The Transparent Teacher: Taking Charge of Your Instruction with Peer-Collected Classroom Data
Q. How are traditional approaches to professional development short-changing teachers?A. The daily challenges of teaching attract professionals with a desire to improve. And yet, we've found in our own careers as teachers that all-too-often, opportunities for teachers' improvement--largely through formal training sessions--left us and our colleagues feeling like passive recipients of content that did not always speak to the challenges we experienced each day in our classrooms, with our students, and our content. Teachers also attest to the challenge in transferring their learning from a conference room to the classroom and the absence of opportunities to practice and refine the new strategies they learn in formal settings.These challenges have collectively impeded the ability of traditional approaches to consistently impact teaching and learning. Teachers want professional development opportunities that are closer to the experiences and challenges which they live in their classrooms each day.