This Woman's Work
Since teachers are in the business of learning, it makes sense that they understand the importance of continuing to learn, too. This is why all teachers in the state of New Jersey are required to accrue 100 professional hours of teacher development.
The hours can be attained through a variety of ways. If you have a professional day that your school provides, usually those hours go to the total. Throughout the year you might also do committee work or be assigned specific workshops to attend that are tailored to what you teach. You also can sign up for and submit for workshops on your own that are being taught at neighboring Holiday Inn's or higher institutions of learning. Since they know that all teachers have to fulfill this requirement, most of the time requests are granted.
So to review, unless you work for some God awful district that has no funding or you've been using "the dog ate my homework" like excuses to get out of going to the workshops provided for you, reaching that goal of 100 hours in five years is really not that hard at all.
Instead the hard part can be attending the workshops themselves.
For one thing, it's a hassle for any teacher to be absent, ever, so much so that sometimes when you're sick you'll do what you tell the kids not to do and go in, just to avoid creating more work for yourself by being out. Because when you are absent, no matter what the reason, you are responsible for keeping the classroom running on automatic pilot. The first workshop I was signed up for this year was a mere six days into the school year. There is no automatic pilot switch by the sixth day. There are no responsible students to turn to in a pinch. Everyone is on page one. Handing over any power at this point is doable, but pointless.
But there's another, bigger reason why attending these workshops is so frustrating. This is because everytime I attend one I walk in feeling confident, but I walk out feeling incompetent.
Chances are no matter what your line of work, if you've attended one workshop, you've attended them all so I won't bore you with the details here. But as I'm sure you know, no matter how interesting the workshop it's usually a lot of sitting. You sit, sit and sit some more. And the seats are always only second to being the most uncomfortable chairs you've ever sat in. First place goes to those nasty seating arrangements you have to withstand during jury duty.
Suddenly your day is built around 10 minute breaks and the bagels, juice and coffee they generously provide you with at the beginning of the seminar. By the way, a word of advice about the complimentary breakfast. If your company is nice enough to provide you with some nourishment during your journey, take it and savor it. For no longer does that bagel become about nourishment, nor the juice about replinishment. They become a tool for survival, tried and true distractions in your hour of need which believe me, you will need.
The only other saving grace at workshops like these is if you are lucky enough to attend one with a coworker or two, preferably ones you like and aren't seperated from because of some stupid ice breaker game the instructor wants you to play. Going on a slight tangent here for a second so indulge me. What is up with those games anyway? They're all fine and good up until the age of 18, but breaking ice with strangers I'm never going to see again as an adult seems silly. Not to mention the fact (but I am anyway) that if you're a teacher and you still don't know how to talk to new people in a professional setting, something we do every day, chances are teaching was never the right profession for you.
But back to being lucky enough to know someone. This is always good. Last year I attended a day long workshop with a few co-workers of mine. While we were all on good terms, I was happy to have gotten the chance to sit next to my one co-worker for the day. I was happy it was her because she was receptive to the techniques used to "stay alive" in situations like these. It's like church. Things that are only rather amusing in everyday life become downright hysterical when you're confined to small spaces for long periods of time. Note taking is another great coping mechanism. In between the notes you should be taking, you can also swap notes back and forth about those notes. It's horrible but true, very rarely will I look back on any professional notes taken at meetings like these, but I will remember the running joke we had about the guy who had donut on his cheek and somehow, months later, that will still make me chuckle.
Of course teachers everywhere who utilize such techniques realize the irony in doing so. As most teachers will tell you, as adult students, we are living, breathing examples of what we want our very own students not to do while we're teaching. Random note passing? Talking while the teacher is talking? Daydreaming? All this and more is cause for public scolding by elementary teachers everywhere and yet many of them, when the tables are turned, are far from being shining examples as students. In fact, one of the few good reasons to attend workshops like these is to remind ourselves how bored some of the eight year olds who stare up at us must really be in the middle of learning what energy is. Those reminders keep us humble although amazingly they won't keep us from yelling "What are you doing?!" when some kid starts doodling SpongeBob in his math notebook.
From a teaching perspective, the content of most of these workshops is pretty self explanatory stuff. In teaching day to day, there is no reinventing the wheel. Sure trends come and go, but in the end, you close your classroom door and teach what works for you. Any teacher who has moved past the point of experimentation or tweaking lessons has burned out. The way kids learn is evolving and you have to evolve with it but for the most part, you don't need someone who more than likely ISN'T in the classroom on a daily basis tell you how to go about doing it.
Instructors of workshops are well intentioned men and women, but they always provide you with "best case scenario" situations. The videos they come armed with always feature the most well behaved class, and the techniques taught are built around classes like these or around the premise that there is help in every teacher's classroom who is in attendance that day.
But the reality is usually far different. Most teachers don't have classes that are full of Stepford kids who do everything they are told. Many teachers are juggling many things at any one time and the videos and testimonials never speak to that. So everything they tell you have to take with a grain of salt, otherwise you'll end up beating yourself up for how horrible a teacher you are like I used to do before I knew any better.
The basics in teaching don't change. There will always be reading, writing and arithmetic. But the way we teach it changes, and that's what these workshops are all about. And everytime at these workshops, without fail, I look over at a co-worker as I realize we are not doing what they are teaching us to do or we do it completely the opposite way. The beauty is no one is right or wrong, but when you're stuck in a room with little or no windows for 5 to 6 hours, and the bagel is dwindling and the jokes have run dry, you have nothing to do but see how your teaching methods rackup against those of your colleagues.
It's like a slow, Chinese water torture. Within a few short hours you go from laughing and rolling your eyes about being taught how to do exactly what you are already doing, to walking out questioning everything you've ever done. This is when I begin to think the attendance of these well-intentioned workshops are evil. It isn't until we are back in our safety zone at school and having a follow up conversation about the workshop that reality kicks in. Everybody feels that way and slowly confidence reemerges.
In the end, it's all about taking the information handed to you at any type of workshop with a grain of salt. Preferably the salt will come on an everything bagel and a coffee with two sugars and milk.
The hours can be attained through a variety of ways. If you have a professional day that your school provides, usually those hours go to the total. Throughout the year you might also do committee work or be assigned specific workshops to attend that are tailored to what you teach. You also can sign up for and submit for workshops on your own that are being taught at neighboring Holiday Inn's or higher institutions of learning. Since they know that all teachers have to fulfill this requirement, most of the time requests are granted.
So to review, unless you work for some God awful district that has no funding or you've been using "the dog ate my homework" like excuses to get out of going to the workshops provided for you, reaching that goal of 100 hours in five years is really not that hard at all.
Instead the hard part can be attending the workshops themselves.
For one thing, it's a hassle for any teacher to be absent, ever, so much so that sometimes when you're sick you'll do what you tell the kids not to do and go in, just to avoid creating more work for yourself by being out. Because when you are absent, no matter what the reason, you are responsible for keeping the classroom running on automatic pilot. The first workshop I was signed up for this year was a mere six days into the school year. There is no automatic pilot switch by the sixth day. There are no responsible students to turn to in a pinch. Everyone is on page one. Handing over any power at this point is doable, but pointless.
But there's another, bigger reason why attending these workshops is so frustrating. This is because everytime I attend one I walk in feeling confident, but I walk out feeling incompetent.
Chances are no matter what your line of work, if you've attended one workshop, you've attended them all so I won't bore you with the details here. But as I'm sure you know, no matter how interesting the workshop it's usually a lot of sitting. You sit, sit and sit some more. And the seats are always only second to being the most uncomfortable chairs you've ever sat in. First place goes to those nasty seating arrangements you have to withstand during jury duty.
Suddenly your day is built around 10 minute breaks and the bagels, juice and coffee they generously provide you with at the beginning of the seminar. By the way, a word of advice about the complimentary breakfast. If your company is nice enough to provide you with some nourishment during your journey, take it and savor it. For no longer does that bagel become about nourishment, nor the juice about replinishment. They become a tool for survival, tried and true distractions in your hour of need which believe me, you will need.
The only other saving grace at workshops like these is if you are lucky enough to attend one with a coworker or two, preferably ones you like and aren't seperated from because of some stupid ice breaker game the instructor wants you to play. Going on a slight tangent here for a second so indulge me. What is up with those games anyway? They're all fine and good up until the age of 18, but breaking ice with strangers I'm never going to see again as an adult seems silly. Not to mention the fact (but I am anyway) that if you're a teacher and you still don't know how to talk to new people in a professional setting, something we do every day, chances are teaching was never the right profession for you.
But back to being lucky enough to know someone. This is always good. Last year I attended a day long workshop with a few co-workers of mine. While we were all on good terms, I was happy to have gotten the chance to sit next to my one co-worker for the day. I was happy it was her because she was receptive to the techniques used to "stay alive" in situations like these. It's like church. Things that are only rather amusing in everyday life become downright hysterical when you're confined to small spaces for long periods of time. Note taking is another great coping mechanism. In between the notes you should be taking, you can also swap notes back and forth about those notes. It's horrible but true, very rarely will I look back on any professional notes taken at meetings like these, but I will remember the running joke we had about the guy who had donut on his cheek and somehow, months later, that will still make me chuckle.
Of course teachers everywhere who utilize such techniques realize the irony in doing so. As most teachers will tell you, as adult students, we are living, breathing examples of what we want our very own students not to do while we're teaching. Random note passing? Talking while the teacher is talking? Daydreaming? All this and more is cause for public scolding by elementary teachers everywhere and yet many of them, when the tables are turned, are far from being shining examples as students. In fact, one of the few good reasons to attend workshops like these is to remind ourselves how bored some of the eight year olds who stare up at us must really be in the middle of learning what energy is. Those reminders keep us humble although amazingly they won't keep us from yelling "What are you doing?!" when some kid starts doodling SpongeBob in his math notebook.
From a teaching perspective, the content of most of these workshops is pretty self explanatory stuff. In teaching day to day, there is no reinventing the wheel. Sure trends come and go, but in the end, you close your classroom door and teach what works for you. Any teacher who has moved past the point of experimentation or tweaking lessons has burned out. The way kids learn is evolving and you have to evolve with it but for the most part, you don't need someone who more than likely ISN'T in the classroom on a daily basis tell you how to go about doing it.
Instructors of workshops are well intentioned men and women, but they always provide you with "best case scenario" situations. The videos they come armed with always feature the most well behaved class, and the techniques taught are built around classes like these or around the premise that there is help in every teacher's classroom who is in attendance that day.
But the reality is usually far different. Most teachers don't have classes that are full of Stepford kids who do everything they are told. Many teachers are juggling many things at any one time and the videos and testimonials never speak to that. So everything they tell you have to take with a grain of salt, otherwise you'll end up beating yourself up for how horrible a teacher you are like I used to do before I knew any better.
The basics in teaching don't change. There will always be reading, writing and arithmetic. But the way we teach it changes, and that's what these workshops are all about. And everytime at these workshops, without fail, I look over at a co-worker as I realize we are not doing what they are teaching us to do or we do it completely the opposite way. The beauty is no one is right or wrong, but when you're stuck in a room with little or no windows for 5 to 6 hours, and the bagel is dwindling and the jokes have run dry, you have nothing to do but see how your teaching methods rackup against those of your colleagues.
It's like a slow, Chinese water torture. Within a few short hours you go from laughing and rolling your eyes about being taught how to do exactly what you are already doing, to walking out questioning everything you've ever done. This is when I begin to think the attendance of these well-intentioned workshops are evil. It isn't until we are back in our safety zone at school and having a follow up conversation about the workshop that reality kicks in. Everybody feels that way and slowly confidence reemerges.
In the end, it's all about taking the information handed to you at any type of workshop with a grain of salt. Preferably the salt will come on an everything bagel and a coffee with two sugars and milk.
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