I've had the opportunity of attending several workshops and seminars this semester for the purpose of professional development. So far, they've all seemed to be interesting and productive (which contradicts everything that I've ever heard about professional development before this placement). Yesterday, I went with my cooperating teacher to a Vertical Teaming meeting. Our high school is attempting to connect with its feeder schools in order to better prepare students for each subsequent year of school and to make the transition from elementary to middle and middle to high school easier. I thought it was a dynamic meeting full of wonderful ideas, but there was one significant drawback. Only one teacher from another school came! There were three teachers from our high school, one 7th grade teacher from the middle school, and zero teachers from the elementary school. Sadly, our meeting tended more towards the horizontal rather than the vertical. It's a shame that more teachers didn't come and join the conversation, they missed out on some valuable dialogue about student progress and strategies to improve our schools.
As I was observing this professional development meeting yesterday, I started thinking about professional development in general, and my personal professional development in particular. I love going to these meetings and seminars and hearing what other teachers have to say about their classrooms and teaching in general. I become re-energized after listening to other teachers discuss their problems and possible ways to solve them. It reminds me that every teacher is also a learner, from brand new interns like me, all the way to accomplished veteran teachers.
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