Professional Development

Yesterday's Professional Development:

First official day of work, and I was there on time. I had been contacted the day before, told to be at a mandatory training for special education teachers at Galludet university at 8, but when I got there schedule indicated that first session wouldn't start until 9. At 9 it became apparent that there were not enough seats for everyone, so one of the organizers got up and said they really hadn't expected everyone to show up, but they would try to get some more chairs. Talk about high expectations.

The first session was on data, no surprise there. Data seems to be the buzzword in education nowadays. As long as a pd presenter inserts the words, 'data,' and 'achievement' as many times as possible, it doesn't seem to really matter they are saying absolutely nothing.
The data presenter was interrupted by one of the organizers who said we were breaking fire code regulations and all those standing would have to go home. All those sitting were cursing their luck.

The best presentation of the day had to be the one on RTI and UDL. (Response to Instruction and Universal Design for Learning). This was so poorly delivered, it had comical value. While reading from his powerpoint on the merits of differentiation he was interrupted by a teacher, "Well, what can I actually do to make differentiation and inclusion work in my classroom?" The presenter was completely thrown off, and stammered, "Well I can't give you actual examples." Realizing, probably, that he had lost his credibility, he came clean. "Well actually, all this stuff that I'm presenting really has no proven impact. It's just stuff that they want you to take in, because they're not willing to put the money in to make inclusion really work." You had to appreciate the honesty.