A lot of people talk about how easy and natural it is to engage in inquiry learning when we are interested in something. I do this all the time, to bigger or lesser degrees: fixing things, researching items I want to buy, researching random questions like why the sky is blue or some other interesting but irrelevant, time wasting question.
The tricky part is engaging with colleagues to help enhance their pro-d, and ours. All the time we find new tools, or rediscover old tools that we know teacher x and y would really benefit from, but how to engage them. After 15 years of teaching, I feel like this is harder to answer than ever. I feel busier, and so do my colleagues. However, I really do think that if you are offering people a time and place to learn something meaningful and relevant, they will come.
We had Pro-D sessions offered frequently at our district learning centre, but I think they are not well attended by high school teachers. I suspect (though I’ve never done any research) that a lot of it has to do with the time the session starts, when it ends, and how much marking / prep the teacher has to plow through. Recently, our district librarian has started offering Lunch and Learn sessions at various campuses around the district, and it seems to be hitting the spot.
The first thing I like about them is that they are open to whomever can and wants to make it. The first one was at my school, and I have to say that it was a relief to see several TL’s from other schools there. They helped to round out the numbers from our staff who attended. Had it just been our staff, it would have been embarrassing that the presenter had driven 4 hours to get there for only 6 people. Frankly, I think that getting 6 staff out was pretty good since this is a pretty new format.
The second thing that I like about them is that they are where the staff is, so it eliminates the hassle (and our city is under a lot of roadwork currently!) of getting to which ever cite by a certain time. Hopefully staff will start to look for these opportunities and we can fine tune the areas that people are interested in pursuing.
This last idea is the key, I think, and something of a no brainer. Last year I tried having inquiry sessions after school. A couple of teachers expressed interest, but only one actually came out. It worked out well for the two of us, and we were able to put together a great inquiry project for her textiles class. I was a little disappointed by the fact that only one person came out, but it was a great learning opportunity for both of us, and you can never know what you need to adjust to reach people until you try to reach people.
Seeing how well the Lunch and Learn sessions are going over district wide, and with our own staff, I think that I will be putting together a survey to see what kinds of sessions people would like to have. Much better than offering my skills which maybe they already have, or aren’t interested in at this moment. It’s also quite nice to be able to call upon an expert to help teach, and be off the performing hook!
This post had many good reminders about the reality, practicality and barriers to collaborative ProD. Everyone is super busy, lots on their plate, too many balls in the air, but there is still a desire for ProD from some. I find colleagues and communities go through cycles, and when one staff might be in a down-cycle, another might be cycling-up and getting deep into some new assessment, or launching a new program. Your post discusses these challenges and some strategies to engage and support your community where they are at. A few resources, references and connections are always appreciated and some media or examples can help illustrate. Overall, a good post with some important discussions.