Pro-D?

These are my notes from the pro-d workshop last week.

 

Imposed professional-development is never enjoyable. Yes, sometimes it can be interesting and yes it can be enlightening but unless you are the one planning it and you have a big passion for the topic - hence why you are the one planning it – it is never really enjoyable. 

However, I will never complain about imposed pro-d, ever again. PROMISE!

I won’t go into the full description of our two days of pro-d because you may never read my blog again but I do want to share some things that made me go “Hmmm…”

“Learning never ceases to end.”

“Communication is fast or slow, depending on how the two people communicate.”

“I want you to get into 8 groups. Two groups will review standard A and 2 groups will review standard F.”

“There are 12 of you so break into 4 groups of 4.”

“Severe dyslexia and disabilities – we don’t want that.” (said by a teacher)

“Standards are international. If you go for a pizza at Mcdonald’s  anywhere in the world, it is the same.”

“You have 40 minutes to work so an hour or 40 minutes and take a break or a working break to be back in 40 minutes.”

“There are three parts: 1 (…), 2 (…) and number 4 (…)”

Of course these statements are taken out of context but still, some are the same no matter what the context!

Teachers are awful listeners and that is why we teach. We don’t want to listen to anyone else except ourselves. Ugandan teachers are even worse. I don’t envy the presenter! He had a tough crowd of people coming late (an hour the first day and 30 minutes the second day yet everyone wants to end on time!), chatters at the back, cell phones ringing, texting, and just general behaviour that we would not accept from our students. But, we also sat on wooden chairs from 8:30-10:30, then 11:00-1:30 and 2:30-4:00 without any break, he ended both days with group presentations where everyone had to share everything in detail that they had written, and no-one could read or hear what the groups were sharing.

At 3:30 on the second day, we were listening to the groups share their communication tables (when do we need to communicate at school and how are we going to do it? Yes, really. Now think of ALL the possible times we communicate as a staff for ANY reason at all related to school.) The presenter kept telling the groups to present faster but that’s like asking molasses to run faster. People just talk slowly.

My group was the last to present. Corey and I had two young men in our group who were agreeable to anything so instead of a table, we did a flow-chart. Anyone who knows me knows that I work in colour. Our poster had arrows and lines and words all in alternating Christmas colours. I volunteered to present. When I put our paper up, Corey said that there were lots of whispers around the room.

“My group decided to present the same information but in a different way. We created a flow-chart of some of the times we need to communicate with parents at the primary school. Groups have already talked about some of our points so I will only share two.”

I did. Quickly.

“Thank you. I’m sorry if I spoke too quickly, that’s just what I do.”

I got the most "enthusiastic" round of applause for the afternoon and everyone started to get up to leave. But the presenter had a few more words to share. This took another 45 minutes as he recapped everything we had covered for the day.

Sam has spoken a lot about cultural differences and I know that Canadian culture and Ugandan culture are different. I know that time is fluid here because of traffic jams but when someone is “there” but not “here” because he is chatting and enjoying a cup of tea, that becomes disrespectful.

As of this Monday, I am the presenter. There will be a few challenges ahead! But hopefully I can make my presentations more engaging and model that “talk and chalk” is not the only way to get your point across. 

Wish me luck!