What's going on here, anyway??

Well, it has been a while!

In the erstwhile spaces between posts, I usually get distracted by minor things. This past space, however, has had some pretty interesting distractions!

I have engaged in some PD sessions, leading workshops for eager teachers who wish to infuse technology into their programming. I have had some success, I'd say, but also a lot of frustrations. I am still trying to figure out what is going on here. I try not to wax egotistical about it, but I don't seem to be connecting to my audiences, and I don't know why.

Perhaps I am travelling too fast - going to far into my practice in too little time - my last session was an hour long: just enough time to pull back the covers in my literacy program, but that is it. The session before that was 2.5 hours - and that didn't seem long enough.

Perhaps what is needed is a more personal approach - where we all work together to build an understanding together. True teacher PD should never be spoon-feeding, right? Teachers (me included) like to see how what is presented would work in our own rooms. Teaching is personal, right?

So what makes good PD?

I had originally titled this post "Investing in Teachers" and had intended on writing/thinking about how lucky I've been to be in the presence of administrators who are seeing that the future of teaching is in the teachers. However, I quickly got sidetracked by a tickling problem I've had.

My colleague has experienced wonderful success with her PD outings, and I can conclude that she is giving the people what they want.

Perhaps (this being my 3rd time starting a sentence with 'perhaps') I need to honour the teachers in my room and build together what we all would like - a better understanding of teaching!

Let's give that a go, and call it a day.

M.