Professional Development: Targeted, Ongoing and an
Opportunity to Develop Teacher Leaders
Patrice Bucci
February 2013
The face of professional development is changing. Delivery
models are evolving. Now more than
ever teachers need support as they negotiate their way through the reams of
information that is being rolled out in federal, state and district
initiatives. As municipal budgets continue to be hampered by cuts, it becomes
more difficult to design and fund professional learning opportunities for
teachers and administrators. We are at an inflection point. Where is
professional development going and how are we going to get there?
Stakeholders are beginning to understand that for
educational initiatives to be successful, professional development that fosters
teacher learning needs to be targeted, relevant and ongoing. Instead of the traditional one size
fits all delivery systems, professional development models going forward would
be more supportive of teacher learning if teachers had a say in what they
wanted to learn.
But, teachers can’t wait for districts to research, plan,
and fund professional development days. As a result, grassroots efforts by
teachers are gaining traction as the digital world enables them to connect and
learn in new ways. Teachers can no
longer wait for their one or two days of professional development, they want
their PD streaming.
Teachers are always thinking about teaching, but now their
focus is on learning…their learning. Teacher accountability issues have brought
teacher learning into hyper focus. Teachers are rapidly becoming consumers of
their own professional development. They are rethinking faculty meetings,
engaging in study groups, and developing personal learning networks in the
digital world.
Twitter, facebook, and the blogosphere are ripe with ideas
for changing professional development models. Negotiating this landscape requires leadership,
instructional leadership that fosters inquiry and collaboration. In order to
prevent this landscape from becoming the Wild West, it is necessary for
planning to be three pronged. Professional development needs to address the
district’s strategic vision, the schools instructional needs, and teacher’s
personal goals. Given the recent
MetLife survey that highlighted the decreasing teacher morale problem, this is
no easy task.
Where do we begin?
Fostering teacher leadership is a great place to start. Identify what makes a teacher
leader. Identify what supports a
teacher leader needs in order to grow and reach colleagues. Have faculty
members define the teacher leader’s role and responsibilities so that everyone
has input and understands the rationale for the role.
Teacher leaders can facilitate school based literacy teams.
They can guide their colleagues in identifying areas of strength that can be
capitalized on. They can also steer their colleagues in their efforts to
identify areas of need. These teacher leaders can direct teachers and
administrators to the research and resources that can support faculty efforts
in their ongoing professional development efforts. They can utilize a wide
variety of delivery models (livebinders, curating platforms, blogs, wikis,
edcamps, etc).
The days of the one-day drive by professional development
workshops are over. Professional
learning has taken on new meaning and new forms. It’s exciting and invigorating! The digital world has given
teachers a voice and a seat at the table…knowledge is expanding…and knowledge
is power.