Last week I went to a few teacher workshops. Teachers in Texas are expected to take 18 hours of Professional Development throughout the year. To help with this most districts have weeklong summer workshops for subject specific areas. One day I took a morning session and in my class there were only 5 people. I knew the instructor well since she is a curriculum person for my subject area. She started the session off by saying we'd get out early since we had such a small group. She posted a time......11am. So when 11am came and went the whole group got a little antsy. 11:20 and she is still instructing and then started asking for feedback. She asked what we could use from this workshop in our classes. AND then she asked what she could do better to make it more relevant next time. REALLY? It was 11:28 when she said, "We are going anywhere until everyone shares something."
Somehow I walked out of the class 1 minute early. I really wanted to tell her in front of everyone that she not should say we are getting out early when indeed we didn't. I've experienced this with this person a few times prior so I was leary when she said we were getting out early.
This would be like telling a kids they could have ice cream later and not coming through for them. Or a wife telling her husband that maybe there could be some quality time after the kids go to sleep tonight. Once that carrot has been dangled that is all a guy is thinking about all day. Then the night comes and it doesn't happen he is bent. Well, I left the inservice bent. I am still wondering if I should email her the constructive feedback or will it only put strain on things since I will be working with her all year long.
2 comments:
Sounds like you missed a great teaching point. If you write down a time, the students will expect you to finish at that time. It might have been a great teaching point for her to make note of the missed time limit and make a statement such as, "remember this feeling next time you promise your class something and fail to follow through."
Too bad you did not call to her attention as well.
It's sad when teachers don't teach each other with the same respect they expect us to show our students.
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