Second in a series
Re “Robins Tells McVarish Science Lab Problems”
[Editor’s Note: In part three of his For Great Schools series, Scott McVarish, co-founder of the United Parents of Culver City, interviews School Board member Sue Robins. A former teacher, she talks about professional development for teachers today. See www.facebook.com/forgreatschools]
Mr. McVarish: Among priorities, what comes first: the building, the curriculum or the professional development? If you have science teachers who have been limited in their curriculum and limited by the facilities that they teach in, and you give them new facilities all of a sudden, how do you bring them up to speed so they can teach something that probably will be new?
Ms. Robins: Absolutely. There has to be professional development right along with it. However, we need professional development for the science teachers anyway as we move toward Next Generation Science Standards. The standards for science are changing. Our teachers will need professional development to adapt to that. Our science teachers are wonderful. They are hungry for that. They want to know how to use all of the new technology. There are some great tools for them.
Mr. McVarish: Teachers will have a good perspective on what is necessary and what is possible. For any science teachers listening, we would recommend that you get in your wishlist sooner rather than later. Is theDdistrict getting the teachers’ input?
Ms. Robins: We have to have the teachers’ perspective. We have to hear from the people who will be teaching in these rooms. How are you going to make this work? If you have 38 kids in the room, how are you going to make the logistics of that work? How many gel boxes will you need? How many electrical plugs will you need? How will they fit around a physical space where it is set up to run?
Mr. McVarish: What do you see as the timeline? You’ve got curriculum involved, design issues, Next Gen curriculum requirements, facility issues where you have to go to the state Architecture Board to get approval. What are our realistic expectations for bringing in a new science lab and having it ready for the students?
Ms. Robins: A couple years. In the short term, we can be working on professional development and some tools teachers might want. As a former life science teacher, I know the teachers are ready to take on teaching DNA separation techniques, chromatography and other life science tasks. We can be acquiring those things and going through the professional development to use them. That is not to mention what the chemistry and physics teachers will want. We don’t have to wait for a building to do that. We can do that now.
Mr. McVarish: I have worked with teachers for over a dozen years. I continue to represent them and advocate for them. Most teachers do not find great value in the professional development they receive. Yet anyone who is looking to improve schools knows that teachers are the single most important part of education. Professional development, if done right, can be of great assistance at supporting those teachers. How do we get professional development right? What are we doing in Culver City? What would you like to see done in the professional development area?
Ms. Robins: In the past, professional development has been a bit of a negative to many teachers. That’s because professional development in a lot of districts was a matter of box checking, Teachers have to get a certain amount of hours to keep their credentials current. They go to the one that fits their schedule. They check the box when they are done. You didn’t really expect to get much out of it. I often didn’t.
But I’m really proud of what we’re doing in professional development now. Our assistant superintendent of educational services, Dr. Katie Krumpe, has created a professional development program that is entirely goal-oriented and teacher-driven. First, all of our professional development, except for the mandated things like sexual harassment training, is optional. It’s no longer “you have to go to this.” We ask the teachers what they want to learn, and if they want to learn it. The training we provide is based on what we are trying to do in the classroom. We have been providing training on things like Professional Learning Communities and Common Core implementation. This has made a tremendous difference in the quality of our programs at our schools. Now everyone who works for the district is in a professional learning community of some sort. There’s a PLC for your grade level or subject area. There are regular meetings with a specific agenda to discuss curriculum– what’s working and what’s not. It is data driven, based on what we have seen that worked in the classroom, what we see that hasn’t. It’s sharing of ideas, sharing of curriculum programs. It’s raising the bar and the quality of education in every classroom. Having been a teacher, it’s funny when I hear people say,”Teachers should be allowed to do what they want.”
While I absolutely agree that teachers must control the learning strategy and environment in their own rooms, it is critical that what gets taught is consistent, across classrooms, across grade levels. There is a certain body of knowledge your child should come away with in each subject area and each grade level. It shouldn’t matter to you which classroom your child is in to learn chemistry in terms of what he or she learns. How that is accomplished is up to the teacher. That is where the artistry, the creativity and the expertise of each teacher comes into play.
(To be continued)
Mr. McVarish may be contacted at scott@forgreatschools.org and www.facebook.com/forgreatschools