Teacher Workdays and In-Service Meetings
Planning and Facilitating Meaningful Agendas and Learning Sessions
Mar 6, 2009
Teacher “workdays” take many forms within academic learning-communities, yet too often they are abused. At a time when education itself is under public scrutiny and budgets necessitate the elimination and trimming of programs and personnel, workdays and so-called “in-service” opportunities should be well planned and wisely facilitated. The proper use of teacher workdays can alleviate faculty and staff stress, provide additional time to grade and plan, and present career-development opportunities.
The Uses of Teacher Workdays and Development Seminars
Too few administrators realize that given the long hours teachers spend both in and outside of the classroom in the pursuit of their mission, nothing is more unsettling or morale-busting than mandatory meetings that accomplish very little or blatantly waste an educator’s time. Ideally, all workdays should be scheduled before the school year, and each one should identify a specific purpose:
- Days set aside to complete quarterly or semester grade posting
- Days devoted solely to professional development with a clearly defined topic or focus
- Days or parts of days designated for parent conferences
- Days that denote regular faculty or committee meetings
In the business world, “time is money,” but in academia, “time is learning.” Hastily constructed in-service agendas detract from learning and seldom accomplish useful goals. Holding a session that teaches methodologies already known and used by teachers, such as power point or computer searches, wastes everyone’s time. Bringing in an expert on how to teach differentiated learning styles, however, might prove highly beneficial.
No meetings or professional seminars should ever be held just for the sake of holding them. Frequently, administrators and other planners devise rigid meeting schedules whether those session agendas propose truly beneficial outcomes or not. Further, meeting times or workdays should never be used for celebratory events like holiday parties. These events should be voluntary and scheduled outside of the normal learning-community calendar.
Perspective of the Educator in Planning Teacher Workdays
End-of-quarter or end-of-semester workdays for the purpose of final grading and grade posting are always appreciated by teachers. Those teachers that have already completed the work can be treated to a free day. In some school systems, “snow days” are treated as “teacher work days.” This represents a tremendous injustice to teachers that are required to drive to the campus in the same conditions deemed unsafe for students.
In setting up professional development seminars on teacher workdays, administrators would do well to solicit the advice of teacher-leaders. Would a session on “writing across the curriculum” be more substantive than yet another session on power point construction? Would teachers benefit from a seminar on assessment creation, such as effective test vehicles, or a session on classroom management techniques?
Partnering with local Community Colleges and universities with Education Departments can result in professional development sessions that focus on new methodologies and recent breakthroughs in pedagogy. In larger schools, a specific individual can be delegated to head professional development programs for the faculty, assisted by a committee representative of all academic departments. This “dean of the faculty” would remove the administrative burden of planning and facilitating workday agendas and possibly eliminate last minute planning.
The Wise Use of Teacher Workdays
Meetings, in-service sessions, development seminars – all are useless unless carefully designed and structured. Each effort should include anonymous feedback and solicit ideas for future opportunities. Teachers, at the front line of the educational battle, know best what programs, itineraries, and agendas best serve their professional needs. Meetings and sessions without purpose destroy morale and make a mockery of the learning-community.
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