Want Teachers to Grow? Provide In-House Professional Development and Instructional Coaching

Want Teachers to Grow? Provide In-House Professional Development and Instructional Coaching 

For the past three years I have offered monthly hour long workshops to our staff during their planning periods. Because we are on a 4 x 4 block schedule, the teachers voluntarily attend this workshop and still have between 30-45 minutes of plan time to get ready for their next class.  I do this along with meeting individually with about six to eight teachers per week.  

The workshop model can be a crucial element for teacher growth.  We all know that our teachers care about their students and want to help them in any way they can.  Attending outside workshops can be difficult for teachers because they don't want to write sub plans or lose a "day of content" being gone. Workshops outside of school are also tough for teachers because they are run with a "one and done" approach.  There is no follow-up, no presenter who they can run to with questions after they try something in class for the first time.  The teachers who attend my workshops love them because they don't have to miss school and usually walk away with one idea that they can use in their classroom that day.  Providing in-house workshops for staff has given them an opportunity to work with me without committing to weekly or bi-weekly individual meetings.  They come with a willingness to learn and know exactly where to find me when they have questions or need help.  

When I first proposed offering these workshops to our staff, my focus was strictly on infusing reading strategies into the teacher's classrooms.  The teachers were being told that they must teach reading in their content area courses. Many came to me frustrated that their students were unable to comprehend these complex texts, and they had no idea how to teach students to summarize or synthesize materials.  Sound familiar?  This was something that as teachers they assumed the students had been taught in middle school and reality proved that even if they have been taught, they simply were unable to transfer their skills to new courses.  The workshops evolved over the years from a reading and writing focus to a digital literacy focus since our school has gone 1:1.

Each workshop follows this same simple format:

• Introductory activity to get teachers thinking 
• Workshop objectives
• Quick review of the research (why we need to teach these skills)
• 2-4 strategies - we will model and practice at least two specific ones
• Closing debrief - thoughts and take-aways

Planning Ideas:

Over the course of three years doing this I have learned a lot about what makes a worthy workshop for teachers.  

#1 - Don't share too much research or talk at them for to long.  We aren't supposed to do this with our students so I know better than to do this with teachers.  Teachers need to be engaged and doing things.  They don't want to hear more than 30 seconds on why it is important to teach our students these skills.  They need to know how to do it.  

#2 - Narrow down to your favorite strategies to share in the workshop.  Don't overwhelm the teachers with too much.  Have you ever been to a conference where you received an enormous packet of materials that they presenter never went over or rushed through at the end to make sure you got it?  I have been to plenty of them and I always walk away with my head spinning.  It is important not to do this with staff.  Pick a few and save the others for another year or when you meet individually with teachers.

#3 - Pick two strategies to model and then have them practice.  In one of my favorite workshops on vocabulary, I had the teachers in small groups moving around the room completing a carousel brainstorming activity using ACT vocabulary.  Of course they grumbled at first about having to get out of their seats, but by the end of the second round of brainstorming, they were engaged and having fun learning the vocabulary.

#4 - Plan out your workshops ahead of time.  I am already starting to think about what workshops I want to offer our staff for next year.  After spring break I sit down with my department chair and the curriculum director and organize the future workshops based on staff needs. At the beginning of the school year, I share workshop topics and dates at our first staff meeting and remind them to block their calendars for the ones they are most interested in. Teachers are organized by fault and giving this information to them on day one reminds them that I am here to support them in any way that they need.

#5 - Don't be afraid to send out reminders numerous times.  For each workshop, I send out at least four reminders and I ask teachers to RSVP to me.  This may seem like a lot, but I choose different times of the day to send out the emails and am amazed how I always get responses back from each email.  Teachers get bogged down with school so they may miss the first three reminders but then see the fourth.  

#6 - Provide some snacks for each workshop (my school reimburses me.)  I don't provide drinks too often, but the snacks always go a long way.  Bagels, fruit, granola bars, snack mix, chips, hummus and veggies, and of course - chocolate.  Teachers are so grateful for the little pick me up during the day.  

#7 - Offer to model or co-teach the strategies from the workshop in classes.  This simple gesture helps teacher's comfort levels and builds trust.  Not everyone takes me up on the offer, but they do appreciate my willingness to show them (and their students) the scaffolding process in class.  

In-house professional development has been essential for the growth the teachers in my school have made.  When they talk to teachers who work elsewhere about the professional development offered to them in school, they realize how lucky they are that our school offers workshops and coaches to meet with during the school day.