Get out of jail free cards
For those of you who haven’t heard, I am on a quest to improve the way that we deliver professional learning experiences for teachers. My goal is to build a new model that has a greater impact in the classroom. I started this journey with the pledge that if I cannot deliver PD that is more useful to teachers than if they had spent the same amount of time grading papers, I will not deliver it.
This week was the first time I had to put that pledge to the test. I worked hard to provide an interactive, hands-on, practical workshop but I also wanted to avoid a laundry list of strategies. I wanted teachers to understand the principles behind the strategies so that they could adapt them to meet the needs of their students in the context of their classrooms.
Because PD can often feel like jail, I decided to give each teacher a “Get out of jail free” card. They could use that card at any time to anonymously raise a question, voice a concern, or let me know that the workshop was not meeting their needs. I thought it would be a great way to let the teachers exercise some control over the agenda and hold me accountable for keeping my pledge.
The entire day, only one person used his card. Now that could mean that I was delivering utterly compelling and useful PD, but I think that the more likely reason is that using the cards is an imperfect solution to a much greater problem. For one, only people who care about their learning will even use such a card. Those who are just there putting in time won’t bother. Two, although I immediately addressed the card, the writer’s concern — he wanted more help with motivating reluctant learners — I could not address his concern to the level and degree he needed within the confines of the time we had. The best I could do is promise to deal with his concern in more detail the next time I came and to bring additional resources with me. The others in the room liked that idea and we changed the agenda for next time, but I worry that the teacher who raised that concern didn’t get his needs met immediately.
So, do “Get out of jail free” cards work? Not sure. I’ll need to try them a few more times to see if they really make a difference. But I do know this. These cards are minor tweaks. They are never going to accomplish the goals I have set for how we deliver professional learning.
So, the quest continues…
Tags: Better PD, Robyn Jackson
14. January 2010 at 06:50
Really interested in how one can anonymously hand in a card with a question on it. Could one use technology like polleverywhere with a free response question to give that immunity?
19. January 2010 at 19:58
They put the cards in a basket during breaks or other free times during the day. Still exploring ways to use technology to make this process easier but concerned that too much time is taken at the beginning teaching participants how to use the technology. It’s a steep learning curve for many participants and others are reluctant to use the back-channel. Still exploring this.
Robyn
25. January 2010 at 17:25
Get out of PD free card? I would love one if I ever felt that a PD instructor was not meeting my professional needs I could cash it in and leave.
Anonymous? Doubt it. To many eyes watching.
11. February 2010 at 11:04
I love the name of the card–very clever. [So much teacher PD is like JAIL.] But, the rationale does not quite fit. You really do not want people to get up and leave–to really “get out of PD jail.” What you want is a kind of formative assessment of the PD–a chance for a guided mid-flight correction. And, with that, total anonymity may not be desirable. You may need to know more details or have the chance to ask a few questions to make the adjustment as meaningful as possible. Maybe you need a “Call the Stewardess” or a “Contact the Pilot” card. “Ground Control to Major Tom,…”
The danger in this is generous act is that there may be a member of the audience who comes with a particular or narrow agenda. We have all been in a classroom or in PD where a certain someone wants to steer the presentation in a different direction that may not suit the needs of the majority. This can get messy.
Why does so much PD have to feel like jail to so many of us? Our faculty meetings are now strictly PD. No faculty business, no staff-wide planning. Just PD. Many dread it more than any old-fashioned faculty meeting.