HERE WE GO AGAIN


It seems that every year there are changes in pedagogy. However, in my opinion, these new concepts are really old ones that are just repackaged and given fancy new names. With the constant influx of theories and research that dictate how we are to teach comes the teacher training workshops usually run by well-paid consultants who have rehearsed their presentation dozens of times to schools across the country, but never actually implementing them and of course not with the at-risk students that I teach. And let’s say that they have worked with students in a school district similar to mine. They most likely worked with a group of hand selected students or at a charter school.

Needless to say, this is the case for me yet again this summer. My Title 1 school was awarded a grant to make improvements and one of those improvements is working with a program to improve overall academic performance and to give all  students the option to attend college. That’s perfectly fine with me, but when I saw the agenda for the first two training sessions – which are the first two days of summer vacation – I was a bit disappointed. The sessions would focus on backward planning (a.k.a Understanding by Design). If I recall correctly, we’ve been doing this for decades, and if we follow an updated curriculum, it is already done for us. As educators, we already know to teach with the end in mind, so why is this necessary for the entire staff? I am so confused.

I have always maintained that one of my pet peeves is when my time is wasted. I’ve also said that I love and appreciate good professional development. With both in mind, I’ll be attending the workshops with a bit of skepticism. I will be open-minded because I haven’t been in school for many years and things may have changed a bit. However, I don’t think that there have been two full workshop days worth of changes to the concept of backward design.

I understand that since the money was granted to us, we must implement actions of improvement, but each and every single year we are expected to follow a new model, use a new curriculum, follow a modified pacing guide, give an alternate assessment, or something. New expectations are thrown at us constantly and we, the superheroes that we are, are expected to roll with the punches effortlessly. Because we are those who can, we make it look easy, but it’s not without the stress of extra preparation and trial and error.

Now as I prepare for yet another professional development workshop that steals from my summer, I move hesitantly thinking to myself, “Here we go again.”

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