Teacher Trainings: The Good, The Bad, and The Intolerable
Knowing that future responsibilities require me to develop and facilitate training sessions, I have started reflecting on good and bad experiences from past after-school meetings and summer workshops.
I have benefited tremendously from fabulous week-long workshops that trained me on the effective incorporation of hand-held technologies in math class. These workshops were hands-on, focused specifically on the content I taught, and included lots of practice opportunities to master the contentt being presented.
On the flip side, I’ve endured numerous ineffective lectures on the topic of the day. These “trainings” were essentially lecture-oriented, with little if any opportunity to connect with the material.
These memories bring to mind the following questions:
- What is the best professional development experience you’ve ever had? Why was it so effective?
- On the flip side, what was the worst? Why was it so bad?
- Is there a resource or training model that you would recommend for preparing effective teacher trainings?
