Radically Responsive Professional Learning That Teachers Actually Enjoy
by Michele Morenz
I’m assuming you’ve heard the phrase “teaching is hard.” As a veteran teacher, I can assure you that no truer words can be spoken, and it seems as though the teaching profession continues to become more and more difficult. While many factors contribute to the complexity of our nation’s most important job, an oft-overlooked cause of teacher stress is the lack of support and training on curriculum and instructional best practices. Many teachers are asked to implement curricula — sometimes several at a time — with little to no guidance or support.
Why are teachers receiving one-size-fits-all information?
Most educators know that good instruction is not as simple as opening a pre-written lesson plan and reading the lesson script to their students; instead, they understand that good teaching from a curriculum means deeply internalizing the standards, learning targets, tasks, and assessments. Good teaching means expertly leveraging that pre-written content to align with and support the unique context of their students. Good teaching means staying abreast of new research and strategies for their classroom instruction. It’s a complex and time-consuming task that often goes unsupported and undiscussed, leading to overwhelmed teachers who simply choose to do the best they can.
As I’ve progressed my career into a space that works in support of teachers, I’ve added a new focus. While I still remain a fierce advocate for students, I now consider myself a fierce advocate for teachers. After all, if we want students to feel success, joy, and belonging, we must focus on creating those feelings in teachers as well. As a leader in the professional learning landscape, I was moved to consider the effect professional learning has on our nation’s overburdened teachers.
It’s common to hear groans and complaints about professional learning being a waste of valuable teacher time. Content that lingers in the theoretical without practical application and stock content that doesn’t align with local context are just some of the reasons teachers don’t find professional learning valuable. Teachers are often expected to intricately scaffold each of their lessons to meet the needs of each student in their room — but when it comes to professional learning, why are teachers receiving generalized, one-size-fits-all information from a slide deck created for generalized contexts?
Beyond the Slide Deck
As a supporter of teachers and learning, I feel we all must “walk the walk” and “talk the talk.” I feel compelled to do the work that we in education say is best practice, and model what it looks like to be responsive to different learners, contexts, and situations. And that means shifting the way we think about and design professional learning.
I want to radically shift the way that professional learning is designed, and that requires professional learning designers to go “beyond the slide deck” — beyond a stock course plucked from a catalog and blindly provided to teachers. This shift means collecting and leveraging formative data from teachers to make professional learning coursework and tools more responsive, user-centered, and impactful. Providing targeted instruction and support to teachers is a lengthy process, but the impact is insurmountable.
Join the Conversation
Tell us what you think about teacher professional learning and how it has (or hasn’t) made an impact on your teaching profession. Let us know on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.
Michele Morenz manages the implementation of partner portfolio projects. She engages with school leaders to build their knowledge of best practices in early literacy curriculum and professional development. Before joining Teaching Lab, Michele spent several years in a variety of different roles most of which were centered around literacy in Denver Public Schools.
