Thanks for “schooling” me on the ins and outs of an In Service Day. (groan)

I also needed to know more about a teacher’s work day. In at 8 and out at 5? What happens between the hours of dismissal and the end of the work day (5pm). Is there a lot of data entry involved(you’d think computers would alleviate all the drudgery involved in grading)?

Thanks for commenting.

I can respond in two ways. Here’s the principal’s version: As the manager of the school, I was responsible for organizing staff development days. Our district had about three of them during the year. We used to have more, but the teacher’s union voted them out because the belief was that teachers already knew everything they needed to know. At my schools, there were a range of activities teachers were involved in. For example, at the beginning of the year, test scores and other data were analyzed and decisions made about adjustments to curriculum to better support students. Grade level groups or subject matter groups were formed so teachers could work together to plan units of study, lessons, and arrange for cross observations where they would watch each other teach and give feedback on the effectiveness of the lesson and suggest possible ways to improve. That’s the tip of the iceberg. From my perspective as a former teacher, our professional development days varied depending on whether we were stuck in a room together having to listen to a person talk all day to one full of hard work we’d later benefit from. We wrote curriculum, planned workshops that we’d give to other teachers who wanted to learn some of the instructional strategies we used, and we also looked at our student’s work together to examine what their strengths were, and areas of weakness as well, to help us make changes in our instruction. (And I’m sorry I’m writing a post, here, but am just giving you an answer to your question, so thanks!)

I will say that the quality of the Teacher Work Day is dependent upon the school district, the administration of the school, and the dedication of the teacher to be involved in continuing his or her own learning. Did we go out and have a nice lunch (no school food shoved in our faces in 20 minutes…) with one another and talk shop? Absolutely. Did we have a glass of wine or a beer? Very, very rarely since we returned to school to work afterwards. We did, however, occasionally go out for happy hour with each other after regular days because like many other jobs, teaching can be a bit much, and going out with friends is fun.

And I totally agree with you that US public education is in crisis. Truly. To fix it, we’d have to start completely over with the first step being to dismantle the teacher’s unions. How can you have an organization that is adult-centered when the focus should be 100% on the students? It’s been completely backwards for much too long.

For what it’s worth, this is not just a US phenomenon. ‘Dumbing down’ is happening all over.
This is also the case in the educational systems I have some knowledge of, the well respected Dutch, and the seed for many an international success, the Irish system.

Where it will end up, I have no idea.