Whaley’s Commonplace Book

Week 4 - Professional Development

I have new definition and more broad understanding of professional development now. My first job out of college (1992) was as Education
Specialist for a conservation organization that primarily served our local agricultural community. I went to schools and gave presentations but also
conducted teacher workshops. Back then, professional development to me was something that I did for myself and my career. I wanted to try to get
better at my job and often spent weekends attending workshops away from home. I was really the only one in my nine member office who was doing
these things. Well, we all went to some other trainings, but they were always fewer than I completed, during the work day, and on paid company time.
In retrospect, I guess the similarity is greater than the difference.

So I was in effect a teacher professional development provider. We offered CEU’s (continuing education units) and did 3 hour or usually 7 hour
programs in the supplemental curriculums shown below. In the late 1990’s something changed and fewer teachers were attending these workshops. I
was aware that the schools were under heightened pressure to conform daily lessons to national standards. All the supplemental curriculum staff had
to go to writing workshops to “align” their lessons to the standards. I attended a few myself. Hawley and Valli (2007) detail the coincidental move that
schools were making to create formal professional learning communities. Working in the non-formal education world (camps, zoos, nature centers,
etc) I was never aware of this shift. Though it was in the news then and in part because I didn’t have children, I was only anecdotally aware of the idea
that schools had problems that they needed to address. My professional development workshops were directed more at enhancing teaching, not
correcting deficits. Both of the readings (Hawley & Vallli 2007; Little 2006) detail a focus on the needs of the organization (school) more than the
individual. This shift makes sense, if data says conference attendance doesn’t move the needle on student performance, then a district can’t pay for it.
Week 4 - Professional Development - Time & Energy
In my school we meet in professional learning communities every Tuesday. Thirty minutes for grade level groupings &
thirty minutes for subject matter groupings. Everyone agrees that the meetings are valuable, but with only 30 minutes
you are just really starting to dig into a discussion when you need to move to the next meeting or adjourn. Both of this
week’s articles described the goals and principles for effective professional development that is learner-centered,
school based, ongoing, collaborative. Two ideas stand out to me.

1. The Hawley & Valli (2007) article reads to me like a set of “best practices.” What percent of schools are actively
checking the majority of the boxes here? Those that are not - why not? I felt like at BCCHS we are on the right
path even if not making enough headway quickly enough. Yet at the end of Hawley & Valli (2007) they state that
this model will require “major changes.” In my notes a number of times I noted that I wished they had paired a
practical example with their theoretical explanations. What are examples of meeting each of their 10 principles?
2. On the surface, continuous improvement sounds like a wonderful goal for any organization. I know I want to
work to improve and pretty much always have. Yet there is a fine line between striving for better and being
inadequate. In my first year when working more than 60 hours every week, I had times when I bristled at the
idea that if I just worked another 5 hours or 10 hours or 20 hours more then everything would be better. If we all
did that, schools would run perfectly right. Is it just a matter of more time and energy. At what point are
teachers working “hard enough” in the system as it is is place. At what point to we need to realize that the
system itself needs “major changes” to accomplish what needs to be done.