...
I struggle with us as a team being models for behavior when our own behavior (not ours as in me and you specifically but ours as a collective team) does not warrant modeling?
Interesting post!
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