Some Professional Development....to Estonia

Last week I met with the Dean who told me how the University conducts professional development for area teachers who work with their students. They do this to ensure that there is a shared pedagogy and common goals and ideas between the university and the cooperating teachers and this keeps teacher training consistent.  A pretty cool idea.

He was telling me that there was one of these workshops coming up and I said I would be interested in going to see how the workshop goes.  He said hat would be fine and would email me with details.

I received an email the next day, telling me that there was a space for me, and to be at the West Harbor by 4pm and to bring my passport.  The workshop was being held on a cruise.....overnight.....to Estonia.

When I arrived at the harbor, I was introduced to many people, some of whom taught at the University and others who taught at the area schools (much like our lab schools at ISU).  They were all math, chemistry and physics teachers.  Although I didn't teach these subjects, I do work with students who will, so it was a nice change of pace to focus on math and science.

We boarded the ship and found our private cabin. It was small but manageable.  Then it was time for dinner! We enjoyed a nice meal and discussed the topic for the workshop: technology and assessment.  The discussion was very informal and I enjoyed listening to the Finnish perspective on these issues in schools.

The next morning we began at 9am with a more formal discussion.  The day focused on these questions:

• What are we assessing?
• How are we assessing?
• Who uses the assessment data and for what purpose?

This last question was my favorite and there was some great discussion about it. All in all, like many other things, it was a very different conversation that is happening in the United States.  The introduction to the workshop was done in English for my benefit, which I appreciated very much.  

After about an hour, the facilitator explained that they were going to switch to Finnish now and perhaps I would like to go visit Tallinn. No need to ask twice.

When I returned about two hours later (had to be back as the boat set sail at noon for Helsinki), everyone was engaged in the last bit of the workshop, which included small groups.  I joined one of the groups and we talked a lot about how teachers can use technology in their classes, the purpose it serves, and how to know if it is effective or not.

One thing that stood out to me during all of this was the fact that this workshop was nearly 100% teacher led.  The Dean was there as an organizer and introduced the talking points, but after that, for the rest of the day, it was the teachers who discussed the issues, their experiences and developed a shared plan of action across between the University and area high schools.

Essentially, the teachers, given the opportunity, were responsible for their own professional development, based on the needs of their schools, students and student teachers.  

Imagine that.