To Attend or Not to Attend: or What! Not Another Meeting ! by Sharon H.
I admit I'm somewhat at a disadvantage on this topic as I am not presently teaching within a school system. You see, I retired this past June after 30 years of teaching. However, I can comment on how it was done at my previous school for years and years and years. It went something like this. (teacher's voice) Okay, I've got a teacher workday. So, I'll work on finishing my report cards. Then, I'll start planning that Social Studies lesson I've been meaning to get to like forever now---" (sound of intercom) "If all teachers will report to the computer lab for the mandatory meeting on whatever technology we're trying to introduce to you today."
And so it goes. So, for the morning or aftenoon I would be in the computer lab learning about some new technology the school wanted me to know about. Most of the training was great, and I usually learned a lot for it, however, there were drawbacks. Namely, the meeting was mandatory. Some of the classes could have been voluntary. So, why not offer an incentive for attending? For example, a PLU. Many of these classes were taught by employees of the firm who was selling the program to the school. This instructor was in a room with 30 teachers who would rather be someplace else. Also, there was always a time limit. Frequently, some questions were not answered because there was need to "move on." I could surely empathize
with my students after one of these sessions. I would have enjoyed it more if I could have been in a room with a smaller group where I could ask questions without worrying about holding up everyone else. So, I guess my do's and don'ts lists include the following:
If the technology is not needed for maintaining school records or information, make the class voluntary and offer an incentive for attending.
Teach the technology in as small a group as possible so that dummies like me can ask lots of questions.
While some teachers may never attend these trainings, the teachers that did attend are usually willing to share what they learned, so the information is dispersed to others through the "trickle down" process.
Make the technology training as specify a possible and provide handouts with step-by-step instructions so that we can follow them when we go back to our classrooms to practice this new skill.
Well, I've spoken about training teachers in technology. What about the students? The students' training was always done in the computer lab by the manager of the computer lab. However, again she was met with many of the same problems that I mentioned above with the teachers. She had a varying degree of proficiency among her learners, and there were too many students present for her to answer all their questions. Often though when I would walk into the computer lab, I would see that the children were teaching each other about the technology.
The media specialist at the school where I am apprenticing for my media specialist add-on expressed some of the same concerns to me in a conversation we recently had. He told me that he would like to offer more technology classes to the teachers but feel that they would resent the intrusion on their time. So, I suggested that he teach the willing, offer an incentive, and let the word spread about the rest.
3 comments:
You hit the nail right on the head in your description on how a typical teacher work day goes. It is so aggravating and disheartening to have your day all mapped out to have it rudely interrupted for a meeting that you had no pre-warning about. My argument is to respect a teacher's time the same as you would want your time respected. Incentives would be greatly appreciated; PLUs or even food! Smaller groups would also be another bonus. I mean you would think that with the amount of money these companies make by selling the product to an entire school system, they could afford to send two representatives at least.
I love your description of a work day! I like your suggestion about having smaller training sessions so that you can ask more questions. It is difficult to hold a training session with many teachers all on different levels. Smaller groups would be more effective and expedient.
Another great idea was to focus on a narrow subject and provide handouts. This way the teachers can practice on their own after the session.
Your last good session was to teach the willing. Throughout this past year while I was learning new technology I would have loved to attend a short training session on several different topics.
I have to agree with you about making training voluntary. It is better for the trainer as well as the participants that want to be there if the unwilling participants are not forced to attend training. I have been in several trainings where a few negative people changed the dynamic of the entire training. I think that you hit the nail on the head when you stated, “teach the willing, offer an incentive, and let the word spread about the rest.”
You brought up an obstacle that I did not think of concerning large group instruction. I too have been in large groups where there was no time for questions, or you felt like questions were not welcome. By offering small groups to target different levels of proficiency, this problem could be eliminated.
Handouts should be a “must have” in trainings. In my experience, follow-up to trainings does not occur, so hand-outs would be highly beneficial. I know for me, no matter how many notes I take during training, it is still difficult to remember everything learned after an entire day or multiple days of soaking up new information.
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