MAKING
PD
HAPPEN!!!!!
It is undisputable that teachers face enormous barriers to quality professional development.
Hi, I am Sarah. I need your help! Here is my story.
I
am a primary school teacher from
Anguilla and I am currently teaching
Grade 3. I am also a member of the
school’s management team which
is responsible for planning Teacher
Professional Development Week. My role
as organiser of this event involves inviting
different professionals in the field of education
to make presentations to the staff. In reflecting
on these experiences, I surmised that they
were seventy percent pointless. This was
because most of the presenters went ‘off-script’
and did not address the issues which they were
asked to. Further, my colleagues voiced their
displeasure for the most part with some of
those sessions. I informed them that my hands
10
Help!
were tied in a number of cases.
At another point in time, I was doing some
research on ways to remediate problems in
struggling learners. I got some really great
insights which I shared with a few teachers
at my school. One of the team members
reasoned that the information that I passed
on felt like information that should be given
via a professional development workshop.
However, another team member did an
assessment of a sample of struggling students.
The results indicated that the students had
major problems with reading. Upon further
investigation, I realised that my team’s
approach to reading needed to be phonics-
based. I have been trying to get the teachers
with a literacy background together, but they
are so busy with their timetables that it just
won’t work. Further, many typically leave
the school as soon as the bell sounds. My
present inclination is to simply focus on my
classroom and leave the issues to the Ministry
of Education to handle.