I spent Saturday at a weekend professional development. Not only did I not get paid for those seven hours, but I spent my own money to attend the seminar.
Here, take $400 and five of my Saturdays!
But seriously, it’s A LOT to work all week, then sit in a room and get talked at for hours on Saturday, and then go back to work on Monday. I originally signed up because I wanted to network, and find out about teaching opportunities in the area. But I am less and less sure I’m ever going to look for another job. Of course I value learning new and interesting ways to teach, and I appreciate being reminded the basics of lesson planning, but still, it’s a lot.
{Another reason I originally signed up is because I am one of only two language teachers in our district and the required professional developments throughout the year never touch on teaching foreign language specifically. It’s also been a long time since I got my masters, and the national and state world languages standards have changed since then, so I could use a reminder of best practices within the context of the new standards.}
Once you get to a certain place in education, there aren’t many external motivations for continuing your own professional development. I am at the top of my salary schedule as far as units go, so any money I put toward becoming a better teacher is spent only in pursuit of becoming a better teacher. I don’t know if that is the case in other professions, its just something I’m realizing about teaching as I explore different professional development opportunities for language teachers in the area.
I consider myself a life-long learner. I love learning new things and trying new strategies. I think that is one of my biggest strengths as a teacher. I also get bored doing the same thing year in and year out, which I also consider an asset. When I first started teaching, my 8th grade history teacher was still on staff, and he was still teaching 8th grade history in exactly the same way he did when I was his student. Not one project had been altered – he was even using the same handouts! Surely there was some room for improvement in his curriculum during all those years, but he clearly never attempt to identify weakness or improve upon them. I really loved my history teacher, and it is not my intention to disparage him here, but it’s troubling to see teachers do things the same for 30 years. I think there is always room for improvement. I know there is for me.
Do you seek out professional development opportunities on your own? Why?
I agree with you about there not being a lot of incentive to improve and update in education once you’ve hit a certain level. I think it comes from the massive short-fall in money allocated for education across the US (though California is particularly bad) and the rise in private tutoring options for those who have the means. More often than not, the teachers I’ve worked with have wanted to update their curriculum and/or incorporate new teaching strategies, but are often bogged down by everything else they have to keep on top of, not to mention there isn’t an added incentive to do so.
We are a country that doesn’t focus on growing our work force. The assumption is talent can come from abroad (for less pay) or those here will fill the gaps through private supplements. Tax cuts have been more important. And we’re seeing the results of that, most of which has created a lot of anger and hopelessness.
So thank you for doing the training you are doing (though you should be getting compensated for your time). And I hope that there is change soon with regards to education, both with providing fair/livable wages for all educators but as undoing a lot of the tax structure to support schools and educators.
It definitely is a systemic problem that stems from under funding in education. I read so many articles about the crisis of a generation of baby boomer teachers retiring and leaving the majority of classrooms with educators with little or no experience. Except districts love teachers with litter experience because they are so much cheaper to employ. I worry that I will eventually be pushed out because of how expensive I am to my district, especially being an elective teacher. If I were a math or ELA teacher they wouldn’t mind as much spending so much on me, but as an elective teacher? Not so much.
That’s a very reasonable worry! And even if you were a math, ELA or science teacher, I think you would still have the same worry.
Honestly, I think the change has to come with holding corporations accountable, plus tax-cuts and breaks need to be rolled back. Communities have been destroyed due to a mindset of maximizing the wealth of a few (trickle-down economics clearly isn’t working). But it also means people have to realize that just because they were a student does not make them an expert on teaching. I’m a firm believer those in the classroom are VASTLY underpaid and don’t have the social support and standing they need to grow the next generation. People need to take ownership. Sadly, this reality is only realized when we hit an educational crisis (which we are seeing with the strikes and walk-outs in various districts throughout California) but I’m hoping the cost to our country we are seeing because of past bad mindsets is going to usher in the change that is so desperately needed.
I do, and have attended conferences on my own dime and using vacation leave. Because I’m not doing the area of law I went to law school/changed careers for (tjose jobs turn out to be far and few in number and locale and also tend to pay low). So I go for my own personal enrichment (and to stay up to date in case one day I am able to change jobs to that field…)
You are a bigger person that me, using your own vacation time on top of your own money! Luckily teaching conferences are almost always on the weekends or during the summer, so I haven’t had to use my own vacation time. Once I asked to go to a classroom management seminar for three days during the school week and I was comped the time, though I did have to pay for the conference and travel (it was in San Diego). I appreciate hearing that other people use their own time and money to pursue professional development. Thanks for sharing.
I just approached my boss about attending a medical billing and coding class (4 days long next month). It would be good on my resume if I ever wanted to leave here and work from home – AND it would help my current employer out…we shall see. I do a ton of conferences for work, but this would be totally different. It’s a bit overwhelming to think about! It would cost a couple of grand (my employer would pay) and I’d be gone Wed-Saturday.
I always took extra classes to stay current in my field (not teaching) at my expense and time. My employers were uninformed about admin realities, laws, best practices so to keep the companies I worked for current on such behaviors… it was my problem. I found classes were also stimulating and gave me new things to think about. It wasn’t easy to find the time and money but was important to me and my values.
I am interested that you say this class is hours of lecturing at a classroom of students who are passive. I thought current educational research said that wasn’t the ideal learning environment. It might be of some curiosity value to keep notes on how you would teach the course differently. And maybe sometime you might offer a class on the same topics with a very different approach and be the paid teacher not the student….. Maybe even doing such in a different country and being paid to travel….. (Naturally sending us all updates so we can enjoy etc….. )
It wasn’t just lecturing – they had us play all participate in the lessons and games they were presenting. But I felt like they gave us too much time to play each of those games and there was a lot of down time. And there was some lecturing, but they kept it short and relative. My ADHD just flares big time in situations like that.
It is, however, a good reminder to me of how hard it to sit through a lot of talking like that, and even how it can be hard to participate in a “fun” game or activity when you are not in the mood. When they teach in a language I don’t know, it’s also a reminder of how hard it is to understand when you don’t speak the language. The first training session was in Italian and the second was in Mandarin and I found those one a lot more interesting that the third one, which was in Spanish. I’m sure that had something to do with it too.
I guess I’m a slacker: I only do continuing education for my field because it’s required, although I do generally try to pick topics that interest me. I devote too much time and energy to work already to want to devote more, esp. my personal time.
I think it’s great that you do it, though!