This is PD?

Today I experienced my second Professional Development Day on the teacher's side of the equation. Being on the teacher side of the equation means that a PD day is not a day off but rather a day you're paid to come in and learn something (well, I would be paid if I were a "real" teacher...obviously as a student teacher I don't get that privilege :P).

The first PD day I experienced this year, back in November, was run on the theme of "student success"...one of the current edubabble hot ideas out there. It focused on differentiated instruction, learning disabilities, multiple intelligences, Bloom's Taxonomy, meeting the needs of specially-identified students (those with IEPs, if you're up on the edubabble), and so on...essentially, helping all students succeed in some way. (By the way, just because I call something edubabble doesn't mean I disagree with it, but the theory of teaching does definitely have its own language.)

Today's PD day theme was "teacher success." Here is what the structure of the day looked like:

• nutritious breakfast provided by the nutrition committee
• session by a former principal of my host school: he taught all of us how to juggle (first by balancing peacock feathers, then juggling scarves, then bean bags, all in a very pedagogically proper progression)
• nutrition break in the staff room
• choose-your-own-workshop time, with sessions available on:
• investments
• Powerpoint
• the fitness machines (treadmills, etc.) available in the weight room
• ping pong (not learning about it, but playing it)
  
• badminton (playing it)
  
• auto maintenance
  
• getting a free manicure from salon professionals brought in by the principal
  
• session on "healthy choices" by a guest speaker who founded a particular weight loss program for men
• lunch - this was not brought in, but a list of restaurants recommended by one of the VPs was provided and we were encouraged to check one of them out with other teachers
• 1.5 hours in the afternoon set aside for the various departments to run their own sessions. The science department head didn't program anything for us but allowed us to do what we wanted. (I helped clean out the chemical storage room with 3 other teachers, including the former head of the department who is now retired but covering a long-term supply teacher position. Among other things, we set aside for proper disposal probably about 8 containers of moth balls -- naphthalene -- as they are now a banned substance in schools. After that, I did some of my prep for my grade 10 applied science classes.)

Looking back over the day, there were aspects of it that I did enjoy. The juggling session was a lot of fun and was surprisingly a bit of a workout, though I'm still not sure what the point of it was. I did learn a little bit at the auto maintenance workshop, but I was amazed at how much my limited knowledge was an improvement over some of the other female teachers who attended (at least one of whom had never read her owner's manual and had no idea how to check the oil, let alone that you're supposed to do it on a regular basis). I gladly volunteered to help with the chem storage room because that is part of the job, after all, and I wanted to see the kinds of procedures that would be used (mind you, I thought we would be doing more actual cleaning up of spilled chemicals, stuff left in open, unlabelled containers, and so on; just handling closed bottles like we did really didn't educate me about the safety of the thing, but it did still all need to be done). I can also see that there was value in trying to educate us about living healthy lives, even if we'd heard much of the information before and really are capable of eating healthily and exercising outside of school time. Overall, I'd have to say I was disappointed in this PD day compared to the last one I attended. You win some, you lose some, I guess, even in terms of the PD activities that taxpayers' dollars go towards funding.

I suppose the weather that we had here in Toronto deserves mention, too. This morning was an annoying one for me, but not because of the weather. Today was the last day that I could hand in a particular assignment for York. Problem: it had to be submitted in hard copy (not by e-mail), and today was a practicum day. This meant driving from my home all the way out to York early in the morning, then driving back to my host school which is normally only a 10 minute drive from my house (if that), all the while hearing the radio tell me time and time again that it was a dangerous time to be out and about and that I and everyone else should stay home. Oh, and guess what, I was the first person to park in the driveway last night, my mother-in-law and one of my sister-in-laws both parked behind me (Martin and I rent my MIL's basement apartment), both of them hadn't planned on going anywhere today and all our cars were covered in the results of last night's freezing rain. Thankfully both my MIL and SIL were generous enough to come out and clean their cars off and move them for me when they realized I had to go out in today's conditions (I was going to do it myself, but it was sooo much easier this way)...it was a real family effort, with Martin (who took the day off work) chipping in as well. It is true that I stalled 4 times trying to back out of our driveway (apparently the snowplow came by 2 minutes after I finished heading down our side street, grr). However, once I got to the main roads there were no issues...like I said, the radio kept telling people over and over to stay home (and not to even walk outside in case a power line fell down and the amount of water on the ground would lead to anyone within 10 metres being electrocuted), and people must have been listening because I hardly had to share the highway with anyone compared to a regular day. As long as people stayed out of the left lane (which was sometimes flooded) and drove at a reasonable speed for the conditions, all was fine, but I am glad there weren't more people out there to contend with. It's always kind of weird being back at York after a practicum block (or, in this case, in the middle of one), but it felt kind of homey this time as well. (Thankfully the parking garage only charged me $2 for the short time I was there; I would have been much less happy this morning if I had been charged my usual rate.) I was amazed that the trip back from York to my host school took pretty much the same amount of time as it does on a day with perfect weather, and I only arrived at the PD day 10 minutes late (which didn't matter as we were in the middle of the breakfast buffet portion of the day anyway). I suppose it was an adventure of a day, but nothing a Young Drivers graduate couldn't handle ;).

Other MSTers, did any of you have a PD day today? Were your PD activities more worthwhile than mine were? How many students did those of you who had to teach end up with? I'd be interested in hearing what all you folks did today. By the way, weektwoisdone weektwoisdone weektwoisdone...