More Surprises?

Wednesday has always been the day that is designated for staff meetings. My principal is known not to schedule many meetings, but teachers still cross their fingers every week hoping that she doesn't require us to meet. This past week, teachers listened carefully for the announcement on the intercom system as usual. Instead of calling a traditional staff meeting as a collective in the cafeteria, she asked the staff to meet in the classroom of their grade level chairperson. Since I'm a grade level chairperson, I wasn't particularly happy about that. Then the announcement asked the chairpersons to check their emails and quickly read up on the instructions explaining how to access the meeting presentation. It was some sort of training about a program called Study Island. I've heard of it before, but since this was last minute, I frowned. Apparently I needed to figure this out within 15 minutes and the presentation was said to last over an hour. Luckily the process wasn't difficult at all, so I got the presentation ready pretty quickly. I just needed my staff to arrive on time for once, and hopefully leave the drama and pettiness in their purses. With 5 minutes to spare, I ran to the employee lounge to grab a Coke and some crackers. I came back to see that some teachers showed up on time, but they instantly ran to me to complain about the length of the meeting. Obviously I don't control anything pertaining to meetings, so I told them to leave when they needed to. We are all grown, but I will document early departures.

With all this being said, I like the concept of breaking up into teams and having professional development with the use of technology. To me, it gives teachers flexibility and helps to pass leadership responsibilities down to the teachers. It also helps individuals to focus more on what is being taught or reviewed. Typically in large group settings (just like with the students), it's easy to lose focus and drift off. In smaller groups settings, we are prone to concentrate more on the presenter. We are more engaged and are more likely to offer feedback. Overall, we accomplish more in small group settings.