Professional Development / Teacher Education

“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”  This quote reminded me of Paulo Freire's "banking concept" of education - "students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor."  The quote is from an article about teacher "preparation" and professional development.  It also has a paragraph on Madeline Hunter ("7 Step Lesson") and, according to the author, the perversion of Hunter's work.

The article is worth reading in preparation of common planning time and professional development in general.  It has nothing to do with 440 "scripts" but ongoing exchange and listening. 


Here's the article: "Is filling the pail any way to train teachers?"

(This is a 1985 article written by Hunter challenging how her "methods" are used:  "What's Wrong with Madeline Hunter" by Madeline Hunter.)

Visit to Hillcrest High School (Queens, NY)

We went to this school in Queens today to represent our school and help inform us with decisions around the overhaul of academies at Furness. After being there for a few hours (and I know a few hours is barely enough time to even begin understanding a school), I wanted to write down the things that make Hillcrest "work"...generally speaking:

(1.) Staff

- 98% of the teachers (thats 147 of the 150 in the building) were hand-picked by the principal and/or a member of his leadership team. It shows. 

- A lot of time, resources, and money is spent to develop the staff. They have a rubric based on the Danielson Framework so there's a consistency of what "good teaching" looks like, and administration is in classrooms a lot. No one works in isolation. 

- There's a leadership role, it seems, for the majority of the staff - nearly everyone has their niche. Teachers feel like they are part of the success of the school. 

*So they get who they want, empower them so they don't leave, and then train/develop their staff (who again, stay). 

(2.) PLCs

- I don't think it was PACs goal for us to see this, but what Hillcrest showed us is that it doesn't matter what the hell your academies are - what matters is how they're set up and the support you give them. Each of the nine learning communities had their own guidance counsellor, their own section of the building, hours each week for teachers to collaborate and discuss students & trends, their own AP...essentially each learning community was its own school. Both staff and students felt like they were part of a team and the word "family" came up A LOT. 

(3.) Common Planning Time

- Different schedules each week - but within every "two week block", teachers have alloted time to meet departmentally, by academy, and with guidance counsellors to discuss PD, Danielson, assessment, trends, and students. 

This isn't a list of things that we should try to implement - many we have no control over - but its traits we saw first-hand at a very large school and should always keep in mind. But maybe the question worth discussing is what's something we can begin working on short-term and long-term from this visit that would have a positive impact on our school community?