PD- Sizes and styles
I am very fortunate to have a great PD group. Yesterday I worked over at Taradale Intermediate
School with Chrissy and Jenny. We spent the morning just catching up and then working on my PRS presentation together. Chrissy is a great buddy and we work well together, bouncing ideas off one another, sharing experiences and generally having such a laugh. I have to say being able to have fun together during PD sessions just lightens the atmosphere, fires the brain and lets the ideas flow. I have to also say that Jenny and I had a fantastic lunch together, Chrissy was their in body but her mind and spirit were stretching out across the Internet to the WOW chat site.
Today I am in the Flaxmere ICTPD session with 20 ish in attendance. We’re talking about Web2.0 tools this morning and E portfolios this afternoon. But I want to spend a couple of minutes talking about group dynamics. With the session yesterday, with three of us who have been working with each other for a couple of years, the atmosphere, respect and free flow of ideas is huge. Now I am in a larger group with folk from a variety of schools, who have been working together for only 6 months I have noticed the presentation style that Jenny adopts is much more formal and the flow of ideas not so free flowing. Interesting?
What I am interested in is if you are part of the Flaxmere ICTPD what is your take on how the PD is going?
If your not, what models for PD delivery have you encountered, what worked or is working best?
It is interesting - I was reflecting on it too. I wondered if it was more due to the room layout? It constantly amazes me the impact something so simple can have on the vibe of a session and reinforces my opinion that computer labs are unhealthy, dark places that are not conducive to learning, where the teacher/facilitator is forced into a front of class stance. If we’d just had groups round tables working on laptops in an airy room with daylight I think the dynamics would have been somewhat different. As soon as we went into breakouts, ideas were far more free flowing and the atmosphere more industrious.
Or maybe the lunch was just better yesterday?
Be interesting to compare the vibe of this group a year in too.
It is always a pleasure to bounce ideas around with YOU! You keep me grounded (so I don’t go off in a huge rip,roar and bust tangent!!) I guess we have similar goals, similar passions and whilst we’re at different levels we have the ability to see where we are going or where we have been and that is what makes our collaboration work!
Hi Simon,
I saw this post of yours and it made a lot of sense. It’s what PD groups in the UK have found too. In London, they have adopted a learner centred model for delivering training and it’s only really effective after a group has been working together for quite some time. The training they provide to schools is referred to as relentless, so participants commit to coming together many times, over a long period of time. I sat in on a session and the exchange of ideas and level of trust were amazing. People were open and honest and not at all afraid to ask questions.
In Wolverhampton, in the Midlands, they operate a system where the groups are very small. Instead of conducting training in offices or other off site locations, they hold training sessions at a school where one of the participants works. These very small groups also nurture the same trusting atmosphere.