Job Discussion Forums

[volgaman]

Why not do an intensive DELTA over the summer. Try celt.gr as an example. Then copy the trainers' style of delivery.

What are your teachers like? Are they even qualified to CELTA level? The TKT course is gaining popularity on the region, so getting hold of a copy of the trainer's manual would be a start.

Also Challenges Middle East Total Teachers Pack would give you a flavour for the types of PD sessions that you could deliver. Although it's a secondary school course, many of the topics are relevant for KSA, especially PYP programmes.

Above all though, your training must be relevant to the IMMEDIATE needs of the teachers. 'Effective lesson planning' is a good one, with a focus on the course that's being delivered.

Above all though, know your audience, and remember teachers only like PD if they are seen to being listened to. If you're 50% Dr Phil and 50% Gordon Ramsay in your style, then you'll do fine PD needs to have a feel-good/tough love balance

[tefllifer]

What kind of place has appointed someone who is clearly well-intentioned and willing yet inexperienced in PD, Teacher Training, mentoring, management, etc. to launch a PD unit - with the power to dictate the PD 'needs' of teachers who may well be more experienced than this new PD leader and even better qualified than him to fulfil such a role? And, given him A YEAR in which to do it - with the bonus of the company paying for him to get whatever qualifications he feels he needs to do the job. With all due respect to everyone, this forum is not really the right place to be seeking information of this type and further indicates the inexperience of that poster and suggests a misjudgment on the part of management in assigning him to the role in the first place. Sorry, this seems ludicrous. It is an insult to experienced teachers. I'd be interesting in knowing how teachers at this place are reacting to this. I feel both outraged and enraged. Sorry.

[Middle East Beast]

[lcanupp1964]

Fire bad!

[veiledsentiments]

[lcanupp1964]

Teachers good. Managers at all schools bad. Teacher fear manager. Manager out to hurt teacher. Teacher want be left alone.

It's funnier if you read the above sentences like the Frankenstein Monster.

"Fire bad"!

[Middle East Beast]

WOW...what an ego.

Those poor teachers are in for a hellish experience.

I could say "I told you so," but I don't do that.

[This message is for the thread; I'm not attempting to communicate directly with the OP.]


MEB

[johnslat]

Dear icanupp1964,

Well, the dress rehearsal didn't go too well, but in theater lore, that's supposed to mean a good opening night.

So, break a leg

Seriously, all the best with your project - but as you may have noticed, it's a mighty tough audience.

And, with tough audiences, a little humor can go a long way:

"Another step toward the end of the educational Life Cycle is the PDP - "Professional Development Plan". In theory, this is a multi-step process through which teachers outline their personal goals early in the year, and administrators meet with teachers late in the year to assess how well a teacher did in meeting those goals.

Like communism and "clean coal", the theory isn't quite matched by the practice. What the PDP really is, at least in my 15 years of experience, is:
A creative writing opportunity for me in early September to write a pithy little paragraph on some vague "goals" I have in a given school year;
Another creative writing opportunity for me around the end of April to write another pithy little paragraph in which I try not to brag too much, but just enough about how the year went;
A brief chance to get to know my administrators better, via a "PDP meeting" in which the administrator takes about 20 seconds to glance at my two creative writing exercises while I glance at a pithy little vague paragraph s/he wrote about me;
After 20 seconds of admiring each other's ability to spend 150 words writing absolutely nothing of substance, we sign a bunch of forms in a bunch of places while making small talk about "What are you doing for the Summer?" and "I plan on being back here next year, I think.";
Total "PDP Meeting" time: 1 minute, 45 seconds;
If it wasn't' for all the signatures we could certainly get these things down to under a minute.
Yes it's a waste of time, but at least it's only about 105 seconds of time, and it also marks another important organ failure on the road to the death of a school year. I'm not complaining, not even about the simple truth that my administrators have never really known much about what I do in my classroom. In fact, I like it better that way.

Still, whenever I hear talk of "Merit Pay" for teachers, I consider the joke that is the Albuquerque Public Schools PDP. The current PDP process is about as far away from a "Merit Pay" system of accountability as could be possible. Even farther.

Creating the many checks & balances necessary to institute a valid "Merit Pay" system in our public schools would involve a complete revolution in our bureaucratic practices. A revolution that in addition to significant expense, would require a paradigmatic change I don't see happening in my professional lifetime, or the next.

So I expect my remaining 10 years of APS service will be spent writing little pithy paragraphs o' nothing, and taking a couple of minutes each year to ask how my boss is doing while signing a bunch of meaningless stuff. It's a joke, but it's another joke that leads, inexorably, to the death of another school year, and I'll sign here, here, and here over and over and over again to hasten that expiration.

10 days left folks. 9 if you don't count the "Cliff's Day". Etc. etc.

P.S.: Can any teachers beat my current PDP record of 105 seconds? I'm sure there's somebody out there who's discovered a way to shave a few seconds off my personal best. And I envy them."

Let a smile be your umbrella when they rain on your parade.

Regards,
John

[volgaman]

[cmp45]

Dear OP,
Professional Developement is a tough row to hoe.
Perhaps use this forum to practice developing a thicker skin. You can see what an uphill battle it will be just based on the responses you have recieved. When you get lemons, make lemonade Try not to take it so personal, after all at the end of the day....(finish the saying that is appropriate for you). Enjoy the lemonade!

[PC Parrot]

[lcanupp1964]

Hey, guess what? Fire is bad.

Maybe my catch-phrase will catch on like that person that ends all his postings with...

It's Scary!!

Oh, BTW, I'm being tonuge-in check with this whole experience. It's very funny to me that all you "serious" people think I'm freaking out about a bunch of people I don't know. Talk about an ego.

Yea, I'm sooooooo mad. Please.

Special shout out to "good o' John" He's a good guy that gets it. And thanks to the few people that tried to help me and asnwer my question.

[cmp45]

[It's Scary!]

[veiledsentiments]

I would guess that the lack of a lock is because it is certainly a topic that all ME teachers will have an opinion on, usually a strong opinion... and while there has been a lot of disagreement, it has not really been taken to a nasty or personal level. Most of the criticism has been of the system, as it should be and toes have been only lightly stomped on.

I wish Mr lcanupp the best of luck with his endeavor and hopefully our little give and take has demonstrated how the majority of his teachers will likely feel about the PD system although they will not be able to communicate openly as they can here anonymously.

VS