Really delighted to be asked to run some professional development classes for my colleagues, Monday after school. Only one so far but thought I’d let you know how it’s going!
Of course, running professional development for teachers is not new to me, I spent 12 years in initial teacher training (ITT) in the UK and then 4.5 years on a masters in education programme in Tanzania, with lots of work at varying levels with serving teachers during that time. What is new is working in-house, the teachers I’m working with are my immediate colleagues whilst my main job is working with youngsters.
Which is brilliant. When I started working in ITT I was thinking maximum of 10 years, in fact I did 12 and came to the conclusion that I’d been right in the first place. There’s a bit of a catch-22 working in ITT., it seems to me Whilst one needs experience to do the job well, the more experience one gains, the further distant one’s own teaching experience becomes. At various stages I considered the possibility of doing some part-time work in school alongside working in a University, but the idea floundered on practicalities, the need to be in school at fixed times 4 or so times a week would have been very disruptive – and constraining – to the University work. As things are, the professional development work slots neatly into my normal working week – and I’m around to have follow up discussions which is already well under way.
Alongside this, you will understand that this is a rather scary undertaking. I’m running classes on teaching for immediate colleagues, whilst working predominantly as a school teacher. Because of the adaptations we’ve made to be compliant with Ugandan government COVID regulations, we teach in open spaces so are more aware of each other’s work than we would normally be. So I was fully expecting a sharp intake of breath when I said, “Rule of thumb, keep a class discussion together maximum for as many minutes as youngsters are old in years,” – so, if you’re teaching 11 year olds, keep whole class discussions to a maximum of 11 minutes – as my colleagues were collectively thinking, “How dare he? We hear him droning on for hours and hours to his classes, and now he presumes to tell us THIS?”
In fact the sharp intake of breath did not come. This is partly because my colleagues are far more polite than I am. It is also because I had anticipated this point, and made it very clear that, in running these classes, I am not holding myself up as a perfect, or even necessarily a good teacher, but as somebody who has had the privilege to stand back from teaching and reflect on the issues with some ideas to share. And I make a point of indicating aspects which I find particularly hard, for example, when youngsters misbehave or are rude in your classes, this is the nature of being young, deal with it as a representative of the teaching professional and not as a private individual. That is to say, don’t take thinks personally! This is a very strong case of, “Do as I say, not do as I do.”
So I’ve decided that the key phrase whilst doing this work is, “I’m not wrong, I’m being hypocritical.” I myself drone on to classes for hours? I’m not wrong about the one minute per year rule, I’m getting caught up with the maths with inadequate preparation. “Don’t take things personally,” and you see me getting angry with a class or individual? I’m not wrong, I’m falling short of the high standards our profession demands.
Last week was looking at classroom management before anything goes wrong, setting up good routines and consistent standards. Curiously, what makes this hard is the fact that Acacia has by far the best behaved, most polite, most highly motivated group of students I’ve yet met collectively, getting a sense of doing things because of problems which haven’t yet arisen is hard, particularly for colleagues whose only experience is within the school. Tomorrow’s class is dealing with low level disruption before one calls for outside help. I’ve adapted an idea we used in ITT which is to agree with my colleagues that, from a management point of view, I’m going to be treating them like 12 years olds, with a number of them prepped to misbehave in various ways. I’ll let you know how it goes!
Initial feedback has been great, with one colleague using a resource – Tarsia – which I had ready before we started, another saying she tried out the minute per year rule with her 11 year old class, initial reaction is that it works! And I think colleagues have taken on board the point that I’m not setting myself up as anything more than a pretty ordinary teacher who has thought about some of the issues involved here. Remember, I’m not wrong, I’m being hypocritcal!
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